Revenues are down nearly 50% in cities like Phoenix and Austin.
Watch out for a wave of forced selling from Airbnb owners later this year in the areas hit hardest by the revenue collapse.
1) What's scary for the US Housing Market is just how many Airbnbs there are.
Data from AllTheRooms shows 1 million Airbnb / VRBO rentals.
Compared to only 570k homes for sale.
Creates huge home price downside if struggling Airbnb owners elect to sell.
2) Ground zero for this Airbnb collapse is a city like PHOENIX.
Where the number of short-term rentals (18k) is more than DOUBLE the number of for sale listings (8k).
Mix the huge Airbnb supply with revenues down -50% and you get a cocktail for massive forced selling.
3) Another area with huge exposure is Eastern Tennessee.
Particularly a vacation town called Sevierville in the Smokey Mountains.
In this county there's 10x as many Airbnbs as homes listed for sale. While the revenue per owner is down nearly 50%.
Yikes.
4) Another area to watch out for is Central Texas.
Data from AllTheRooms shows that Airbnb revenues are down 40-50% yoy across most of the area.
Particularly in Austin, San Antonio, Uvalde.
5) Another area that is getting smoked by the Airbnb Crash is the Pacific Northwest / Mountain Region.
States like Montana, Idaho, and Oregon.
Fewer people playing out their Yellowstone fantasies + way more supply = 40% declines in revenue per listing.
6) And ultimately this Airbnb crash was to be expected.
The pandemic is over. Fewer people are working from home / vacationing in states like Montana, Texas, and Tennessee.
So the demand is way down. Just as the Airbnb supply went way up. So you get a crash.
7) What will be interesting is how "stubborn" Airbnb owners are in holding their properties.
Many of them are just now seeing their revenues down 50%.
But the mainstream narrative hasn't caught up to it yet. So owners might not realize the Airbnb crash is a broader trend.
8) Some Airbnb owners might elect to do a long-term rental in their properties instead.
But the problem with that is that there has already been a huge surge in long-term rentals hitting the market.
With vacant rentals in cities like Nashville exploding over the last year.
9) So if Airbnb owners "pivot" to long-term rentals, they'll likely crash that market as well.
Especially in dense urban areas. Which is where the majority of Airbnbs are located.
Check out the Airbnb heatmap in a metro like Phoenix to see areas with most exposure.
10) I think "newbie" Airbnb owners who bought over the last 1-2 years with a mortgage are in trouble.
They got in at a high price. And have a high monthly payment. And little margin for error.
They could be some of the first to sell later in 2023 when the season ends.
11) However, some of the more seasoned Airbnb operators who got in before the pandemic likely have room to work with.
They paid less for their Airbnb. Have a cheaper mortgage rate. And more experience.
They will be less inclined to sell.
12) I'll have more content and data on the Airbnb crash in coming weeks.
The data used in this Tweet thread came from AllTheRooms. They're a short-term rental data provider who tracks Airbnb supply, rates, and revenue for every market in the country.
Only other times it was this high: 2022, 2008, 1991.
All are either recessionary scenarios or near recessions.
This is ultimately good news for homebuyers. It means cheaper prices are around the corner. But potentially bad news for builders, and those who bought near the peak of the bubble.
There could also be an economic spillover in terms of construction job losses and downturns in regional economies most exposed to home building.
1) And this is more a story about the South in the U.S. than anywhere else in the U.S.
In the South, there are now 311,000 new builder homes for sale.
That's the highest level on record, even eclipsing the heights of the 2006-07 bubble.
2) The graph for this is quite shocking.
Many people I speak to in the housing market still think there's a "supply shortage". And that "we're not building enough".
But the data in the South, and parts of the western U.S., suggests we could be in a home-building bubble reminiscent to what we saw in the mid-2000s.
No one is buying new homes that are under construction or permitted.
Months of supply for both is sitting between 15-20 months, which is basically the highest on record.
Meanwhile - completed spec houses have a decent sales pace of 3.6 months.
Meaning extremely weak demand in the future for builders. Any short-term success on sales is simply being driven by having lots of completed inventory and giving mortgage rates buy downs/cutting prices on completed homes.
The long-term outlook, measured by sales pace for Under Construction/Permitted, says demand is fundamentally weak.
And that the Housing market will continue to get cheaper. (which is good news for buyers)
1) Consider that the Months of Supply for homes Permitted but not Started is literally the highest level on record.
Meaning basically no one right now is willing to enter into a sales contract for a home to be built.
That says a lot about the current state of demand.
2) Meanwhile - Months of Supply on houses Under Construction (14.8) is at 2nd highest level on record behind only the 2008 housing bust.
Back then, months of supply for under-construction houses went to 18.1.
A further indication of how weak demand is right now.
The cost of buying a house with a mortgage has exploded.
Back in 1955, it cost $112/month to take out a mortgage to buy a house.
In 2025, it costs $2,800/month. That's an astounding 2,300% increase over 70 years.
In the last five years alone, mortgage costs have nearly doubled.
These costs have surged faster than people's incomes, creating a massive housing affordability crisis.
The question is: what happens next?
Following the 2000s housing bubble, there was a crash, and mortgage costs dropped 40% in half a decade.
But following the 1970s housing inflation, there was no crash. Instead, home-buying costs stabilized for two decades, allowing incomes to catch up.
I see similarities in 2025 to both previous eras, as we are in a massive home price bubble today (similar to the mid-2000s) and have also experienced rampant inflation over the last several years (similar to the 1970s).
The net result is that no one can afford homes right now. And the only cure for this is a combination of cheaper prices, lower mortgage rates, and higher incomes.
And it might take years to get there.
1) One thing is for sure: the current trajectory of housing costs is not sustainable.
Homebuyers are priced out of the market, and demand has collapsed as a result.
Many people in real estate keep tricking themselves into thinking a rebound is around the corner.
But there will be no rebound so long as prices remain high.
2) One metric that is especially shocking is comparing the growth in mortgage costs in the 2020s to previous decades.
Thus far, through a little over five years, the cost of buying a house with a mortgage has surged 89%.
The U.S. housing market just broke 1,000,000 listings.
Excess inventory is piling up.
Relative to buyer demand, we now have the highest inventory in close to a decade.
Which is causing home prices to drop in over half the U.S.
1) This was the highest active listing count for May since 2019, according to data.
This is important because it signals that sellers are now facing stiff competition to sell their homes.
A marked reversal from the pandemic boom, and a signal that gains in affordability are coming for buyers.Realtor.com
2) Sellers are now also getting more eager to cut the prices on these listings, with the price cut rate surging up to 24.6% of total listings in May 2025.
That's the highest level of price reductions for the month of May on record, going back to 2017.