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What Airbnb Did to New York City

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Re: What Airbnb Did to New York City

#21

Post by ordinaryperson »

freddie_mercury wrote: post #18
ordinaryperson wrote: post #6

Easy to blame lack of affordable housing on AirBnB and not, say, rent control laws or the difficulty of building new housing stock in the city. I get not throwing grandma out of the $250/month 4BR she’s been living in for 50 years, but it means something like 200,000 rent-controlled/rent-stabilized units are also raising everyone else’s rent by decreasing inventory. The endless red tape in new construction makes non-…

> Easy to blame lack of affordable housing on AirBnB and not, say, rent control laws or the difficulty of building new housing stock in the city. None of this seems relevant to the article. Did you read it before posting? These are the topics the article covers: - what percentage of AirBNB hosts are commercial operators that are likely breaking the NYC laws? (12%) - how is renting income distributed? 10% of hosts acc…

> I don't think there was a single sentence in the article about affordable housing.

I'm guessing you missed the entire section on "The gentrification factor".

The study, and others, claim AirBnB pushes out poor black people from neighborhoods because white owners decrease housing stock by renting out to AirBnb instead of locals.

E.g. "Wachsmuth and his team estimate that the platform raised rents by 1.42 percent in north-central Brooklyn neighborhoods such as Bed-Stuy and Crown Heights." In other words, rents are going up in black neighborhoods. Another quote: "According to the Cox report, black New Yorkers are also the most likely to face housing loss due to Airbnb."

As I said, it's easy to blame AirBnB for this problem and not look at how crazy rent laws distort the market. I don't want to see low-income renters forced out of their homes but AirBnB is only one factor.

Rent control/stabilization laws also remove units from the market, and building new units for anything other than rich people is prohibitively expensive because of red tape, bureaucracy and overpriced cost of NYC-area construction.

So yes, I've read the article. The question is: have you?

Re: What Airbnb Did to New York City

#22

Post by TomV1971 »

ironjunkie wrote: post #9
ForHackernews wrote: post #2

Manhattan should probably just admit that it's going to become the Venice of America: a playground for tourists and the ultra-rich, with virtually no residents. There's nothing wrong with that. They can tax the hell out of it and use it to fund services in the rest of the city where real people live.

Kind of agree with you. Don't even think living in Manhattan if you don't pull at least 150k$. (Or be ready for some of those roomshare situations). I'm also amazed by the average night price at Manhattan hotels. Even during normal weeks, the cheapest is well above 300$/night.

Last month I stayed a weekend at the Salisbury hotel right across Carnegie Hall for $180 per night.

Nothing fancy, but a surprisingly big room at a prime location.

Re: What Airbnb Did to New York City

#23

Post by tootie »

ordinaryperson wrote: post #6

Easy to blame lack of affordable housing on AirBnB and not, say, rent control laws or the difficulty of building new housing stock in the city. I get not throwing grandma out of the $250/month 4BR she’s been living in for 50 years, but it means something like 200,000 rent-controlled/rent-stabilized units are also raising everyone else’s rent by decreasing inventory. The endless red tape in new construction makes non-…

There's very, very few rent-controlled apartments left.

Re: What Airbnb Did to New York City

#24

Post by ordinaryperson »

tootie wrote: post #23
ordinaryperson wrote: post #6

Easy to blame lack of affordable housing on AirBnB and not, say, rent control laws or the difficulty of building new housing stock in the city. I get not throwing grandma out of the $250/month 4BR she’s been living in for 50 years, but it means something like 200,000 rent-controlled/rent-stabilized units are also raising everyone else’s rent by decreasing inventory. The endless red tape in new construction makes non-…

There's very, very few rent-controlled apartments left.

Rent control yes but rent stabilized no. Something like 1 million units are rent stabilized: https://ny.curbed.com/2017/4/13/15264890/nyc-apartments-guid...

Re: What Airbnb Did to New York City

#25

Post by kadenshep »

ordinaryperson wrote: post #6

Easy to blame lack of affordable housing on AirBnB and not, say, rent control laws or the difficulty of building new housing stock in the city. I get not throwing grandma out of the $250/month 4BR she’s been living in for 50 years, but it means something like 200,000 rent-controlled/rent-stabilized units are also raising everyone else’s rent by decreasing inventory. The endless red tape in new construction makes non-…

Ah yes, the "remove standards and everything will be better" mind set has always worked out in the past.

