“Million Dollar Listing” stars Josh Flagg and Josh Altman have already gone to work trying to help victims Fires in Los Angeles navigate the real estate market after losing their homes.
In an interview with Fox News Digital, Flagg spoke about concerns about illegal price gouging in the rental and housing markets.
“Well, the thing is, you know, I don’t know the exact laws, but there are legal ramifications for raising the price. For example, if the house was on the market before it happened, and then you just raise it by five times the price during a natural disaster, it’s against the law,” Flagg said.
“Million Dollar Listing” stars Josh Altman and Josh Flagg discuss how the Los Angeles fires are affecting the real estate market. (Getty Images)
He continued, “So what people are doing, without doing it illegally, is … people who didn’t advertise their homes before are taking advantage right now because you can ask for whatever you want for a house. You just can’t then a natural disaster happens , and then triple the price.”
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Homes in Pacific Palisades and Altadena were destroyed after the Los Angeles fire. Both the Palisades Fire and Eaton Fire remain active in Los Angeles County, according to Cal Fire.
“Well, the thing is, you know, I don’t know the exact laws, but there are legal ramifications for raising the price. For example, if the house was on the market before it happened, and then you just raise it by five times the price during a natural disaster, it’s against the law.”
According to Cal Fire, more than 12,000 homes, businesses and schools were lost in the fires, and more than 100,000 people were forced to leave their homes.
According to Flagg, Los Angeles does not have enough inventory for all the people who have been displaced.
A rainbow rises over firefighters as they monitor the Palisades Fire in Mandeville Canyon on Jan. 11. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)
Josh Flagg warned of potentially illegal price gouging of rental properties after the Los Angeles fires. (Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)
“That’s why there are, you know, open houses lined up around the block of people. There’s just not enough inventory. A lot of my clients have investment properties, so you’re filling investment properties. I mean, look, at the end of the day, it’s not like these people are going to be out on the streets.
“Right now, this is very scary. But at the end of the day, there will be a place where everyone can go. Now it’s just being established and everyone is picking themselves up. It’s like any disaster. At first it’s a nightmare, and then everything just goes from yourself, but it’s no fun while you’re waiting,” he continued.
WATCH: ‘Million Dollar Listing’ star Josh Flagg raises alarm over illegal price gouging
Flagg’s former “Million Dollar Listing” co-star Josh Altman told Fox News Digital that the real estate market was “crazy” after the Los Angeles fires.
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“It’s a lot worse than you can imagine,” he said. “My friends and people in the police that I’m friends with that have been around it just said it’s something you have to see to even try to imagine. And it’s a hundred times worse in real life than you can imagine just watching it on TV— in or on the Internet or on Instagram or TikTok.”
The Pacific Palisades fire left thousands displaced. (Apu Gomes/Getty Images)
Josh Altman says the Los Angeles fires have caused a “frenzy” in the community. (Gabe Ginsberg/Getty Images)
Altman explained that the real estate market has been “a little quiet” since the election, but that it had started to recover before the fire. Now there are thousands of people in the market and not by choice.
“There’s not a lot of inventory in the beginning, and now all of a sudden you have over a thousand new people in the market, buying or renting, depending on their financial situation and depending on their family situation,” Altman said.
WATCH: Josh Altman calls Palisades Fire aftermath ‘madness’
“It’s going to be years until this is taken care of, until the houses are finished. I mean, it’s going to take two years to build a house. It’s going to be years to get permits. And then do you want to live among 10 other houses on the street that are being built because you lived there with your children?
“So they immediately then just go into a three-year lease. That’s it. And then you go to people who just say, ‘You know what? My kids are 5. They’re going to be 10 when this comes. They’re going to be in different schools, we’re not going to nor return there. We will buy the house sell the land.’ So that’s actually what I’m mostly seeing everywhere right now,” Altman explained.
