Finance
Rebuilding permits in Altadena have picked up, but construction lags and financial woes loom
Seven months after a wildfire destroyed thousands of homes in Altadena and surrounding neighborhoods, about 70% of homeowners who suffered severe fire damage had neither put their property up for sale nor made a move toward rebuilding.
But a few weeks after the first anniversary of the fire, the number of people in that limbo had dropped to fewer than half, as more have taken some action toward recovery, according to data released Thursday by UCLA’s Latino Policy & Politics Institute.
Though it’s the latest sign of progress in the Eaton fire’s aftermath, researchers say that recovery remains far from settled for most fire survivors, even if they’ve started on a path to rebuilding.
The data show that there has been a new wave of people starting and advancing through the permitting process, but a widening lag after that point because of, among other reasons, financing.
About 44% of homeowners have fully approved permits to rebuild, but only 30% have started construction, according to the data.
“This is the first step in a very long and extensive process,” said Gabriella Carmona, a senior research analyst at the institute and a lead author on the report. “Recovery is still very deeply uncertain for most households.”
Just under 50% of homeowners, the analysis found, still have taken no steps toward recovery.
The report analyzed data from single-family homes that were at least 50% destroyed in the fire, including building permit applications, property sale records and fire damage assessments, as well as race and ethnicity markers for potential disparities. The report did not analyze data for renters, businesses or the Palisades fire zone.
“Rebuilding activity increased across all groups, but the largest gains occurred among Black and Latino homeowners,” the report found, comparing similar data from August with February. The most recent data found that about 56% of Black homeowners had taken some step toward recovery, up from 27% in August. Among Latino households, that metric climbed to 63% as of February, compared with 35% in August.
The new data come as the Eaton fire recovery enters its 15th month. The Times last week released an analysis that found that just over half of all residences destroyed in the Eaton fire — roughly 6,000 — have filed applications to rebuild. The review also found that it is increasingly taking longer for applicants to obtain a permit, up to about 155 days.
Compared with the pace in Santa Rosa after the 2017 Tubbs fire, The Times’ analysis found rebuilding in both Altadena and Pacific Palisades was markedly slower.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who represents Altadena, called the increase in applicants “meaningful forward momentum,” but she acknowledged that means residents from about 3,000 homes still haven’t started to move forward.
“The fact that only half of wildfire survivors have submitted applications makes clear that significant barriers remain, especially financial ones,” Barger said in a statement. “Many impacted residents have taken no action to rebuild because they lack the capital to move forward — an issue exacerbated by delayed insurance payouts.”
Barger continued to call for more federal support to help finance the recovery, something that Carmona said would help homeowners who remain stalled. But Carmona also said new policies are needed to support different financial avenues for families and community members to finance rebuilding, access meaningful loans and receive full insurance payouts.
It’s still unclear when and how much Southern California Edison may pay out to fire victims — the utility has not admitted it caused the fire but says its equipment was probably associated with the ignition, and faces hundreds of lawsuits — and what nontraditional or philanthropic options might be available to families.
“Many families [are] stuck between wanting to rebuild” and not being sure “what loan makes sense or what will be available to them,” Carmona said.
Marisol Espino, who lost her home in the Eaton fire and has since become a disaster case manager with the Legacy Land Project, said these financial questions had become a game of mental gymnastics for herself and many of her former neighbors.
“A major misconception is that people can just ‘rebuild,’” Espino said. Instead, people are finding out they’re underinsured, that their insurance money is tied to their mortgage, that they don’t quality for a loan or that the loan they received has major restrictions.
“What’s happening is that people are draining their savings, they’re pulling from their 401(k)s, they’re sacrificing their retirement and their children’s future to try to get back home,” Espino said.
She understands the desire to return home, she said, but worries about the long-term stability of this next wave of homeowners trying to rebuild.
A recent survey from the Department of Angels, a nonprofit focused on fire recovery and facilitating community organizing, found that about 40% of fire survivors had taken on debt since the fire, and the majority said their mental health had worsened.
“It is a bifurcated recovery, and the No. 1 factor is money,” said Joy Chen, the executive director of the nonprofit Every Fire Survivor’s Network. She said the group had found that the people who had been able to quickly rebuild either had prefire wealth or received full insurance payouts.
