Los Angeles wildfires didn't lead to soaring Southern California rents

"Population-weighted averages of rentals across all sizes were used to track local markets, which were split into two groups: 20 cities near January 2025's inferno vs. 29 farther from the firestorm. In those 20 fire-adjacent cities, where typical rents were $2,127 per month in December, rents fell 0.8% in 2025. Yes, a drop. And that was a slightly larger slip than the 0.1% dip of 2024. These minor slips followed the average 2.1% yearly gains in the pandemic-twisted 2018-2023 period."

"Contrast those trends with the slightly firmer pricing in the 29 Southern California cities farther from the destruction. December's $2,296 monthly rent was up 0.1% from the previous year, after rising 0.2% the year before. Roughly speaking, no change for two years after increasing at a painful 5.4% annual pace in 2018-2023. I'm not ignoring the pain of those forced to relocate because of the wildfires. Nor am I overlooking the budget-busting levels of rent itself."

ApartmentList combines federal housing figures and listing-service pricing patterns to measure rents across 49 cities in a six-county Southern California region. Population-weighted averages across unit sizes tracked two groups: 20 cities adjacent to January 2025's wildfire and 29 cities farther away. In the 20 fire-adjacent cities, typical rents were $2,127 in December and fell 0.8% in 2025, a slightly larger drop than 2024's 0.1% decline following 2.1% average yearly gains in 2018–2023. In the 29 more distant cities, median rent was $2,296 in December, up 0.1% year-over-year after a 0.2% rise the prior year. Overall figures reflect modest rent stability for most renters despite significant displacement for some.

Read at The Mercury News