Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Airbnb eliminating "affordable housing" in tourist areas

We've already seen in Encinitas how vacation rentals and second homes for the rich quickly put an end to Smart Growthers' utopian dreams.

The LA Times explores further:
As short-term rental websites such as Airbnb explode in popularity in Southern California, a growing number of homeowners and landlords are caving to the economics. A study released Wednesday from Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, a labor-backed advocacy group, estimates that more than 7,000 houses and apartments have been taken off the rental market in metro Los Angeles for use as short-term rentals. In parts of tourist-friendly neighborhoods such as Venice and Hollywood, Airbnb listings account for 4% or more of all housing units, according to a Times analysis of data from Airbnb's website.
A search for Encinitas on Airbnb shows hundreds of units currently available.  The prime-location apartments and condos envisioned by the failed Measure T would have been even more likely to end up as vacation rentals.

Perhaps Encinitas' Housing Element Task Force should consider a prohibition on vacation rentals in any new developments that take advantage of upzoning?

18 comments:

  1. OMG - this is so true!
    http://encinitasguerrilla.blogspot.com
    Have some control and actually try to make a brief, but constructive statement (neither of which I now witness)!

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    1. Try reading her newsletter. It's like a staff report on every issue.

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    2. Or maybe she can make a Presidential version for you, with lots of pictures, brief bullet points, and many uses of your name to hold your attention.

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    3. Tell me you've read her newsletters in their entirety. I read the bullet points at the top.

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    4. Her "newsletters" are mocked by many. She thinks it's funny that she can't control herself. It's not. It's a character flaw.

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  2. To the neighbors considering doing this next to my house. You will be sued, will never get a good review, and the cops will be involved. Noise complaints do not reset with new tenants and the next one is a fine. Lie to me again and you can kiss your illegal rental unit goodbye and expect a letter from the IRS.

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  3. What happen the the lot lady (Wagner?) who said she was going to sue? I guess she realized that she had her head up her *ss and decided not too.

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  4. Two idiots fight to be top idiot.

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  5. What?? And limit a developer's "rights?" Nah gonna happen. Not with this Council.

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  6. EU makes a lot of leaps in this one with thin to no factual basis.

    Photos of dark windows from one night do not prove anything. Extrapolating that shaky conclusion to hypothetical future construction is doubly dubious.

    Lost in the analysis is the idea of vacancy, and a landlord's time. Sure, listing on AirBnb may drive up the nightly rate for otherwise affordable properties, but renting month to month creates a much more reliable stream of income. AirBnb properties are often vacant and not producing income during the work week and off season. Plus, it's more work for the property owner to communicate with the rotation of guests, answer questions, arrange for keys, cleaning the unit, etc. And the city is cracking down on licensing and ToT fees, which adds to the hassle.

    Bottom line, AirBnB will displace some unit capacity that may otherwise be a traditional rental, but I don't think we know how big that effect is now, not how big it will be in the future.

    It's definitively worth examining the effect of the sharing economy on affordable housing, but EU should be a little more realistic and humble about what facts are known.

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    1. Really?

      Seems pretty obvious to me that if you put luxury condos near a popular beach, they're more likely to be used as second homes and vacation rentals than affordable housing for working people.

      I'd say the burden of proof is on those who claim the opposite.

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    2. So your intuition without evidence is the default, and the burden is on others to disprove your guesswork.

      How convenient for you.

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    3. Try reading the LA Times article or browsing the Airbnb listings before you claim there's no evidence.

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    4. Yes. I read the parroting of a report done by a group representing LA-area hotel work labor unions.

      Maybe a grain of salt is in order?

      Also, your headline goes way beyond what's in the story: "Airbnb eliminating 'affordable housing' in tourist areas"

      Reducing, maybe. But eliminating, as in, completely? C'mon.

      Also, I don't think you thought through the snarky quotes around "affordable housing." If the housing being displaced isn't ACTUALLY affordable, then who gives a rip? Your quotes turn this into a story pitting one group of rich people against another group of rich people.

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    5. I’m not sure what all the bickering is about here. There is no doubt that Airbnb has disrupted the real estate rental markets worldwide. Goldman Sachs published an extensive report on the impact of Airbnb on the residential rental market and the hotel industry and they certainly were not bullish. They see it as a threat to these industries, but also see the structural issues inherent in decentralized housing as a limiting factor on its overall impact. It’s this attempt that has the affordable housing folks concerned. With an apartment building or hotel, there are synergies associated with having the individual units aggregated together in one structure. Those synergies disappear when your 200 room Airbnb hotel is spread across the entire city! From an industry perspective the question is how much more damage can they do? If they can’t compete with buildings in keeping turnover costs down, where do they find their efficiencies?

      - The Sculpin

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  7. 8:37. There is an app for that which makes it easy, which is why there are hundred of these here in our small town. Read the article!

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    1. Makes what easy? The app won't clean the unit, or hand people the keys, or answer guest questions, or register the unit as a short term rental with the city, or collect and pay the TOT, or eliminate vacancy during off peak periods.

      The point is, there are pros and cons to traditional renting vs AirBnB. To suggest that one model will dominate or eliminate the other is unlikely.

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    2. You listed about 2 minutes of phone calls and a one time effort of about an hour. There are also mangement companies that will do everything for you and you still end up making more. 8 month or so lease in the off season then prices go up for track season and the summer. The app will get better and make it easier even more so, like collect tot. Foolish to underestimate the threat. Taxi drivers were saying the exact same thing.

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