PASADENA, Calif. — After losing their home in the Eaton Fire, Scott and Kelsey Unger said finding a place to live was a full-time job. 

What You Need To Know

  • Over 16,000 structures were destroyed in the LA-area fires

  • Rental prices in Los Angeles rose faster than the national average in January, per Zillow

  • Redfin reports a 50% year-over-year increase in rental listing page views

  • Some renters faced demands of six months’ rent upfront or large bank balances to qualify for leases

"They would tell me on the phone, it’s already gone," Kelsey Unger said. “It would get posted and it would be gone that day. It was that fast.”

“And it’s a weird, gross feeling where you’re competing with people for housing,” Scott Unger said. “It just felt awful.”

The Ungers had lived in Altadena for nearly 13 years. Suddenly, they found themselves navigating an intensely competitive rental market with limited insurance funds and high upfront demands. “There are certain places that they wanted six months in advance,” Kelsey Unger said. “There’s places that wanted to see a huge amount of cash in your bank accounts.”

More than 16,000 structures were destroyed in the recent fires across Los Angeles. According to Zillow, rent prices in the area jumped more quickly in January than the national average. Redfin reports that page views for rental listings are up 50% compared to last year.

“What we were seeing was what we see in the LA housing sales market,” real estate agent Lori Harris said. “Bidding wars to pull offers on properties, bidding properties hundreds if not thousands of dollars over the listed rental price. That is what we see in the LA sales market regularly because there is not enough housing.”

And while California law caps rent increases at 10% during emergencies, Harris said the law was often ignored.

“They [renters] were shopping with insurance money and so they could offer that year upfront,” she said. “And so it took what was an already very compressed rental market and competitive and just blew it up.”

The Ungers ultimately found temporary housing through a good Samaritan who offered her own home at market rate. From their new rental, they can still see the mountains where their house once stood.

While they are grateful, they are concerned about finding a long-term solution.

“We do have to move in January, so that’s hard,” Kelsey Unger said. “But at least, we feel like we’re on stable ground for a few months, which is very helpful for our mental health to have somewhere to land, just even for a period of time.”

For now, the Ungers hold on to the hope that living in their home, in those mountains, isn't too far away.