William May’s home in Pacific Palisades was destroyed in the L.A. wildfires in January 2025. He’s still haunted by the memory of the “fireball burning everything in its path” on that hellish day. And all he wants to do is rebuild his beautiful home, where the retired pediatrician lived with his wife.
Since then, he’s been fighting with State Farm, his property insurer, to get the money he said he needs to rebuild his home. Back in 2017, when he bought the two-story home, he said it was valued at $1.7 million. But the insurer gave him an estimate of only $1.35 million after the fire, and May said he’s driven himself into debt trying to rebuild the couple’s home while they wait for State Farm to reassess their claim. Property values in the neighborhood have increased 50% from $2.1 million on average in December 2017 to $3.076 million in December 2025, according to Zillow’s Home Values Index.
