When the fires are out, and the insurance checks start to pour in, local building contractors should see an eventual upturn in business as residents rebuild and repair their homes, said Delores Conway, director of USC's Casden Real Estate Economics Forecast. "In a way, … it's helpful news. We all know that construction has been declining," Conway said. And while a mortgage credit crunch and tightening loan standards have made home financing harder to get, "here we have new sources of funding that comes from insurance dollars. This will help the construction industry." Conway noted that after the 1993 fires in Los Angeles County, employment by general contractors jumped 18 percent there, compared to 6 percent in Southern California as a whole.