Though there are financial hurdles for many, the UCLA report pointed out some positive trends when it comes to home sales: Not only are investors making up a smaller share of homebuyers in recent months, but fewer homes are also being put up for sale. Altadena locals have been extremely concerned about investors and corporations buying up homes in their relatively affordable and diverse community, especially in historically Black neighborhoods where many homes have been passed down for multiple generations.
In August, about two-thirds of the sales of fire-damaged homes were made by investors — defined as limited liability companies, corporations or family trusts associated with real estate investment activity — but by the one-year mark, that share fell to about 59%, according to the report.
New listings in the fire zone also have slowed down, with only about 1% of severely fire-damaged homes up for sale in February, down from about 2% five months prior.
“In general, sales have been lower” than expected, Carmona said. “We had the biggest spike in the first couple months. … There really hasn’t been a massive uptick in sales since.”
And although much remains uncertain about Altadena’s recovery, the markers of progress do provide some hope, said William Syms, the executive director of the Legacy Land Project, which was founded in the wake of the Eaton fire to provide direct assistance to residents in need. His nonprofit is one of dozens that make up the Eaton Fire Collaborative, helping to provide residents with an array of resources they need to move forward, including case management and financial support.
“The outreach that’s happening, the conversation and events and the collective power of community is working,” Sym said. “I think more people realize that it’s possible to rebuild — and while it’s expensive and costly, together we’re going to make sure that anybody who wants to get home can.”
That includes Espino, who said Habitat for Humanity recently had found a way to help finance the rebuild for her multigenerational family.
“We’re moved on to the next phase,” Espino said. “We’re trying to get all of us together, back home.”
Finance
Sports betting should be regulated as a financial product, not gambling, aspiring prediction market provider says
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — Sports betting should be regulated as a federal financial product rather than a state-licensed casino product, two panelists said Thursday.
Appearing at Consensus Miami 2026, Jacob Fortinsky, co-founder and CEO of sports betting platform Novig, said the legacy sportsbook model is structurally broken because it treats winning bettors as cheaters.
“Sports betting is really the only industry in the country that regularly limits and bans their power users,” Fortinsky said. He framed sports event contracts as binary financial instruments that “for so long have been treated as a gambling product and instead should really be treated as a financial product.” Globally, he said, sports betting is “a $2 trillion asset class still dominated by these legacy casinos.”
Adam Mastrelli, founder of 57 Maiden, a firm that builds AI-driven trading strategies for prediction markets, validated the critique with personal experience.
“My partner and I got kicked off of two big sportsbooks within two months of trading because we were sharp,” he said, It’s like “LeBron James getting kicked out of the NBA for being too good,” he added.
Mastrelli said the team turned to Novig, which he said charges no fees and allows traders to create synthetic positions.
Mastrelli said his firm’s edge decayed quickly, and of 154 proposed trading strategies, only three currently run profitably.
“This edge will go away,” he said, “so if you can build systems that can keep up with that edge and that alpha… then it becomes really, really intriguing.” His most profitable season, he said, was the WNBA.
Fortinsky said Novig is on track to transition this summer from a sweepstakes model live in 35 states to a federal DCM framework that will let it operate in all 50 states. An earlier attempt to be regulated at the state level in Colorado, he said, was a wake-up call. “Regulators told us essentially you’re naive if you think we care about consumer protection or innovation or market efficiency. We really just care about our tax revenue,” he said.
The federal-state fight, Fortinsky added, is “going to get to the Supreme Court in the next two or three years,” with 15 pending lawsuits between the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Kalshi, Robinhood and various states. Within prediction markets, he argued sports is “counterintuitively actually the safest vertical,” given the bigger insider-trading and manipulation concerns around political and event-driven contracts.
Mastrelli, who said he avoids offshore platforms entirely, compared prediction markets to equities exchanges: “When I see a robust equities market now, this is AQR against SIG. It doesn’t go away.”
Harley-Davidson’s new CEO wants to transform how people think about the iconic motorcycle brand, so the company is trying something different.
This week, Harley announced a new strategy that focuses on lower-priced bikes, rather than relying on older, more affluent customers to buy its higher-margin touring models.
