· One of at least three houses bought by a $2 billion lottery winner has been destroyed by the Los Angeles wildfires. One other home appears safe for now and the status of the third is unknown.
When he won a record-breaking $2 billion Powerball jackpot in 2023, Edwin Castro began spending that money wildly, buying (among other things) a number of homes in California. Now, at least one of those is ashes, one of many victims of the wildfires burning in Los Angeles.
Castro bought a three-story $25.5 million mansion in the Hollywood Hills, as well as other homes in Malibu and Altadena.
That $25.5 million house is in the middle of an evacuation zone, as is the $4 million home he bought in Altadena. The Altadena home, for now, appears safe. The Hollywood Hills house’s condition is unknown. But a $3.85 million, two-bedroom home with ocean views in Malibu, was a victim of the Palisades fire.
The Los Angeles Times reports Castro bought that home using an LLC, whose business managers were listed in public records as the same people who ran the LLCs used to buy the other two homes.
Castro has kept a low public profile since winning the lottery and the Times was unable to reach him for comment. His spending spree after winning the lottery, however, was exactly what financial advisors warn against doing when one comes into a large amount of cash.
The value of second or third homes has shrunk in the post-pandemic world, and luxury real estate is a risky investment, as it is illiquid and vulnerable to economic conditions outside the owner’s control. For instance, the upkeep for Castro’s $25.5 million Hollywood Hills home—which has five bedrooms, six bathrooms, a game room, wine cellar, home theater, wet bar, gym, cold plunge, steam shower, and sauna—was estimated to cost $255,000 to over $1 million per year.
Castro cashed in his winning ticker last February, opting to immediately receive nearly $1 billion in cash—roughly $628 million after taxes. His alternative was to collect the full $2 billion prize through an annuity over 29 years, a method financial advisors say is usually the better strategy.
