Barbara Corcoran has built and sold empires, but the Shark Tank star says no property has meant more to her than a modest trailer in Pacific Palisades. That $1 million home was recently destroyed in the devastating wildfires that swept across Los Angeles, reducing the entire Tahitian Terrace Mobile Home Park to ash.
Despite the loss, Barbara Corcoran isn’t retreating. She’s rebuilding. And this time, she’s all in.
“I’m definitely going to, actually, if I can rebuild it, I’m going to dump my other houses and just move in there,” she said. “That’s what I’m going to do and be happily ever after.”
The real estate mogul, who owns properties in Manhattan, Fire Island, and the Hudson Valley, made the bold declaration in the wake of the fire, insisting her trailer was more than just a getaway, it was home.
Barbara Corcoran purchased the home in 2017 for $800,000 and spent $150,000 renovating it. Located on a bluff overlooking the Pacific, the trailer wasn’t listed when she first saw it. But she made a direct offer to the owner, refusing to walk away without securing it.
“I saw this trailer and thought it had the best view,” Barbara Corcoran said in a 2023 viral video tour with real estate influencer Caleb Simpson. “So I asked the owner if I could buy it, even if she wanted to keep using it herself.”
The mobile home community of Tahitian Terrace wasn’t filled with celebrities or investors. It was quiet, modest, and deeply rooted in a strong sense of local identity.
“I think I was only [the] rich one in the whole community, and I swear to God, I liked it that way,” she said. “If rich people moved in, it would’ve been a very different kind of neighborhood.”
The Palisades fire swept through the community with speed and force, leaving little time for residents to react. Barbara Corcoran posted footage to social media showing the destruction, calling it “devastating.”
“Our beloved Tahitian Terrace community off PCH in the Palisades has been devastated. The place where memories were made, friendships were built, and lives were shared has been tragically destroyed.” she wrote.
“These are the kindest, most generous souls I’ve ever had the privilege of knowing, and my heart aches for the pain they’re enduring.”
The 76-year-old said she’s spent the days since the fire helping other displaced residents, many of whom were seniors or middle-class families priced out of the broader Pacific Palisades market.
“There are very elderly folks who have lived at the park for years, and they panic a lot. But in the absence of information, there is always false rumors.”
While rumors have circulated that many trailer park residents would leave Los Angeles rather than rebuild, Barbara Corcoran says that’s not what she’s hearing on the ground.
“Every single person I have spoken to, which is just about everybody in the park at this point, is waiting with bated breath to build their new home,” she said. “No one is thinking of leaving.”
Still, questions remain about when, and how, rebuilding can begin. Permits, insurance claims, and city approvals have yet to be resolved.
“Nothing’s coming down definitive at all [on plans to rebuild],” she admitted. “But I do know one thing, people want to stay.”
Though Barbara Corcoran’s loss was material, her attachment to the trailer, and the people who called Tahitian Terrace home, runs deeper.
“It’s such a simple way to live,” she said. “When I used to think about my homes and think, ‘What home, if I had one home, if I was going to hit the poor house and I just had to live one place, pick the one place?’ It would have been my trailer.”
In response to the fire, Barbara Corcoran launched a GoFundMe for displaced residents of Tahitian Terrace. The funds, she said, will go directly to those impacted by the blaze to help them “begin again.”
It’s a rare story in real estate: a multimillionaire walking away from luxury to embrace something humbler, and calling it the best decision of her life. But Barbara Corcoran isn’t surprised.
“I love fixing up homes,” she said. “But this one felt different.”
And if she has her way, the next version of that trailer won’t just be rebuilt, it’ll be permanent.
Share this article:
