Joe Thompson’s desperate post-wildfire scramble to find a new place for his family to live led him Saturday to a five-bedroom home in Santa Monica, California, that had been put on the market the day before for $28,000 a month — more than double the rent posted a year ago. The agent was asking for three months’ rent up front and already had applications from multiple people.
Thompson and his partner turned away, appalled.
“We’re not going to do that,” Thompson, 44, a trader and investor, said later. “We’ll just keep looking.”
The couple and their two young children were displaced by a wildfire that leveled much of their Los Angeles neighborhood of Pacific Palisades last week. Although their house was left standing, they don’t know the extent of the damage or when they will be allowed back. So they have joined thousands searching for housing in a city that had a dire shortage before the disaster.
The stampede has resulted in some homeowners and property managers jacking up prices on short-term rentals, including dozens that appear to violate a California law against increasing prices by more than 10% during a state of emergency, according to a review of Zillow listings and interviews with real estate agents, housing advocates and home-seekers.
Authorities have asked residents to report gouging to the state Attorney General’s Office.
“This is absolutely unacceptable and illegal to do in the face of this horrible tragedy,” state Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin, who represents parts of western Los Angeles, said at a news conference Sunday.
An attorney general’s spokesperson declined to answer questions about any complaints, saying such investigations aren’t public.
It’s a story that is repeated often in America: When a natural disaster hits, rents spike as demand surges beyond a city’s capacity. Some have the means to pay the higher prices. Many others don’t. The burden typically falls hardest on people who were renting before the disaster, researchers say. The crunch also drives up homebuying prices.
In some cases, prospective short-term renters in Los Angeles County are finding themselves on waiting lists, in bidding wars or being asked to provide a year’s worth of rent up front.
“A bunch of these homeowners who may have been in their home for 10, 20 or 30 years and haven’t experienced the rental market for decades — they’re going to get a crash course in the housing shortage, and it’s not pretty,” said Brock Harris, who runs a real estate brokerage with his wife, Lori.
The couple is trying to help wildfire victims secure rental properties, including many whose mortgage payments will now cover only small apartments. “The availability for these people to find a similar price or similar housing to what they’ve lost is a near-impossible task,” Harris said.
The wildfires that swept through the Los Angeles area last week have consumed more than 40,000 acres, wiping out entire neighborhoods and destroying more than 12,300 structures. Several fires continue to burn.
The wildfire victims span an array of housing situations, including working-class renters struggling with bills, retirees who have owned their homes for decades, young couples who have recently purchased houses and wealthy families with second homes elsewhere.
Many escaped with just a few possessions and now have no permanent homes. Many are staying with family or friends or in hotels, coping with unimaginable loss while they also search for long-term housing. The state has set up temporary shelters for those without anywhere to turn. Airbnb.org, a nonprofit organization independent of Airbnb, is working with a local nonprofit group, 211 LA, to provide free temporary housing to victims.
Magdaleno Rosales, an organizer with the Los Angeles Tenants Union, which advocates on behalf of renters and for affordable housing, said the group has launched an effort to track reports of rental price gouging. He said he has gotten more than 450 tips, some describing spikes of a little more than 10% and a dozen reporting 100% increases or more.
“Landlords are moving really quickly to try to take advantage of people’s desperation,” he said.
Rosales added that he is worried about evictions of working-class tenants by landlords seeing opportunities to cash in.
“L.A. was already home to one of the worst housing and homelessness crises,” he said. “And so then, in the wake of this tragedy, these horrible fires, it looks like it’s just going to get worse.”
An NBC News review of rental increases uncovered numerous examples. One listing agent, Ofir Malul, was named on a dozen rentals whose prices increased as the fires spread last week. For seven of the properties, the price hikes exceeded the 10% allowed under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s emergency declaration. A four-bedroom home in Topanga jumped 24%, up to $14,300. A three-bedroom within view of the iconic Hollywood sign shot up 45%, to $14,500.
Malul answered a call and initially agreed to speak with a reporter after he wrapped up a meeting, but he didn’t answer subsequent calls or respond to messages. On Sunday night, all 12 listings appeared to have been taken down, and his name had been removed. He later texted a reporter saying the listings weren’t his.
Zillow released a statement saying it had activated “internal systems to flag potential violations so we can assess and take action,” adding, “We believe it is essential for housing providers to follow local housing rules, including consumer protections against price gouging during and following a natural disaster, and we are providing resources to help them understand their responsibilities.”
The picture isn’t entirely bleak. Alongside allegations of price gouging are stories of generosity and empathy.
Tannis Mann, who lost the Pacific Palisades house she and her partner bought in 2023, is living with her sister while they try to find short-term housing. Mann, 37, a brand manager for a food company, said she has seen examples of landlords’ maintaining or lowering prices.
“When I am looking through Zillow, if I see someone raised the price, I crossed them off the list,” Mann said, “because I don’t want that person to be my landlord.”
For Ashley and Tim Polmateer, whose home in the Marquez Knolls neighborhood in Pacific Palisades was destroyed, looking at dozens of listings online and six in person hasn’t yielded a new place to live. They said they’ve seen listings with rent increases of $1,000 in the days after the fire.
For now, they plan to stay in an Airbnb property until the end of the month with their three young children and 10-week-old golden retriever puppy, and they hope to find something by Feb. 1.
“At least we’re all together,” Ashley Polmateer said.
Thompson’s search continues, too. His family is staying in a hotel while they look for a place near the children’s schools. On Monday, he checked out a rental that just went on the market for a price that was unchanged since before the fires, he said. But the agent told him he was one of 70 people on the list.
”People have lost everything,” Thompson said. “They’re in a state of uncertainty, where they don’t know even how long they need a place, and they’re being forced to outbid each other and give the best possible terms to a landlord. It’s insane.”
