Capitalist Housing Markets Make Natural Disasters Worse
From price gouging to risky developing to insurance dysfunction, the dynamics of private housing markets are making the Los Angeles fire disaster considerably worse. We don’t need to prioritize real estate profits over people’s housing needs.
The death toll of the Los Angeles wildfires has risen to twenty-five, according to medical examiners in Los Angeles, California, on January 14, 2025. (Lokman Vural Elibol / Anadolu via Getty Images)
How much does it cost to rent a furnished home in Bel Air?
It depends when you’re asking. One such home was listed in the fall for $15,900 a month. That’s already a brain-melting amount of money to spend on rent. It works out to nearly $200,000 a year. If you want to rent it now, though, it’s $29,500 — an 86 percent increase.
Trey White is a real estate agent from Pacific Palisades. He told the New York Times he’s seen an “unfathomable amount of illegal price gouging” since the Los Angeles fires started.
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