as Los Angeles fires As the devastation continues, many celebrity real estate agents are scrambling to find new places for clients to live.

"I've been searching the MLS (directory) trying to help families displaced by the fire find rental properties," Sunset sale the star Jason Oppenheim said In an Instagram story Video for January 2025. "I'm seeing dozens of examples of people trying to do this kind of thing, where they're unable to get $9,500 or even $9,000 and then yesterday the rent went up more than 30 percent to $12,000."

The founder of the Oppenheim Group noted that while he is "all for free market capitalism", he sees rising costs as the result of people "obviously taking advantage" of natural disasters.

California has an anti-price gouging law, which means that it is illegal to raise costs during an emergency.

“The Assembly hereby finds that during a state of emergency or local emergency, including but not limited to earthquake, flood, fire, riot, storm, drought, plant or animal attack or disease, epidemic or epidemic disease outbreak, or others. Certain traders have taken unfair advantage of consumers by drastically increasing prices of essential consumer goods and services during natural or man-made disasters,” Section 396 of the Penal Code reads “While the determination of the prices of consumer goods and services is normally left to the market under normal circumstances, when an emergency or local emergency causes unusual disruption to the market, the public interest requires that excessive and unreasonable increases in prices. Essential consumer goods and services will be banned.”

The statute also makes any violation a felony punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for not less than one year, a fine of not less than $10,000, or a combination of both.

Despite the state's legal ruling, many local realtors still find that landlords are allegedly inflating their property prices In the middle of the fire. Keep scrolling to see what the stars had to say:

Jason Oppenheim

"California has price gouging laws, they are being ignored right now, and this is not the time to take advantage of the situation," Oppenheim said. told the BBC In January 2025. "Everybody has tears in their eyes all day, literally from the smoke but just because it's emotional to see people struggling like that."

Oppenheim also has brokerage His service donation To help displaced clients find accommodation at no additional fee.

Krishel Stoz

Taking to his Instagram Stories on January 10, 2025, Oppenheim's colleague called the behavior "disgusting".

"To other realtors who have an ethical compass, please report to the board," he said.

In a follow-up post, Stowes noted that he keeps seeing examples of price gouging when searching the MLS for properties on the market.

Josh Flagg

D Million Dollar Listing: Los Angeles The star spoke about the price hike in an interview with Jan. 15 Fox News.

"People (who) haven't marketed their homes before are taking advantage now because you can ask for anything you want for a home," Flagg asserts. “You can't do it, then a natural disaster happens, and then you triple the price. That's the problem."

According to Flagg, there is "not enough inventory" to house all the people displaced by the fire.

“Right now, it's very scary. But at the end of the day everyone will have a place to go. It's determining that now and everyone is scrambling," he told the outlet. “It's like any disaster. In the beginning, it's a nightmare and then everything works itself out. But it's not fun while you wait."

Josh Altman

The former of the flag MDLLA Koster told Fox News that the situation is "worse than you can imagine."

"There's not a lot of inventory to begin with, and now all of a sudden there are over a thousand new people in the market, whether they buy or rent, depending on their financial situation and their family situation," Altman said. “Until it's fixed, it will be years until the houses are finished. It means it will take two years to build the house. It will take a year to get the permit.”

check LAFD website For local wildfire warnings and Click here For resources on how to help victims.