Re: What Airbnb Did to New York City

#26

Post by matte_black »

teh_klev wrote: post #19
humanrebar wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to point out that expensive rent in a rural area is different than expensive rent in an urban one. In a rural area, if it really comes down to it, people buy or rent a plot of land and throw a prefab home or trailer on it. In an urban area, you don't have a lot of options when rent goes up other than moving to a dangerous neighborhood or commuting from an inhumane distance.

> expensive rent in a rural area is different than expensive rent in an urban one I fail to see the difference, maybe you could expand? > In a rural area, if it really comes down to it, people buy Folks are seeking affordable rents because affordable (and habitable) property to buy is pretty much non-existent. > or rent a plot of land and throw a prefab home or trailer on it. Perhaps in your country, good luck with g…

Bah, UK is so small it’s easy to see how it can be a problem. America has so much land available out there, some of it is incredibly cheap the farther you are from civilization, even almost free. I think I could buy several rolling acres of land for a couple thousand bucks right now.

Re: What Airbnb Did to New York City

#27

Post by ordinaryperson »

kadenshep wrote: post #25
ordinaryperson wrote: post #6

Easy to blame lack of affordable housing on AirBnB and not, say, rent control laws or the difficulty of building new housing stock in the city. I get not throwing grandma out of the $250/month 4BR she’s been living in for 50 years, but it means something like 200,000 rent-controlled/rent-stabilized units are also raising everyone else’s rent by decreasing inventory. The endless red tape in new construction makes non-…

Ah yes, the "remove standards and everything will be better" mind set has always worked out in the past.

I didn’t say there should be no laws, just better ones.

Again I don’t think we should evict granny but there are 1 million rent stabilized units in the city. Great deal...unless you’re looking to rent.

Re: What Airbnb Did to New York City

#28

Post by svantana »

ordinaryperson wrote: post #6

Easy to blame lack of affordable housing on AirBnB and not, say, rent control laws or the difficulty of building new housing stock in the city. I get not throwing grandma out of the $250/month 4BR she’s been living in for 50 years, but it means something like 200,000 rent-controlled/rent-stabilized units are also raising everyone else’s rent by decreasing inventory. The endless red tape in new construction makes non-…

The density of NY is the cause of the high costs of living, making it even denser is unlikely to bring costs down long term. It would make more sense just to accept that living centrally is a luxury not everyone can afford, and instead channel the revenue away from the rent-seekers and into the hands of the public (i.e. by increasing property taxes).

Re: What Airbnb Did to New York City

#29

Post by ohgodmorecow »

ordinaryperson wrote: post #17
chrisseaton wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$250 a month must be getting to the point where the landlord is actively losing money through maintenance costs. How do they cope with that?

By trying to force them out any way possible: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/05/opinion/sunday/how-to-for...

"upon completing the work, rented the place out for $2,900/month." Oh my god, how is it possible for anyone to pay that much? 2800$ is about the general income / month here.

Re: What Airbnb Did to New York City

#30

Post by branchless »

teh_klev wrote: post #8
ordinaryperson wrote: post #6

Easy to blame lack of affordable housing on AirBnB and not, say, rent control laws or the difficulty of building new housing stock in the city. I get not throwing grandma out of the $250/month 4BR she’s been living in for 50 years, but it means something like 200,000 rent-controlled/rent-stabilized units are also raising everyone else’s rent by decreasing inventory. The endless red tape in new construction makes non-…

I've said this before, and I'll say it again. AirBNB is a blight on rural areas (I can speak to this because I reside in rural Scotland) where affordable rental properties are simply disappearing from the market. These properties are barely fully booked during the summer months or holiday/peak seasons, and are empty for weeks at a time in the winter and off-seasons. This is such a waste and hugely frustrating for fol…

Agreed. And let's not forget that Airbnb isn't"the sharing economy", it's a website with images and text on it for landlords.

No innovation, just exploitation. Silicon valley.

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