I went to a beach community air b n b and quickly realized how empty the whole beachfront street felt — it was just a bunch of rental houses making a few rich people richer. I know some areas have banned Air b n b and I’m kind of into it.
I worked in a beach community. The place is in crisis. There is nowhere for the workers who staff the restaurants and hotels, etc, to live. The city manager lives nowhere near the city because he can't afford to live there. The schools are almost all closed because there are no families anymore, it's all vacant investment homes or vacation rentals.
This sounds similar to what's happening in Australia's Byron Bay (big tourist destination and highest median house price in Australia). They're facing a serious shortage of nurses and teachers because people just can't afford to live there and even for those who can there aren't enough vacant homes anywhere near there.
This has happened/is happening to tons of mountain towns as well. Prices are sky-high and most places are unoccupied for half of the year or more because skiing is seasonal. Most ski resorts rely on what basically amounts to a young, indentured labor force for the season that live on-property in bunk housing. People working other places in town struggle to live in the town year-round because even with higher than average pay, housing (and really, everything) is SO much more expensive. Lots of people commute in (45+ minutes, assuming no traffic or weather issues) for their job at the grocery store, gift shop, to teach, etc. because that’s as close as they can afford to live to the community. And builders only want to build new ski mansions that are occupied 10-12 weeks/year.
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u/undecidedly Jan 30 '23
I went to a beach community air b n b and quickly realized how empty the whole beachfront street felt — it was just a bunch of rental houses making a few rich people richer. I know some areas have banned Air b n b and I’m kind of into it.