“Back to the Bricks builds on our core strengths and competitive advantages, harnessing the passion of our riders to deliver profitable growth for the Company and both our dealers and shareholders,” Harley CEO Artie Starrs said this week. “As we drive towards this new phase of growth, we remain committed to the craftsmanship and dedication that define our brand.”
Entry-level Harley-Davidsons cost about $13,000, while the higher-end Adventure Touring models average about $23,250, and the Premium Range &CVO models cost about $38,500, according to Reuters.
Harley’s new strategy targets a core profit of over $350 million from its motorcycle business by 2027 and over $150 million in cost reductions.
To kick off the new strategy, Harley is introducing Sprint, a new entry-level model powered by a smaller 440cc engine, later in the year.
What is Harley-Davidson’s “Back to the Bricks” strategy?
Harley’s new strategy relies on more than just pushing buyers toward cheaper vehicles to increase volume. The 123-year-old company has a set of five pillars on which it is building its future.
Harley-Davidson “Back to the Bricks” 5-point plan
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Deep appreciation of Harley-Davidson’s competitive advantages and legacy: The Company’s iconic brand, diversified and powerful revenue channels, and best-in-class dealer network provide a powerful foundation for growth.
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Renewed commitment to exclusive dealer network to drive enterprise profitability: Harley-Davidson’s dealers are a competitive advantage. The Company is planning actions to enable dealers to double profitability in 2026 and then double it again by 2029.
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Immediate actions to recapture share in areas where Harley-Davidson has right to win: Harley-Davidson has strong legacy equity in existing markets including new motorcycles, used motorcycles, Parts & Accessories, and Apparel & Licensing. The Company’s new strategy is focused on positioning the Company to regain share and drive meaningful volume growth in categories where it benefits from credibility, scale, and deep rider connection.
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Strong financial position with a path to stronger free cash flow and EBITDA margin: Cost and restructuring actions already underway support a path to stronger free cash flow and EBITDA margin over time.
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Bolstered management team with balance of fresh perspectives and institutional knowledge: Harley-Davidson has made a number of leadership appointments that support the Company as it leverages its innate strengths.
Written by Jitendra Parashar at The Motley Fool Canada
Dividend investing can be one of the simplest ways to build long-term wealth while creating a steady stream of passive income. But in my opinion, a good dividend stock is about much more than just a high yield. Beyond dividend yield, investors should also look for companies with durable businesses, reliable cash flows, and a history of rewarding shareholders consistently over time.
That’s exactly why many investors turn to financial stocks. Banks and asset managers often generate recurring earnings through lending, investing, and wealth management activities, allowing them to support stable dividend payments even during uncertain market conditions.
Two Canadian financial stocks that stand out right now are AGF Management (TSX:AGF.B) and Toronto-Dominion Bank (TSX:TD). Both companies offer attractive dividends backed by solid financial performance and long-term growth strategies. In this article, I’ll explain why these two financial stocks could be worth considering for income-focused investors right now.
AGF Management stock continues to reward shareholders
AGF Management is a Toronto-based asset manager with businesses across investments, private markets, and wealth management. Through these divisions, the company offers equity, fixed income, alternative, and multi-asset investment strategies to retail, institutional, and private wealth clients.
Following a 59% rally over the last 12 months, AGF stock currently trades at $16.67 per share with a market cap of roughly $1.1 billion. At current levels, the stock offers a quarterly dividend yield of 3.3%.
One reason behind AGF’s strong recent performance is its increasingly diversified business model. The company has expanded its investment capabilities and broadened its geographic reach, helping it perform well across varying market environments.
In the first quarter of its fiscal 2026 (ended in February), AGF posted free cash flow of $36 million, up 14% year over year (YoY), driven mainly by higher management, advisory, and administration fees. These fees climbed to $92.5 million as demand for the company’s investment offerings strengthened.
AGF has also been focusing on expanding its alternative investment business and introducing new investment products. With strong cash generation and growing demand for alternative investments, AGF Management looks well-positioned to continue rewarding investors over the long term.
TD Bank stock remains a dependable dividend giant
Toronto-Dominion Bank, or TD Bank, is one of North America’s largest banks, serving millions of customers through its Canadian banking, U.S. retail banking, wealth management and insurance, and wholesale banking operations.
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