Supply, Demand of Real Estate Are Shaken Up : Earthquake: Home sales booms are created away from the epicenter. Apartment rentals have also soared.

Like the October wildfire that razed more than 300 homes in Laguna Beach, the Jan. 17 earthquake that turned so many lives upside-down has also upended supply and demand in the Los Angeles-area housing market, bringing unlikely relief to many long-suffering property owners but only renewed grief to others.

Homeowners and landlords whose wallets have been thinning for months because they were not able to sell their vacant houses or rent empty apartments say that they are now besieged by tenants displaced by the temblor.

Meanwhile, buyers who want to avoid Northridge and other communities at the quake’s epicenter are spilling over into surrounding areas, creating a mini-sales boom from Woodland Hills to Agoura on the west and across the San Gabriel Valley in the east, real estate agents say.

The same sort of phenomenon occurred in Laguna Beach in the aftermath of last fall’s 17,000-acre brush fire that destroyed 366 homes.

“We saw a sizable amount of standing inventory removed from the market right after the fire” by victims looking for temporary housing, said Jim Vermilya, manager of the Grubb & Ellis-Better Homes & Gardens Realty office in Laguna Beach.

Hundreds of homes that had been for sale for a long time but hadn’t sold because of the soft market were grabbed up by fire victims determined to stay in Laguna Beach while their homes were being rebuilt, he said. Vermilya said his office “leased more than 100 units,” most of them for one-year terms.

The earthquake, however, had little apparent impact on real estate activity in Orange County, according to brokers.

“We had to order a couple of reinspections on properties that were in escrow,” said broker Sharon Larson of Prudential California Realty in Fullerton. “But that was for people moving here from out of the country. We didn’t have any sales drop out of escrow; in fact, the day of the earthquake was a pretty good day for us. People here (in Orange County) have taken it pretty much in stride.”

But in Los Angeles, many home shoppers have retreated to the sidelines while the ground continues to shake from aftershocks. And hundreds of home sales are in limbo because lenders are insisting that properties be reinspected for damage.

Yet some opportunists have rushed in, hoping to pick up a bargain in a housing market that only recently had emerged from a prolonged and severe recession. Harried salespeople and lenders are working overtime, helping the new clients while trying to salvage the deals already in escrow.

“It’s like trying to navigate through the Bermuda Triangle,” said Jamie Ramstead, a Northridge real estate agent trying to save the six sales he has in escrow while also repairing $60,000 in damage to his home. “Most of us have never been through something like this before.”

The quake rendered more than 15,000 homes and apartments unlivable, throwing more than 30,000 people onto streets from Santa Monica to Simi Valley, according to city agencies and disaster relief officials.

With so many families looking for new places to live, sellers who have lost thousands of dollars while their vacant homes sat unsold in a depressed market have been flooded with calls from prospective renters.

Linda Kennedy has been making the $950-a-month mortgage payment on her home in Canoga Park that she vacated last July after finding a new job in Oregon. The house sustained little damage from the quake, so she flew back to Los Angeles last week and leased it to a displaced Northridge family for $1,850 a month.

“I figure I’ll recoup what I’ve lost by the summer, and then I’ll be making good money because the family signed a one-year lease,” said Kennedy, who reviews contracts for the federal government.

“I feel sorry for all those people who lost their homes, but it’s nice to finally make something off this house. The last six months have bled me dry.”

The quake has also been a boon for sellers in many San Fernando Valley communities that were spared the most serious damage. Thus, some would-be buyers are steering clear of hard-hit Northridge and Reseda in favor of nearby Woodland Hills and north into southern Ventura County.

Jerry Bolin, sales manager of the Coldwell Banker real estate office in Woodland Hills, said his agents sold a half-dozen properties over weekend--even though many buyers stayed home to watch the Super Bowl.

“Before the quake, we’d be happy with just three or four sales,” Bolin said.

Although many put their home-buying plans on ice after the quake hit, some new buyers have moved in to replace them.

Harriet Lipson, vice president of an executive search firm, lost her $535-a-month rent-controlled Santa Monica apartment in the quake. Because it would cost her twice that for a comparable apartment, she wants to buy a condominium, hoping her mortgage-interest deductions will keep her overall housing expenses at a minimum.

“There are a lot of good deals on the West Side right now,” Lipson said. As a bonus, she added, “it’s a little easier to tell which buildings are well-built. Some of them have just fallen apart.”

Still, not all of those new buyers are being welcomed by real estate agents or their sellers.

Carolyn Lamb, co-owner of Century 21 Lamb Realty in Northridge, said she and her staff have gotten several calls from investors hoping to pick up homes at a tiny fraction of their normal prices.

“We’ve gotten our share of bottom-feeders, but they’re not having much success,” said Lamb, whose home also sustained major damage during the quake. “The law says that we have to present their offers to our sellers, but there’s nothing that says we have to like it.”

Many buyers and sellers who were waiting for escrow to close when the quake hit are in limbo. About 1,000 deals were pending in the San Fernando Valley when the earthquake struck, according to the local Realtors’ association. A few hundred were in escrow in Santa Monica and adjacent communities.

Many lenders are requiring every house that they had agreed to finance in the county be reinspected for damage. As a result, some appraisers and inspectors have been busy taking a second look at properties more than 75 miles away from the epicenter.

“The house I’m buying in Sherman Oaks didn’t get hurt a bit, but I can’t close the deal because my (appraiser) is busy looking at houses down in Long Beach,” grumbled Nick Smith, who drives a delivery truck. “The whole thing is stupid.”

On the other side is Rhoark Rollband in Encino, who had been trying to sell his condominium for nearly a year before the earthquake hit, and had already reduced the asking price for his two-bedroom loft to $124,000 from $129,000. The local housing market was showing signs of picking up, and he was confident the home would sell soon.

Although Rollband’s unit weathered the quake well, the temblor damaged several other buildings at the sprawling complex on White Oak Avenue and knocked out gas service for nearly two weeks.

Now he has slashed his price again--this time to $109,000--and is willing to take even less to make a quick sale.

“Meet my price, and I’ll even throw in my furniture,” said Rollband, a salesman who says the quake finally persuaded him that it is time to move to Denver. “I just want to cut my losses and get out of L.A. as fast as I can.”

Times staff writer John O’Dell in Costa Mesa contributed to this report.