Joe Thompson’s desperate post-wildfire scramble to find a new place for his family to live led him Saturday to a five-bedroom home in Santa Monica, California, that had been put on the market the day before for $28,000 a month — more than double the rent posted a year ago. The agent was asking for three months’ rent up front and already had applications from multiple people.
Thompson and his partner turned away, appalled.
“We’re not going to do that,” Thompson, 44, a trader and investor, said later. “We’ll just keep looking.”
