Summer Rental Market Cools Off After Pandemic Boom

7/25/2023

The pandemic caused people to look locally for vacation spots and reduced rental inventory because people who often rented out their second homes in beach towns were using them instead. Now, as inventory rebounds, rental demand is spreading out across more listings, according to Jamie Lane, chief economist at AirDNA, a short-term-rental analytics company. “In 2021 and 2022 when we had those record levels, we actually saw fewer people staying in short-term rentals than in 2019, purely as a function of supply,” Lane said. “There were just not enough rentals for people to be able to stay in.” AirDNA in early July found occupancy rates through the next two months were largely lower across U.S. beachfront hot spots compared with the year-earlier period. The numbers suggest the shift is broad and that rising inventory characterizes all kinds of U.S. rental markets in a rebound from pandemic lulls.

Wall Street Journal (07/22/23) Jon Kamp

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