Last February, 300 residents of Bozeman, Montana, gathered at a local church to discuss the issue dividing the city of 54,000: ban (or not) short-term rentals.

“The atmosphere in the room was tense,” according to the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. Some attendees wore “House the People” T-shirts in response to a short-term rental boom in the city, which is 80 miles southeast of the state capital.

Bozeman has 760 registered short-term rentals, about 3% of all housing, according to NBC Montana.

According to the website Zillow, home prices rose by 40% from February 2020 to February 2023. According to the Zumper website, the median rent for a one-bedroom apartment almost doubled over the same period, from $1,000 to $1,975.

One member of the Residents and Renters Union fears that if investors continue to buy houses for exploitation in ten years, “the city will not exist.”

In many ways, Bozeman is at the epicenter of the short-term lease problem. This is a small rural town that saw a 67% increase in bookings on Airbnb during the pandemic.

But the problem isn’t just Bozeman’s. Short-term rentals are a hot topic everywhere from New York to Honolulu and from Dallas to Steamboat Springs, Colorado. In towns and cities alike, many locals frown on short-term rentals due to the high cost of housing.

This issue worries local authorities and raises questions: What should we do with Airbnb-style short-term rentals?

In 2023, the short-term rental economy has become too big to ignore. At the same time, the housing crisis worsened in the country. Since the second quarter of 2020, the average U.S. home price has risen 40%, from $374,000 to $535,000, without a commensurate wage increase, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, making home ownership even more out of reach for many. Americans. During the same period, the median rent in the US rose by 15%, from $1,468 to $1,700, according to RentCafe.

Bozeman Tenants United, founded in 2020 to investigate housing costs, concluded that short-term rentals were to blame.

For the tenant association, everything is simple: priority should be given to residents, then vacationers and visitors. “These are houses where working-class people could live,” said a local resident and union member.

The union has proposed banning Airbnb in unoccupied homes, expecting them to be available to permanent residents.

On the other hand, a real estate agent and short-term rental owner proposed zoning that would restrict the lease to a certain part of the city. He emphasizes that a complete ban would destroy tourism, Bozeman’s “core” industry.

In any case, short-term lease disputes won’t end anytime soon. Residents of South Lake Tahoe, California, another popular getaway in the West, voted to phase out Airbnb in 2018 but have since been embroiled in a legal battle. Dallas residents will vote on new restrictions on short-term rentals, and Nantucket, Massachusetts, is debating a measure that would ban 95% of current short-term rentals on the island.

According to Business Insider