LA Resi Rent Hikes Double National Average After Wildfires

Landlords in Los Angeles and Orange counties have jacked up rents at more than twice the national rate since a firestorm early this year torched more than 12,000 homes.

Rents in January and February rose 0.7 percent across the region — more than double the 0.3 percent increases for apartments nationwide and locally during the same period, the Orange County Register reported, citing a report from ApartmentList.

Rents rose across Los Angeles as thousands of refugees from fire-scorched neighborhoods scrambled to find places to live.

Monthly rents in Santa Monica, near the Palisades fire, are up 3 percent year to date, with a typical two-bedroom unit renting for $2,867.

Rents in Glendale, near the Eaton fire, are up 2.1 percent, with a typical two-bedroom home renting for $2,462 a month. At the same time, rents in January and February rose 2 percent in Pasadena to $2,731, and 1.9 percent in Burbank to $2,448.

Despite government actions to cap rent hikes, “the fires could still have a meaningful impact on rent prices in a market where metro-wide rent growth had previously been essentially flat,” ApartmentList’s report stated.

“Increases are relatively modest so far and do not indicate evidence of widespread rent gouging but they do seem to indicate that the trajectory of the area’s rent prices has been altered by the fires.”

An analysis by the Washington Post after the fires found that landlords had illegally gouged renters scrambling to find homes, with rents jumping by 20 percent across Los Angeles County.

In nearly 30 cities and Los Angeles neighborhoods, the median rent for homes listed within two weeks after the fires started spiked well past the legal limit of 10 percent, compared with those listed within two weeks before the blazes

An executive order signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom after the fires began made it illegal to jack up the cost of hotels, housing, gas and other goods by more than 10 percent.

— Dana Bartholomew

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