BOISE, Idaho — We've heard from a lot of you about the housing crisis. Many of you said we have too many short-term rentals owned by large out-of-state corporations and that is a big reason for the crisis, because it's taking homes off the market. That's the perception. Is it rooted in reality? Somewhat.
Let's start overseas, where locals in Barcelona, Spain are spraying tourists with water guns and protesting. Residents say mass tourism is overwhelming the city and spiking the cost of living, especially housing.
Omar Encarnación, Professor of Political Studies at Bard College talked about what’s driving residents to this, "The declining quality of life for local residents and that would include the increase in cost of housing, the noise, the litter, the displacement of long-term residents, and the relentless construction."
An increase in cost of housing, displacement of long-term residents, and relentless construction? If that sounds familiar to you, you've looked at the social media comment section on my Growing Idaho stories. Is the same thing happening here? Are too many homes being bought by corporations and then used as short-term rentals instead of being made available for actual residents to buy? I asked the City of Boise.
Here are their numbers…
First, here's a look at what exactly these rentals are. The majority, 60 percent, are single-family homes, with only 15% being condos, 10% apartments, 5% just rooms, and 10%... something in between all that. So, not all these short-term rentals could even be sold as single homes to potential buyers, but most of them could. That somewhat confirms the perception that these rentals are taking homes off the market.
Here's a look at who owns these. There are 637 active and licensed short-term rentals in Boise. 50 new applications are being processed. Of that total, 290 are owned by corporations. 347 are owned by individuals. That means almost half of these short-term rentals are owned by corporations, not locals renting out an investment property. So, there is some truth to the perception that corporate homeownership is hurting the housing market.
But, of all these rentals, from corporations or individuals, only 15% are out-of-state. Whether it's a big business or regular folks, the vast majority are local. That almost completely destroys the perception that out-of-state owners are hampering the local housing market.
It's also important to note that there are more than 400 unlicensed short-term rentals. We do not have the demographics on those. But it means the total of short-term rentals in Boise city limits is 1,100-1,200, or more, which is right around the number of actual homes for sale.
Let's review. The perception is these short-term rentals are owned by large corporations. Not all, in fact, it's a little more than 42% that are.
The perception is that the owners are from out of state. Actually, only 15% are. The perception is that they're using all the single-family homes. It’s not all, but a 60% majority of these rentals are single family homes.
Finally, people say they’re taking homes off the market. There are around 1,200 short-term rentals in Boise, which is about the number of homes for sale, except they're not for sale, they're being rented.
Again, these numbers only apply in the Boise city limits and the demographics are for the licensed short-term rentals.
In case you didn't know, and apparently hundreds of you don't, a license is necessary for operating short-term rentals in Boise. The City of Boise can help you get one of those, if you don't have one.