America’s dreamy paradise becomes a nightmare so dangerous that longtime locals are selling up after decades

Once a postcard-perfect escape, California’s Big Sur is now facing a harsh new reality… impassable roads, sky-high fire risk, and vanishing access to basic services.

Now, even its most devoted residents are packing up and leaving — some after more than 40 years.

Among the recent sellers are Brigga Mosca, 70, and Reed Cripe, 82, who bought five acres of land overlooking the ocean for $70,000 in 1983.

They built their dream home but have now decided to put it on the market for $3 million. 

‘It’s harder for us to be here,’ Mosca told the Wall Street Journal about the lack of road access and distance from basic amenities including a hospital.  

Big Sur’s natural beauty is married to its remoteness, with only one two lane highway allowing access to Carmel-by-the-Sea to the north and the small towns outside Santa Barbara to it south.  

But parts of Highway 1 have been subject to natural disasters and crumbling infrastructure since it opened in 1937.

For some of the area’s 1,500 full-time residents the most recent disruptions — which began in February last year — have been a tipping point. 

A seven-mile stretch of the road near the community of Lucia was closed in February 2024 and isn’t expected to open until the end of the summer. 

A large land slide near Rocky Creek Bridge in March last year also saw closures to through traffic and residents were only able to leave on designated convoys twice a day.  

Further to this many residents were alarmed by Cal Fire’s recent upgrade of the area’s wildfire risk to ‘Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone.’  

Like other areas of the Golden State, accessing adequate insurance for properties in Big Sur is becoming increasingly difficult. 

Big Sur has just shy of 900 properties and most sell for $3 million or more.

There are 15 properties currently active on the market ranging in price from $1.8 million to $100 million. 

Realtor Hillary Lipman, owner of Big Sur Coast Properties, told DailyMail.com that issues with the highway and wildfires are certainly a driving factor for the amount of inventory on the market at the moment. 

‘We’ve had lots off difficulties with the highway being closed and fires,’ Lipman, who has lived in the area for 40 years, explained. 

‘Most business people are frustrated nothing can be done because of excessive regulations particularly when it comes to the coastal commission. 

‘They’re not allowed to push the dirt into the ocean to get the highway open again [after a slide] it has to be trucked away, which could be more polluting.’

Lipman also owns the only gas station on the Big Sur stretch of the Highway and the constant closures have hit business. 

Lipman said there is also a generational shift occurring, where older residents who have lived in the area for decades are looking to move closer to a city or town in order to be nearer family and medical facilities. 

Around 70 percent of the 15 homes currently listed or sold in the last year have been ‘legacy properties’ that haven’t been on the market in decades.

Other older residents are moving on after the death of a spouse. 

Merle Mullin’s 43-acre oceanfront compound Bien Sur is currently on the market for $21.5 million.

Mullin lived in the property with her husband, the insurance tycoon Peter Mullin, until his death in 2023.  

‘What would I do by myself? It’s so isolated,’ she told the Journal.  

Lipman said there is a lot of inventory available at the moment and the market seems ‘soft’ but is confident it will pick back up. 

‘There are always people looking to buy in this magical area, and if you can’t sell you still have a lovely property in Big Sur.’