This burnt-out 3-bedroom in Torrance sold for over $1 million. Welcome to California's housing market

[Zorro]

There’s a dilapidated house near my apartment complex in Torrance. Its doors and windows are covered by plywood boards and “No Trespassing” signs. Its frontyard is choked by dry, shin-high weeds. Chunks of its roof are missing.

Its listing on multiple real estate websites read: “This property has Fire Damage. BOARDED UP! … Do Not Enter or Occupy Property. No Interior Showings!”

Photos of the three-bedroom house showed one room with a smoke-blackened popcorn ceiling, and a small kitchen with vinyl flooring darkened by what looked to be a thick layer of mold or dirt.

The empty 1,140-square-foot home at the busy corner of Lenore Street and Anza Avenue, which was built in 1955 and damaged in a house fire two years ago, was snapped up in a probate sale last June.

$1.08 million.

Of course a fire-charred tear-down sold for more than a million bucks. That’s California’s miserable housing market for you.

https://www.latimes.com/california/newsletter/2026-05-19/la-me-california-newsletter-2026-05-19-million-dollar-fire-house-torrance