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Steamboat Springs is part of a wave of vacation towns across the country facing a housing crisis and grappling with how to regulate the industry they point to as a culprit: Short-term rentals such as those booked through Airbnb and Vrbo that have squeezed small towns’ limited housing supply and sent rents skyrocketing for full-time residents.
Short-term rentals have become increasingly popular for second homeowners eager to offset the cost of their vacation homes and turn a profit while away. Even property investment companies have sunk hundreds of millions of dollars into the industry, hoping to pull a larger yield from tourists seeking their own kitchen, some privacy and a break from cookie-cutter hotel rooms.
When the pandemic opened the floodgates for remote work, Airbnb listings outside of major metro areas rose by nearly 50% between the second quarter of 2019 and 2022, the company said.
In six Rocky Mountains counties, including Steamboat Springs’ Routt County, a wave of wealth flooded towns, with nearly two-thirds of 2020 home sales going to newcomers, most making over $150,000 working outside the counties, according to a survey from the Colorado Association of Ski Towns.
Local governments — from Lincoln County on Oregon’s coast to Ketchum in Idaho’s Smoky Mountains – are grappling with how to regulate the $74 billion industry they say fuels their economies while exacerbating their housing crises.
In June, the Steamboat Springs City Council passed a ban on new short-term rentals in most of town and a ballot measure to tax the industry at 9% to fund affordable housing.
Visitors booking on platforms like Airbnb spent an estimated $250 million in Steamboat Springs in 2021, according to a coalition analysis of local data. If tourism dropped just 10%, local business in the town of some 13,390 residents would lose out on $25 million.
Larger cities, including Denver and Boston, have stricter regulations, like banning vacation rentals in homes that aren’t also the owners’ primary residences. However, a federal appeals court in New Orleans struck down an ordinance Monday that had required residency to get a license for short-term rentals.
But smaller tourist destinations must strike a delicate balance. They want to support the lodging industry that sustains their economies while limiting it enough to retain the workers that keep it running.
U.S. Census Bureau show nearly 30% of homes in Steamboat Springs are vacation rentals.
That’s some 3,000 units removed from the Steamboat Springs’ housing supply as the town’s median monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment reached $3,100 in August, according to data from Zillow.
Median home prices showed a 68% jump to $1.6 million since the beginning of 2020, pushing the quaint town’s home values nearer to those of San Francisco, at $1.8 million, according to company data.
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Does anyone know what percentage of homes in the historic district of Cape Charles are short term rentals?
Commercial property in Cape Chuck will be cheaper in years to come. Once you destroy the customer base bye bye. So, now you’ll get full occupancy maybe 3 weeks a year.
Way to shoot yourselves in the face, CC.