How One Airbnb Host Is Working to Resolve a Rental Affordability Crisis

For young property owners and entrepreneurs like Precious Price, short-term rental platforms like Airbnb and VRBO offer a pathway to build significant wealth, but by renting property to tourists rather than long-term renters, rental hosts are also exacerbating a rampant housing affordability problem, The New York Times reports.

That's why Price decided to shed her rental portfolio and remove her short-term rental listing. Now, she houses tenants with long-term leases in her 296-square-foot “tiny house” in Atlanta. Low-income renters are one of the most disadvantaged group's in today's inflated housing market, especially as priced-out homebuyers flood the rental market and compete for existing properties, sending the median rental cost to new highs in popular metro areas.

The housing crisis Ms. Price witnessed in Atlanta is playing out across the nation. The United States is short about 6.5 million single-family homes, according to the National Association of Realtors. For more than a decade, homes were not built fast enough to keep pace with population growth, a trend that was exacerbated by the pandemic. During this time, demand for larger homes grew even as construction slowed, hamstrung first by public health restrictions, then by a labor shortage and supply-chain issues that made everything from copper pipe to carpet scarcer and more expensive.

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