'Unfathomable,': Northern California's Housing Market in Crisis as Wildfires, Shortages, and High Prices Converge

Northern California's wildfires have left thousands displaced, facing an already limited housing supply, years of slow construction, and near-record high home values.

The housing shortage has also caused skyrocketing rents in the region; in some cases, rents have been inflated to illegal levels. According to the Los Angeles Times, there have been numerous complaints from displaced residents about landlords raising unit prices well over the 10 percent allowed under the law after an emergency.

“The scope and magnitude of the rehousing is unfathomable,” said Larry Florin, chief executive of the nonprofit Burbank Housing, one of Santa Rosa’s largest low-income housing providers. “If you take 3,000 units being demolished in a market that was already dramatically constrained, it’s hard to imagine what’s going to happen, where people are going to go.”

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