Altman shared the letter he wrote with Fox News Digital Jason Oppenheim and Ben Belack, to Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, calling for “practical adjustments” to current California laws affecting those who are displaced.
“Selling Sunset” star Jason Oppenheim wrote a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass asking for a change in the law after the Los Angeles fire. (Oppenheim Group)
Oppenheim and Belack requested that California Fair Plan Insurance increase its coverage to $6 million and include liability insurance. They also requested that any person who suffered from the loss of their home and wanted to sell their land be exempt from the yard tax (ULA sales tax).
WATCH: Josh Flagg says there’s not enough inventory in the Los Angeles real estate market after the fire
They also requested that property taxes be paused on all fire-affected properties until the property is “rebuilt or immediately reassessed for land value.”
The letter of Oppenheim and Belack received 48 endorsements, including the signatures of Altman and Maurici Umanski.
Mauricio Umansky helps find housing for people displaced by the Los Angeles fires. (Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic)
A person walks through the destruction left behind by the Palisades fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood on January 9. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Umanskyfounder and CEO of The Agency, a real estate and brokerage firm primarily located in Southern California, told Fox News Digital that they are working hard to get housing for displaced clients living in places like Pacific Palisades. Umansky also starred in the Netflix reality series “Buying Beverly Hills.”
He said 25 staff members and agents also lost their homes.
“It was extremely difficult to deal with,” he said. “On top of that, we have offices right where everything is happening in the Altadena fire, the Pacific Palisades fire, the one up in Malibu, and we have a tremendous amount of clientele, colleagues, friends, brothers, sisters who have everything Obviously, the most devastating is the total loss of the house and the people who are displaced and evacuated and cannot go home.”
Mauricio Umansky is the founder and CEO of The Agency, a real estate and brokerage firm primarily located in Southern California. (Joe Scarnici/Getty Images for Jaguar Land Rover)
He said that the people who were left without homes need the most help in finding housing.
“And that’s what we live on,” he said, adding that they are also asking landlords not to take advantage of the desperate situation.
A firefighter battles the Palisades Fire amid a powerful storm on Jan. 8, 2025, in Los Angeles. (Apu Gomes/Getty Images)
He added: “And that humanity was amazing. People just wanted to be helpful in most cases.”
WATCH: ‘Million Dollar Listing’ star Josh Altman says it will take ‘years’ to rebuild Pacific Palisades after fire
His team also thought about how to unlock more apartments during the crisis.
“There’s definitely going to be a shortage of housing, especially short-term housing and rentals and all that stuff. And, you know, we’ve asked a bunch of our developers in Los Angeles, new developers that are sitting on empty homes and not selling apartments, to think about opening up those apartments and opening up that inventory for short-term rental.”
Firefighters battle the Palisades fire in Malibu on January 8. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)
He said they’ve also been talking to design firms about how to get those homes up and running more quickly.
The agency also assists clients in submitting compensation claims to the insurance company.
WATCH: Realtor Jason Oppenheim explains how he’s trying to help those affected by the California wildfires
“A lot of these people are really, really struggling with their minds and their mindsets, and they’re not able to think, they’re affected,” he explained. “They’re freaking out. The calls are intense, and we’re just trying to think for them as much as we can and just be, you know, really compassionate.”
He said they have a large client base in the affected areas and are working with the rest of the real estate community.
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“This is not about who is better or who is not,” he said. “This is about us all coming together to help the community, to help our community that we live in, that we have brothers and sisters in. And that’s how we work with all the real estate agencies. This is a joint effort.”
Mauricio Umansky said the Los Angeles real estate market has gone “crazy.” (Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images)
He said that people who have free guesthouses or spare rooms can help in the crisis by taking people in.
“There will be a huge amount of people looking for a home,” he said. “There’s a frenzy. There’s multiple applications for the same homes right now. And, you know, I’m just praying that, you know, nobody’s taking advantage. So far, humanity has been very good.”
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Fox News Digital’s Emily Trainham contributed to this report.
