According to the NY Times:
In Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen and Chelsea neighborhoods and the Midtown Business District, which accounted for about 11 percent of all Airbnb listings in New York City in 2016, average monthly rents increased by $398 between 2009 and 2016, of which $86, or 21.6 percent, was a result of Airbnb’s presence, the report said. In Greenpoint and Williamsburg in Brooklyn, the study said, rents went up 18.6 percent in those years because of Airbnb listings.
Airbnb makes it easy to rent apartments to tourists, taking units off the market for full-time residents, the report said.
“For years, New Yorkers have felt the burden of rents that go nowhere but up, and Airbnb is one reason why,” the city comptroller, Scott M. Stringer, said in an interview. “It’s just simply supply and demand. Fewer apartments to rent means higher prices, and that’s the Airbnb effect.”
According to the Wall Street Journal:
Researchers looked at rents and home prices in the 100 largest metro areas in the U.S. between 2012 and 2016. They found that a 10% increase in Airbnb listings leads to a 0.39% increase in rents and a 0.64% increase in house prices.
From the LA Times:
The rental crisis is real: Far too few units are available, and residential rents are far too high. Airbnb does contribute to the problem. Landlords remove rental units from the long-term market because they can make more money from short-term Airbnb rentals. Reduced supply, coupled with constant demand, means higher prices.
What really matters, however, is not whether Airbnb drives up rents — it's by how much. And the truth is that we don't know the magnitude of the problem, because it's been insufficiently studied.
Airbnb critics often cite a 2016 article in the Harvard Law and Policy Review that claims the service has caused rent increases approaching 3% in some Los Angeles neighborhoods.
