San Diego County’s real estate market has a growing problem, and it’s not high interest rates. Young kids are storming into empty properties and throwing illegal parties. Some homes suffered thousands of dollars in damage when party-goers set off fireworks inside, knocked holes into walls or ripped smoke detectors off ceilings. An NBC 7 Investigation discovered at least six of these ragers inside local homes listed for sale or rent since last August. Five happened within the span of 32 days. This map shows the locations of some of the illegal vacant house parties being thrown inside homes listed for sale or rent. Police say the parties aren’t random but, instead, are sophisticatedly orchestrated by suspects who charge a cover at the door. After being advertised on social media, dozens of young party-goers descend on properties within minutes of addresses being revealed in secret group chats, according to investigators. While busting up the parties can be an easy matter for police, NBC 7 Investigates learned that making arrests and filing charges in court hasn’t been so simple. Nearly two dozen young-looking kids emerged from the backyard of an Otay Mesa home in late January, just minutes after San Diego police officers busted up an illegal party. A surprising phone call on a Friday night Eric Vaca didn’t expect to get a call from his Realtor on the evening of January 23. The homeowner knew an open house was scheduled for the next morning at his listing in San Diego’s Otay Mesa neighborhood. His realtor’s message: He needed to get to his property fast and call 911. “I had no idea,” Vaca said. “I was surprised to see that there was 60-plus people gathered around the house and coming from the side gates and the backyard.” NBC 7 Investigates arrived on scene just as San Diego police were arriving and saw nearly two dozen kids, most of whom appeared to be of high-school age, emerge from the home.  One anonymous would-be party-goer chatted us up. He had apparently arrived after police busted up the party.  “I’m just going to be honest,” The young man said. “I heard there was going to be a party. I did not know this s— was going to happen.” Vaca gave NBC 7 Investigates a tour of the $1.15 million listing. The party hadn’t gone on that long, and the only real damage to the five-bedroom home involved the smoke detectors being cut from the ceilings. We could smell why. “I’ve never heard of a house party with tens, twenties, hundreds of people coming in and breaking into the home and then completely trashing it,” Vaca said.  Vaca is talking about a destructive six-hour-long party that happened two weeks prior in San Diego’s Skyline neighborhood. Realtor Vanessa Munoz didn’t know anything about it until the next morning. “This wasn’t just any party,” Munoz told NBC 7. “They actually lit off fireworks … there were burn marks on the walls and a human-size hole in the wall. Like someone got thrown into the wall … the sliding glass door was completely shattered.” Party-goers were recorded setting off fireworks inside a Skyline home in January during an illegal vacant house party. Munoz said the repair bill was around $7,000. Those repairs were completed quickly because the home was in escrow. “It could have been a lot worse,” Munoz said. “Nobody got hurt. They didn’t burn down the home.” It was a lot worse for retired Navy Lt. Troy Esaki. NBC 7 introduced viewers to him in late 2025 after party kids caused $250,000 in damage to his rental property in Oak Park. “We’re really heartbroken,” Esaki said. “It’s been a mixture of emotions, frustration and anguish. A lot of it has been heartache.” In 2024, one of these parties turned deadly. A 12-year-old boy was killed, and four others were shot at a home in National City. Flyers for illegal vacant house parties are posted online announcing the date, time and cover charge; an address is revealed later. Illegal parties orchestrated online Police say the parties have one thing in common: social media. San Diego Police Lt. Cesar Jimenez said he’s seen the flyers. “They’re saying, ‘Hey, party at this house, $10 cover at the door,’ and so they’re making money,” Jimenez said. “Once they get in to access the house, they charge people at the door. They’ll have a security person there. They’ll have a DJ or something like that.” NBC 7 Investigates identified multiple social media accounts connected to parties, as well as a website on which home addresses are revealed just minutes before doors open.  “In 2008, for example, we had a lot of these cases because there were so many houses in the market for sale that were empty,” Jimenez said. “Even though they’re young, they’re sophisticated,” Jimenez said. “They’re going to open houses. They’re checking out Redfin and seeing what houses are empty — like a burglar would stake out a house.” A San Diego County Sheriff’s Office deputy talks to a car full of suspected party-goers outside a busted-up vacant party in Spring Valley in January. Jimenez said the department is aware of 15-20 of the illegal vacant house parties across the county in the past year. He said San Diego’s sluggish real estate market is creating targets of opportunity. “If we can identify the person who’s throwing the party, a lot of times that’s very difficult,” Jimenez told us. “Because most people are going to say, ‘Well, I didn’t know. I thought the person throwing the party owned the home.’ And so that’s going to be part of our burden of proof.” Arrests and prosecutions are difficult Jimenez said arrests aren’t so simple because it’s hard to prove who was in on it. Police told NBC 7 they believe they know who’s behind a lot of the parties and are working to build cases they can send to prosecutors. The San Diego County District Attorney’s Office confirmed it is prosecuting two cases tied to parties last year.  One case involves a juvenile, so, prosecutors said, they couldn’t release any details, including the charges. In the other case, four men were arrested and charged with burglary and vandalism. Their cases are moving forward. While San Diego police said some officers at some commands may be keeping an eye on social media party accounts, they are only responding to homes when they get 911 calls.  Realtors and homeowners face off against party planners A feeling of powerlessness and the desire to prevent more homes from being damaged are what’s leading San Diego County’s real estate community to take action. They’ve been keeping an eye on the same online sites used to announce parties and quickly make calls when party addresses are revealed. That’s how Vaca’s Realtor was tipped off about the party at his Otay Mesa property. She had received a call from the homeowner in Skyline. “As soon as the address was released, we reached out to the listing agent,” Munoz said. “The home was on the market and vacant.” “I’m feeling very lucky and thankful that we caught it just in time,” Vaca said. In fact, Vaca and his Realtor were feeling so grateful that they joined the effort. Seven days after the party at his property, his Realtor made her own warning call to Realtor Karla Vidrio. “In my 20-plus years of doing real estate, I had never experienced something like this,” Vidrio told NBC 7. “There were more than 30 people inside and about 20 people outside waiting to pay their cover of $10 to come in.” A Realtor captured this image of an illegal house party in progress at her vacant real estate listing in Spring Valley in January. That’s not all Vidrio said she saw when she arrived at her listing in Spring Valley on January 30. “I saw them throw a firework from the front door outside, and it literally exploded right in front of people who were walking in,”  Vidrio told NBC 7. “They were high school kids. Definitely high school kids. Very young.” Deputies responded quickly. The only damage was smashed-up smoke detectors and the surprising realization that nobody was apparently going to jail. The San Diego County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to NBC 7 Investigates that no one was cited or arrested. Many of the illegal vacant house parties, like this scene in Spring Valley, feature smashed-up smoke detectors. “Like the deputy said: They can’t really do anything,” Vidrio said. “They can’t even arrest them because they don’t know who started it. But in my mind, I’m like, ‘Well, it doesn’t matter, right?’ I mean, if you’re here and you know that you’re in here illegally, shouldn’t you still be prosecuted?” Vidrio said she’s thankful she got that call that night and is now part of the effort to spread the word. “At this point, I think we have to stick together,” Vidrio said. “I mean, like the deputies did tell me: You need to get this out to your agents that you know, let them know what’s happening.” ...read more read less