ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how urban vacation rentals affect Millennials’ foothold in expensive, amenity-rich neighbourhoods in central cities. A benefit of urban vacation rentals is that that they offer Millennials a way to earn income on their housing to meet escalating rents and home prices. A determinant of urban vacation rentals is that they may reduce Millennials’ housing options and affordability. This chapter focuses on dynamics in five large US cities, Austin, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington, DC, and examines the geography of urban vacation rentals in these sites, their utility for Millennials households, and their potential impacts on housing affordability. The authors find that urban vacation rentals are concentrated in expensive, amenity-rich urban neighbourhoods with sizable proportions of Millennials. They find evidence that these rentals are taking permanent housing units off the market. However, hosting an urban vacation rental also may help young adults to pay for their housing and overcome housing affordability challenges.
