Following the loss of their homes in the Los Angeles fires, “Million Dollar Listing” stars Josh Flagg and Josh Altman are already working to help fire victims find new houses.
Flagg talked about his worries about illegal price gouging in the housing and renting markets in an interview with Fox News Digital.
“Look, I don’t know the exact laws, but I do know that price gouging is against the law.” It’s against the law, for example, to put the house on the market before the disaster and then raise the price five times what it was before the disaster, Flagg said.
He went on, “So, what people are doing—and they’re not breaking the law—people who weren’t marketing their homes before are now taking advantage of the fact that you can get any price for a house.” Every time something bad happens, you have to raise the price by three times. “That is the issue.”
After the fires in Los Angeles, homes in Pacific Palisades and Altadena were torn down. Cal Fire says that the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire are still burning in Los Angeles County.
More than 12,000 homes, businesses, and schools have been destroyed by the fires, and more than 100,000 people have had to leave their homes, according to Cal Fire.
Flagg says that Los Angeles does not have enough goods for all the people who have been forced to move.
“This is why there are open houses with a line of people going around the block.” Not enough items are in stock. You fill up the rental homes because many of my clients own them as investments. Look, these people aren’t going to be on the streets at the end of the day.
“This is really scary right now. But everyone will be able to go somewhere at the end of the day. Everyone is trying to figure that out right now. It’s like any mishap. Things are terrible at first, but then they get better on their own. Furthermore, “But it’s not fun to wait,” he added.
Fox News Digital spoke with Flagg’s former “Million Dollar Listing” co-star Josh Altman, who said the housing market is “madness” after the Los Angeles fires.
“It’s way worse than you could ever imagine,” he said. “Police officers I know and friends of mine who have toured it told me it’s something you have to see to even begin to understand.” And seeing it on TV, the internet, Instagram, or TikTok is a hundred times less bad than what you see in real life.
Since the election, Altman said, the real estate market has been “a little quiet,” but it began to pick up before the fires. There are now thousands of people who didn’t want to be in the market.
“There’s not a lot of inventory to begin with, and now all of a sudden you have a thousand-plus new people in the market, whether they’re buying or renting, depending on their financial situation and depending on their family situation,” said Altman.
“It will be years before this is fixed up and the houses are finished.” Building a house will take two years. Getting licenses will take a year. Then, do you want to live on a street with 10 other houses that are being built at the same time you did with your kids?
“So they just sign a three-year lease right away.” That’s it. Then there are those who just say, “You know what? My kids are 5 years old. When this comes back together, they’ll be 10 years old. They are going to various places. We’re not going to go back there at all. We’ll get the money from the insurance. The land will be sold and a house will be bought. In fact, that’s what Altman said he was seeing most of the time right now.
Altman gave Fox News Digital a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass that was written by Jason Oppenheim and Ben Belack. The letter asks for “practical adjustments” to the current California rules that affect people who have been forced to move.
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