“OK, don’t step into the actual fissure. We don’t actually know how deep it goes.” In 2024, Eilen Stewart bought a house on a landslide. “Honestly, we’re priced out of a lot of the L.A. area. So when we saw this house in this amazing neighborhood — it’s safe. It’s beautiful. It’s got amazing school districts. I mean, it just seemed like this house is half the price that it should be. Of course, that’s when we figured out that there’s a reason that the house is this price.” Land here was moving as much as a foot per week around that time. But this house seemed OK, so Eilen and her husband went for it, paying $1.3 million, a deal for coastal Palos Verdes, Calif. “We knew there was a landslide, but we made a calculated risk. And we’ll see if it pays off or not.” Parts of Palos Verdes have been inching towards the sea for decades, but heavy rainfall in recent years accelerated the landslide, cracking foundations and destroying homes. “This is probably one of the largest active landslides with homes on it in the entire United States, if not the world. It’s almost like a giant raft that’s moving on this real slippery layer at depth.” “The movement has always been here. It’s just been at an acceptable level. But once anything has started moving, it’s very, very difficult to stop.” “For longtime residents like Tim Kelly, who bought his home here in 1994, leaving would mean a massive financial hit. Landslides generally aren’t covered by insurance. “So prior to the landslide, my house was — based on Zillow and Redfin and all those — was at approximately $2.1 million. It’s been reassessed on the L.A. County tax rolls at $129,000. All right, guys. 7:01, we’re late. We’re late.” With little choice but to stay put and a deep love for their neighborhood, Tim and a crew of dedicated neighbors are trying to slow down the landslide by drying it out. Every morning, they fire up generators for wells that pump water out of the ground. “Putting in de-watering wells is one of the primary approaches to slow the slide down. And we’ve seen a dramatic reduction in movement as a result of taking those measures. In some areas, we’ve reduced the movement by almost 90 percent at its peak.” Last winter was also less rainy than the two before, another factor. Gas and electricity were cut off to many in 2024, and residents have had to go off grid. Some families have left altogether for safety reasons. Nearly two years later, 172 homes are still disconnected from grid power, including Eilen’s. Her land has also moved a lot since she moved in. “When we first moved in, you could see maybe this much of the ocean. It was kind of a little tiny sliver. But all of those homes that are in front of us sunk down a good 10 feet. And part of the silver lining is that we have a much better view now.” Eilen estimates she spent about $200,000 on landslide-related fixes, including picking up the house, placing it on steel beams and moving it away from the slide. But all of this might just be delaying the inevitable. “You’re fighting nature, and what we see is that nature is changing with climate change and maybe more rainfall occurring in the future. We do have means and methods to tackle that. It’s just very expensive.” As of June this year, Palos Verdes will have spent about $65 million on landslide mitigation since 2022. Its entire annual city budget is about $40 million. “We’re aggressively trying to get money from the state and federal government to be able to solve the problem and implement the solutions that we have. But we need more to keep going.” At least 11 homes have sold in the landslide zone since 2024. Last summer, the city banned future new construction here. But anybody is still free to move in. “It’s buyer beware, right, because you’re coming into an area that the land is going to be moving forever. But if they want to then it’s their choice.” “If the house slid down the hill tomorrow, what would you do?” “I would put up a tent in that backyard and still live here.”
