It happens every time Southern California has a devastating wildfire. The supply of contractors, laborers and construction materials stays the same while demand skyrockets from victims trying to rebuild.

Which means that almost overnight, architects like Christopher Norman get their pick of jobs.

“If a contractor could work on a $5 million ground up, versus a $1 million,” Norman said, “they’ll take the bigger project.”

The fact that higher-budget projects attract more attention from contractors is good news for many people rebuilding in Pacific Palisades, a wealthy Los Angeles neighborhood. It’s less good news for the folks rebuilding in middle-class Altadena, about 40 miles away.

“If I wanted to build a house for $750,000 or $1 million, which is what it’s going to cost a regular person in [Los Angeles], that would be very challenging to find a contractor,” Norman said.

The finite resources mean some communities have to wait to rebuild. Another problem in the affected communities is “underinsurance.”

“If you don’t look at your policy on a regular basis and you’re paying the same amount, you’re vastly underinsured,” said Nora O’Brien of Connect Consulting Services, which is an emergency management and disaster resilience company.

That can happen when someone buys, say, a $500,000 house that had appreciated into an $800,000 house when it burned down, but they never updated the policy to reflect its new value.

“When something does happen, you’re only going to get a small fraction of the value,” said O’Brien. “If that gets destroyed, and that’s your only asset, and you don’t have insurance to replace it, there goes your wealth.”

And there goes your chance to rebuild along with it.

Marcus Betts’ whole extended family owns property in Altadena. Between all of them, 16 homes were damaged or destroyed. He knows contractors will prefer rebuilding in the Palisades.

“That’s to be expected. That’s what big companies do — they go for the big money,” Betts said. “But we have a plan in Altadena.”

Betts said he and his neighbors are ready to hammer, frame and paint one another’s homes. Plus, he said, there are architects and builders from Altadena, and he hopes they’ll pick their own community first, regardless of money.

“Because the legacy and everything that is in Altadena needs to be retained,” he said. “And the only way that’s retained is with the family and friends and residents of Altadena to kind of keep that in place.”