‘The Airbnb Effect’ on America’s Housing Market

As the United States faces a housing shortage (according to research published by Freddie Mac, the shortage of housing units stood at 3.8 million by the end of 2020), locals are pointing accusatory fingers towards ‘the Airbnb effect’ on the housing market.

Research published in the Harvard Business Review shows that single-time rental platforms encourage landlords and homeowners to list their properties in the short-term rental market — as opposed to selling them or listing them in the long-term rental market. A high number of Airbnb listings in an area has been found to cause long-term rental and for-sale property costs to rise. Not to mention, the number of long-term rental properties automatically go down as a result of ‘the Airbnb effect’.

Jeff Akerman, who serves as the Strategic Construction Advisor at Real Estate Bees, a platform that works to equip industry professionals with groundbreaking technology and revolutionary marketing strategies, highlights the impact of single-time rentals on the housing market.

Jeff’s thoughts:

“Thank you so much for reaching out regarding this question on how Airbnb and VRBO and single-time rentals affect the housing market. My understanding is that Airbnb, VRBO, and single-time rentals extremely affect the housing market as the housing stock that is being used for Airbnb, VRBO, and single-time rentals, are being withheld from the market and being used as hotel rooms.

That being said, this ultimately affects how many units are for sale at any given moment — when things are not for sale, that becomes a lack of supply. The lack of supply always follows an increase in demand. That increase in demand [makes] single-time rentals [a] major [factor] of the cost effect that we see in the housing market today.

Because as you have less product, the product that’s available ultimately becomes more expensive on the back end of the product. So, [the] rentals as well as the purchasing, is going up because of the lack of supply.”