A new study by a tenant advocacy group shows a major increase in rent prices across the Los Angeles area during Southern California’s recent wildfires despite laws preventing price gouging

The most competitive markets this year share characteristics such as relative affordability and “supply that trails demand,” according to Zillow. Taking the top spot in the ranking is Buffalo, New York, followed by Indianapolis and Providence, Rhode Island.

Within the week since Los Angeles’s worst-ever disaster began, rent gouging has become a crisis on top of the crisis. It’s against the law to increase a rental price by more than 10 percent once a state of emergency has been declared;

Because California is in a state of emergency, laws targeting price-gouging, including a ban on landlords raising rents by more than 10 percent of pre-emergency levels, should be in effect. But that hasn't deterred some landlords from apparently raising their rents by far more than that,

Tenant advocacy groups, landlord associations and elected officials are condemning rent gouging after tens of thousands of people were displaced in deadly fires this month.

With inventory reduced and fire risk increased, both home prices and insurance rates could rise in Southern California.

Real estate marketplace Zillow told ABC News that it has "removed ... Fire is seen in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Calif., on Jan. 15, 2025. Etienne Laurent/AFP via Getty ...

Jessica Simpson placed her L.A. home on the market at a lower price amid her split from Eric Johnson and the ongoing wildfires

How the study came about: The Rent Brigade is a new independent collective made up of tenant advocates, web programmers, housing researchers and ordinary Angelenos who say they naturally gravitated toward working together after posts about alleged rent gouging flooded social media in the days after the fires.

As wildfires leave residents displaced across the city, some landlords are raising rents beyond legal limits, forcing evacuees into an increasingly unforgiving housing market.

The 1950s single-story house was unharmed by the recent wildfires.