As a “millennial” I hand to chime in on how we don’t buy houses. I mean I own 2 now ( one for me one for Airbnb) and eventually I want more. But most of my friends my age have student loans and won’t be able to buy a house for 5-10 more years. Even then they might not because jobs are less secure today then back when you worked the same job for 50 years and it paid well enough to afford a house and a good lifestyle and then you retired. So if they aren’t buying houses, then housing prices will fall. So it seems to me that sure, maybe STRs make it hard to find a LTR and that is a problem now, but it’s just all supply and demand and will eventually balance itself out.
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I just sat down after a long bout in the kitchen, saw your choice of flowers and totally guffawed! Thanks for the laugh!
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How has air bnb “ruined” a city?
You are a Millennial??? No way! I thought you were my age! 
Haha well I don’t know how old you are but I just turned 30.
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SandyToes chokes and faints.
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If you look up millennial on Wikipedia it says that no-one has a definitive age range. It’s still a pretty vague description.
The funny thing is that some months ago I did one of those daft internet quizzes which purported to know what era I’m from because of my answers to various questions.
According to the quiz, I’m overwhelming a millennial.
Which is nonsense. Even my son is too old to be a millennial! I’m without doubt a post-war boomer.
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I agree it’s pretty vague. Going by this it says 1981 to 1996 birth year and I’m smack dab in the middle of that lol. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thrillist.com/amphtml/news/nation/millennials-age-range-generation-defined
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My sons are millennial. They were born in 1995.
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My sons are 1.5 and 3 
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Don’t do any of them on FB, that’s how Cambridge Analytica obtain much of their user data.
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I think it was Buzzfeed? Or maybe the BBC. I really HATE Facebook! 
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We haven’t put anyone out of a rental as we don’t want long term rentals. We like Airbnb as we rent when we want and block out when we don’t
Oh, that’s true. You’re right on calling me on that, it has not “ruined” New Orleans, but it has not brought positive change to certain neighborhoods, in my opinion. At first, houses were being bought and invested in and that was good, but it is eventually eroded the communities in in places like Marginy. The New Orleans city council meetings are all online for you to watch. They are long and passionate and heartfelt and I sympathize greatly with the people who moved there (or stayed there) to rebuild their city and then ended up fighting with Airbnb and non-caring, absentee neighbors.
But aren’t Airbnb owners also investing in their properties? Perhaps even more because they have extra income to afford it?
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The owners who live there are! The absentee owners are simply marketing what they truly are not investing in and that is community.
Harry Shearer said it well when he spoke at the Nola community meeting.
This dialogue is a good example of how I think the press & terminology & perception are undermining the good Airbnb hosts.
Before Airbnb, STRs were available through VRBO, Craigslist, & Property Management Companies.
The real estate purchase and rental markets dramatic changes made it appealing to purchase rental property.
VRBO & AIRBNB made it easier to do rentals without using a property manager.
Shows like VRBO Vacation Rental Potential emphasize the STR revenue to be made.
Due to the real estate and business environments, a change was coming.
On the surface it seems that the tools/vehicles for the rental market to change in destination cities was already in place before Airbnb came along but Airbnb is being blamed for housing shortages & neighborhood change.
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This is not without problems. Who gets to pay for the infrastructure, rubbish collection, sewage etc.? If they park next to a family home long term that spoils the family’s peaceful enjoyment.
In the UK we have really lax laws for travellers and living in vans. It’s impossible to move travellers unless there’s a legal site to move them to in that local authority and little restriction on sleeping in a van at the side of any road.
My lovingly restored first home was blighted by Irish travellers. They would leave the generators on and go to the pub and get blind drunk with young children left in the vans. Any other social group would have been hounded by social workers.
More recently there have been the young types you mentioned. There was a serious car fire near the vans a few months ago and it was lucky there was no loss of life.
I think there are better ways of tackling Britain’s housing crisis than living in vans. I believe travellers should be on council sites with proper sanitation. When the Irish travellers were present I often found human feaces on the grass of the local park, some with cigarettes extinguished on top of the stool. They hung laundry over war graves in the nearby local cemetery. No respect.
I read a blog from “Mr. Money Moustache” that is someone like this. He and his wife made/saved some $$ working in Silicon Valley and, instead of buying more “stuff” and supporting a bigger life style, they instead moved to Colorado, built a small home using alot of sweat equity, and now live very small doing work they enjoy. MMM’s blog is an interesting read.
I’ve been inspired to also downsize. I am in my last decade of my working years making the best salary of my career. There is a 55+ RV resort that is commutable from my day job that is an interesting model. You pay a refundable $32k membership fee for a spot. Then you pay a $278/month maintenance fee and pay for your electricity and donate your sweat equity to build/maintain the park. (In the old days someone might have called it a commune.) It’s a beautiful place and quite a nice community of people. My plan is to live small there in a 5th wheel (which are very comfortable and luxurious these days) and chunk away the cash we currently spend on lifestyle and retire well. We’re on the waiting list but it will prolly take a few years to get to the top of the list.
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@Tumo - that sounds like a terrific plan. My very best wishes to you and I hope it goes really well for you.
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