- Rental listings before and after the LA wildfires showed steep hikes in some parts of LA County, as the loss of thousands of homes sent people scrambling for alternate housing in the area.
Listed rental prices more than tripled in parts of Los Angeles after wildfires destroyed thousands of homes, despite anti-gouging rules.
A Washington Post analysis of listings data from property analytics service RentCast found that LA County rents overall jumped 20% two weeks after the disaster compared to two weeks before.
But individual neighborhoods and cities in the sprawling county saw steeper hikes. For example, rent for a single-family home in the city of Glendora, which is about a half hour away from fire-ravaged Altadena, soared 150% to a median monthly rate of $4,974.
In Beverly Hills, rent for a townhouse surged 142% to $15,000, and rent for a single-family home in Encino, an LA neighborhood on the other side of the hills from Pacific Palisades, jumped 141% to $12,025.
But drilling down to individual ZIP codes revealed even bigger increases. Sherman Oaks, which is next to Encino in LA's San Fernando Valley, saw rent shoot up 266%, according to the Post. Rent in nearby Valley Village leapt 198%, and one ZIP code in the city of Glendale saw a 206% markup.
California currently prohibits price hikes of that magnitude. After the fires, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order that made it illegal to increase the cost of hotels, housing, gas and other goods by more than 10%.
The state's attorney general has warned against price gouging and has already charged a real estate agent for allegedly trying to increase rent by 38% on a couple who lost their home in the Eaton fire.
While platforms like Airbnb offered free housing to evacuees, the higher incomes of many people affected by the disaster made attempts to charge exorbitant amounts especially enticing.
In the days after the wildfires, one woman who fled Pacific Palisades told AFP that she put in an application for a house that was listed at $17,000 a month, but was then told to pay $30,000, or else she wouldn't get it.
Still, after the loss of thousands of homes, LA's housing market is even tighter than it was before the fires, and building new supply will take years.
Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass have announced they are easing regulations to encourage faster construction, but some insurance payouts will fall short of replacement costs.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republicans in Congress have suggested that federal disaster aid for Southern California may come with strings attached, potentially delaying reconstruction.
