Renters get left behind after disasters as displaced homeowners duel for places to live
Three years ago, Pamela Lack thought she had found the house she would retire in.
The three-bedroom home in Paradise, California, was surrounded by old cedars and a large heritage oak, and had a backyard for her grandchildren and a guesthouse for her aging parents. Lack, a 64-year-old resident of nearby Chico, had savings from a previous home sale and had met with an accountant, and was ready to apply for a mortgage.
But in November 2018, before she could buy, the Camp Fire tore through Paradise, burning down the house, among thousands of others in the surrounding area.
“At first I thought it was a storm and went outside to look,” recalled Lack, whose family was living 12 miles away, in a rented house in Chico, at the time. When she got outside she realized what was happening and said she remembered thinking, “Oh no, this isn’t going to be good.”
Their rental didn’t burn, but what Lack didn’t lose to the flames she lost to the effects. One week after the fire, their landlord received multiple offers from people looking to buy the house. With an overstretched market inflating the price by $100,000, the landlord decided to sell.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/disasters-second-wave-renters-face-housing-aftershocks-floods-fires-rcna3924
= new reply since forum marked as read
Life on the coast is a nightmare these days.
There is a shortage of everything from rentals to doctors.
There are only so many people living here and it is designed as such.
People show up here searching for months for a place to live.
Those with money are the first to be accommodated of course while everyone else just waits and hopes.
Grim situation at best and inflation?
Inflation you say?
Oh yeah. 
