NYC Renters Paid Extra $616M Thanks to Airbnb, Study Says

Post by atom_arranger » Fri, May 04, 2018, 6:27 AM UTC

sdhgaiojfsa wrote: post #106

toomuchtodo wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Easy there with terms like “better real estate utilization”, which could be conflated with “more efficient rent seeking at the expense of housing consumers”. The end goal is not always maximum profit extraction. NYC is served best by balancing the needs of both long term and short term renters, while ensuring investors reasonable compensation/rates of return on capital invested for services provided.

This is not what people traditionally think of as "rent-seeking." Rent-seeking behavior is doing something to get more money without providing any corresponding value. AirBnb hosts do provide value -- just not to the people who live in the neighborhood. But it is fine to argue that, based on their willingness to pay more, out of town visitors provide better utilization of the housing resource. TL;DR: Extracting rents…

Post by PurpleBoxDragon » Fri, May 04, 2018, 1:04 PM UTC

bdcravens wrote: post #145

PurpleBoxDragon wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But what about the things that aren't true because of AirBnB's presence? Maybe prices for short term stays went down, tourism went up, and there is more tax revenue that can be used to improve the city for the renters. If we only look at one part of the picture we may miss that an overall trend is different. Is it really beneficial to talk about how many died because they were wearing a seat belt without also conside…

I'm only one datapoint, but every AirBnB I've stayed in merely reduced my expenses while traveling. It didn't encourage me to change my habits while I was there. If anything, it just kept more money in my pocket for discretionary spending once I got home.

Post by sdhgaiojfsa » Fri, May 04, 2018, 3:38 PM UTC

atom_arranger wrote: post #151

sdhgaiojfsa wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not what people traditionally think of as "rent-seeking." Rent-seeking behavior is doing something to get more money without providing any corresponding value. AirBnb hosts do provide value -- just not to the people who live in the neighborhood. But it is fine to argue that, based on their willingness to pay more, out of town visitors provide better utilization of the housing resource. TL;DR: Extracting rents…

Extracting rents from things you own is literally "rent-seeking". It's the definition of "rent-seeking". You can argue the pros and cons or rent-seeking or of Airbnb, but "rent-seeking" clearly covers Airbnb.

Post by busterarm » Fri, May 04, 2018, 4:25 PM UTC

bogomipz wrote: post #152

busterarm wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.huduser.gov/portal/publications/pdf/NYC-comp-16.... Also, this data does not agree with you. Lowest vacancy rate of any borough was 2.3% in Queens in 2000 and between 3.1 and 4.2 in every other borough. The economy is doing even better in NYC right now and the vacancy rate is over 11% right now. https://www.6sqft.com/nearly-250000-nyc-rental-apartments-si... Hrmmm....

Nice cherry picked data. That's a HUD report. Try checking the NYC Rent Guidelines Report for accurate data: Manhattan 2.57 and Queens 2.11 [1] That's from page 2. It also shows a -25% and -35% change for vacancy rates from 3 years prior for those two boroughs. And you can't seem to produce any citation for your assertion about a piece of the tax code that allows landlords to make more money from empty apartments tha…

Post by sdhgaiojfsa » Mon, May 07, 2018, 4:44 PM UTC

atom_arranger wrote: post #158

sdhgaiojfsa wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, that is not the definition of rent seeking. The definition of rent seeking is: "In economics and in public-choice theory, rent-seeking involves seeking to increase one's share of existing wealth without creating new wealth." An example of rent-seeking would be lobbying against the construction of new housing to inflate the value of one's own home. A non-example of rent-seeking would be renting your house out to s…

There's more than one definition of the term. I do agree that the definition and examples you are using are common. "In economics and in public-choice theory, rent-seeking involves seeking to increase one's share of existing wealth without creating new wealth." - Wikipedia I would say that applies to making a profit off of property one owns by charging people to use it.