Landlords of apartments surrounding the tens of thousands of homes burned in the Los Angeles County fires early this year have jacked up rents five times faster than a year ago.
Rents in 16 communities in Los Angeles and Ventura counties had median increases of 2.4 percent to $2,246 per unit, compared to a 0.5 percent increase in the same period last year, the Orange County Register reported, citing figures from ApartmentList.
“These increases 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,” ApartmentList wrote in a report.
ApartmentList combines pricing patterns from its rental listings with government rent-cost data, creating its rent indexes.
Its report dovetails with a similar study last month, which found landlords in Los Angeles and Orange counties had raised rents at more than twice the national rate since the January firestorm torched more than 12,000 homes around Altadena and the Pacific Palisades.
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, according to a similar report from ApartmentList.
Monthly rents have climbed as thousands of refugees from fire-scorched neighborhoods scrambled to find places to live.
In Los Angeles and Ventura counties, rent increases in 12 of the 16 communities tracked were larger in the quarter ending in March than a year earlier, according to the Register.
Thousand Oaks had the largest rent jump in the two-county area, up 6.1 percent since December to $2,894 a month. Last year, rents in the city started with a 2.6 percent jump.
Pasadena, next to the Eaton fire, saw rents rise 4.3 percent this year to $2,533, compared to a 1.9 percent gain early last year.
Meanwhile, monthly rents in Santa Monica, near the Palisades fire, rose 4.2 percent to $2,556, compared to a 0.5 percent drop at the start of last year.
In Los Angeles, rents rose 1.4 percent to $2,091, versus a 0.1 percent gain last year, according to the Register.
Across the state, rents rose 1.7 last quarter to $1,884 per month, compared to a 0.8 percent bump last year. Nationally, rents rose 0.8 percent in early this year to $1,216, versus a 0.6 percent dip a year ago.— Dana Bartholomew
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