I get for vacation areas this is less of an issue but for places like ny city, San Francisco, etc it’s taking homes out of use.
It’s every bit as big of an issue for vacation areas / areas where tourism is the primary driver of the economy.
Take Tahoe or Mammoth Lakes for example: until the early 2010s it was still possible to move there without knowing anyone or having any other inside track, get a job (not your favorite or first choice, usually, but something to work from while you get established) and find your crappy first apartment or half-a-cabin or rundown shack or basement or ADU to rent.
That scenario is almost completely gone now and has been for ten years, plus or minus – depending on where each person sees the line that divides difficult from impossible. People making far less than a living wage now commute to both of those areas from an hour or more away. The sense of how “connected” or privileged one has to be to make it or even just scrape by in areas such as these has relentlessly risen to a level that has had an enormous impact on mental and emotional health and life outcomes in these areas too.
All of these factors were already big in the negative column balancing the very real positives of living so close to nature and preferred sporting activities, before the rise of the short term rental blight. But nowadays those negatives are practically off the meter.
I’m not sure you can blame short term rentals for this happening in desirable vacation spots worldwide. People have become much more mobile, and a decade of very cheap interest rates mean that there is no more “run down cheap cabin in the woods” any more. Even for owners who have owned those properties for many years, insurance costs and taxes have spike along with the housing costs.
I own a home in a very expensive area with extremely limited geography that prevents additional development, but also has in place a practical ban on short term rentals- 28 day minimum. This has not led to more affordable housing, but rather a lot of empty vacation homes owned by very wealthy people and $700/night hotel rooms. Also, locals being pushed out due to spiralling insurance and property tax increases. All without short term rental being a factor.
It’s every bit as big of an issue for vacation areas / areas where tourism is the primary driver of the economy.
Take Tahoe or Mammoth Lakes for example: until the early 2010s it was still possible to move there without knowing anyone or having any other inside track, get a job (not your favorite or first choice, usually, but something to work from while you get established) and find your crappy first apartment or half-a-cabin or rundown shack or basement or ADU to rent.
That scenario is almost completely gone now and has been for ten years, plus or minus – depending on where each person sees the line that divides difficult from impossible. People making far less than a living wage now commute to both of those areas from an hour or more away. The sense of how “connected” or privileged one has to be to make it or even just scrape by in areas such as these has relentlessly risen to a level that has had an enormous impact on mental and emotional health and life outcomes in these areas too.
All of these factors were already big in the negative column balancing the very real positives of living so close to nature and preferred sporting activities, before the rise of the short term rental blight. But nowadays those negatives are practically off the meter.
I’m not sure you can blame short term rentals for this happening in desirable vacation spots worldwide. People have become much more mobile, and a decade of very cheap interest rates mean that there is no more “run down cheap cabin in the woods” any more. Even for owners who have owned those properties for many years, insurance costs and taxes have spike along with the housing costs.
I own a home in a very expensive area with extremely limited geography that prevents additional development, but also has in place a practical ban on short term rentals- 28 day minimum. This has not led to more affordable housing, but rather a lot of empty vacation homes owned by very wealthy people and $700/night hotel rooms. Also, locals being pushed out due to spiralling insurance and property tax increases. All without short term rental being a factor.