Tracking Multifamily Rents Following the 2025 Los Angeles Wildfires

The January 2025 Southern California wildfires amounted to one of the costliest natural disasters in US history. By the end of the month, nearly 13,000 homes were lost and thousands more commercial properties were destroyed. This is pushing up rents and home prices, as nearby housing markets that already lack affordable options must suddenly try to absorb thousands of newly-displaced families. In the immediate aftermath, anecdotes of price-gouging flooded the internet as some property owners looked to take advantage of this supply-demand imbalance. Emergency legislation has been enacted to curtail this behavior, but the underlying fundamentals will continue to drive up housing costs.

The Apartment List Rent Model tracks multifamily rent changes in real time, and our team is keeping a close eye on the markets affected by the wildfires. Rent increases during this time of the year are not uncommon; rents follow a clear seasonal pattern and typically rise from January through August due to higher housing demand in these months. But in a handful of cities nearest to the wildfires (e.g., Santa Monica, Glendale, Pasadena), rent increases in 2025 are on pace to exceed those of previous years, including even 2021 and 2022, years characterized by record-breaking rent growth.

The interactive map below shows rent growth year-to-date for all LA area cities in our model. Use the horizontal arrows to cycle through previous years.

Citywide, rents in Los Angeles are up a modest 0.7 percent in 2025. But in Santa Monica, rents are up 3 percent during the first two months of the year, and in Glendale and Pasadena they’re up 2 percent. Similar rent growth is also being measured in Ventura County, which has exploded in popularity during the pandemic era. Rents across Southern California will certainly continue to go up in the coming months, as normal seasonal trends are accelerated by housing shortages that have been exacerbated by the wildfires.

One important note about the data: these numbers reflect just the large-multifamily segment of the housing market that is visible on the Apartment List platform. Rent changes may be different among single-family home rentals, and smaller-portfolio “mom-and-pop” rentals. For more information on our rent model, please see this methodology.