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.
With each passing day, the mortgage rate lock-in effect fades.
Nearly 22% of mortgage holders now have a rate above 6%. Which is more than the share with a rate below 3%.
Ultra-low-rate owners are slowly getting replaced with 6%+ owners.
Meaning downward pressure on prices is coming.
1) The reason is very simple.
If an owner has an ultra-low rate and they go to sell their house in this down market, they are highly likely to pull the listing or eventually decide to rent their home out instead.
Or they might never decide to sell.
Because their payment is so low that the mortgage itself is worth more to them than the house.
2) I'm witnessing this over and over in my conversations with realtors and home sellers, as well as my own experiences in negotiating on houses I'm looking to purchase.
If the owner has a higher rate, they are much more likely to play ball on negotiations and cut the price meaningfully.
Because their payment isn't very accretive compared to what they could get in today's market.
Conversely, if an owner has a low rate, say below 4%, they think it's not really worth their time to cut the price.
Rental market deflation is spreading across the U.S.
Austin is down 22% from peak.
Fort Myers is down 19%
Denver is -13%
Atlanta is -11%
Nashville is -11%
Dallas is -11%
Landlords are doing big rent cuts across the Sun Belt and West.
In some cases, they're even offering 3 months free rent (20-25% net rent cuts).
This is great news for renters and homebuyers.
1) This data is sourced from Apartmentlist's median rent index, and proves how much of the U.S. Housing Market is in a deflationary environment in 2026.
The more that apartment rents drop, the more downward pressure there will also be on home prices.
Ultimately providing much-needed affordability relief to Americans who live in the South and West.
2) The reason this is happening is twofold:
First - vacancy rates are rising due to an influx of new apartment construction during the pandemic. These higher vacancies are causing landlords to compete against each other and cut rents to maintain occupancy.
Second - demand to rent apartments has gone down in the last year due to lower immigration. Which is also boosting vacancies.
Corporate CEOs openly stating that white-collar jobs won't be necessary, and others acting on it with 40% layoffs.
I'm talking to people everyday who have good jobs, but are skeptical that their job will exist in 5 years.
And for good reason. Jack Dorsey is saying the quiet part out loud and going on record stating that he thinks "a majority of companies" will follow suit in the next year.
That's wild.
Block's stock jumped over 20% in response, indicating that Wall Street traders loved it.
If this becomes a "provable" model for success, other companies will follow suit.
Who would want buy a house right now?
1) For those that don't know - Block, formerly Square, is a payment processing company founded by Jack Dorsey, who also co-founded Twitter.
They do over $24 billion in revenue per year.
With over $3 billion in EBITDA. They're profitable, and their profit grew 20% YoY prior to these job cuts.
Yet they just cut 40% of their workforce (4,000) people due to "AI" and their CEO is going on record saying he thinks a lot of other companies will follow suit.
2) This quote, in particular, was striking:
“Within the next year, I believe the majority of companies will reach the same conclusion and make similar structural changes”
Some say that Dorsey and other tech CEOs are using AI as cover for job cuts they would "otherwise do".