13 scenic US towns where vacation rentals are pushing locals out

Locals Are Becoming the Minority

They were the kinds of places people moved to for a slower life. Mountain towns with ski slopes out the back door.

Desert hideaways where artists could afford a studio. Coastal gems where service workers could still rent a cottage near the beach.

Now, in town after town, the houses are full but the neighborhoods are empty. The porches are quiet on weekdays.

The schools are losing students. And the people who keep these places running are commuting from hours away or sleeping in their cars.

Here are 13 towns where short-term rentals have tipped the balance, and locals are fighting to hold on.

Sedona, Arizona

Nearly 20% of Sedona’s housing is now short-term rentals, up from about 400 units in 2020 to over 1,200 by the end of 2024.

The number of short-term rentals has tripled in just four years.

Mayor Scott Jablow says more than half the houses on his own block are vacation rentals, and housing prices are 105% higher than the national average.

The city declared a housing emergency and is now offering homeowners up to $10,000 to rent to local workers instead of tourists.

Schools are losing students and funding because families cannot find homes, and the local hospital has lost job candidates who could not afford to live in the area.

Park City, Utah

Only 15% of Park City’s workforce, about 1,650 people, actually lives in town. A recent study found that 44% of the city’s housing stock consists of short-term rentals.

Seventy percent of rental supply goes to vacationers, leaving workers to compete for what remains. A local program also offers free ski gear to homeowners who rent to workers instead of tourists.

The city now requires 20% of new residential developments to be affordable units and recently opened a 123-unit apartment complex with income-restricted rents.

Maui, Hawaii

In December 2025, Maui’s mayor signed a law to phase out 7,000 short-term vacation rentals in apartment-zoned areas.

The move came after the devastating August 2023 wildfires displaced more than 12,000 people and worsened an already critical housing shortage.

Supporters called it an opportunity to reclaim housing for fire survivors and longtime residents who have been priced off the island.

The vast majority of vacation rentals are owned by people who do not live on Maui, meaning most profits flow out of the county.

The county council plans to create new hotel zones that could exempt some properties, but the intent is clear: housing for residents comes first.

South Lake Tahoe, California

Roughly half of the regional workforce commutes into Tahoe from nearby communities like Truckee, Reno, and Carson City.

The median sales price across the Tahoe region reached $980,000 in 2024, and only about 21% of housing units are renter-occupied while 44% sit vacant as seasonal properties.

Voters tried to ban vacation rentals in residential neighborhoods back in 2018, but a court overturned the measure in March 2025.

The city passed new rules in June 2025 requiring a 150-foot buffer between vacation homes and mandating indoor noise monitors and outdoor video surveillance.

Employers like Tahoe Dave’s have started buying homes just to rent them to staff.

Joshua Tree, California

Short-term rentals now account for about 33% of housing stock in the Joshua Tree area, driving monthly rents to between $1,800 and $4,000.

Home values skyrocketed from around $245,000 before the pandemic to over $414,000 by 2022.

Longtime residents say the area no longer looks like the place they grew up in, with native plants stripped from lots and chain stores replacing mom-and-pop shops.

Now that pandemic-era demand has cooled, some investors are trying to sell at a loss, but prices remain far above pre-2020 levels.

Big Bear Lake, California

As of mid-2025, there are over 2,800 vacation rental listings in Big Bear Lake alone.

Big Bear City has the most short-term rentals of any city in San Bernardino County, with about 1,400 units, and very few are owned by people who actually live in the region.

The vacation rental industry created a workforce housing initiative, collecting a voluntary 0.5% tax on bookings to fund grants for owners who convert to long-term rentals.

The city caps vacation rental permits at 1,500 and limits each owner to two licenses. In January 2025, the transient occupancy tax increased from 9% to 10%.

Despite all this, workers still struggle to find affordable places to live.

New Orleans, Louisiana

In 2025 alone, more than 3,100 complaints were filed against short-term rentals in New Orleans, with noise, trash, overcrowding, and illegal operations topping the list.

As of March 2025, there were over 7,500 noncompliant vacation rentals operating in the city. Airbnb and several property owners sued the city in February 2025.

The city limits residential neighborhoods to one vacation rental per square block and requires an operator to be present while guests stay.

Critics say short-term rentals have driven gentrification and displacement, with about 24,000 residents evicted in some neighborhoods over a three-and-a-half-year period.

Steamboat Springs, Colorado

About 30% of housing units in Steamboat Springs are vacation rentals, removing roughly 3,000 units from the housing supply.

The city cannot find a head of human resources willing to take a $167,000 salary because candidates cannot afford a place to live.

The local ski resort now leases a hotel for employees to live in because the homes they once rented are all vacation properties.

In late 2025, a billionaire investor bought a 104-unit apartment complex and slashed rents to below-market rates for workers.

Studios now go for $925 a month and two-bedrooms for $1,600, well below the area’s typical $3,100 median rent.

Asheville, North Carolina

After Hurricane Helene devastated western North Carolina in late 2024, about 40% of Asheville’s short-term rental inventory converted to traditional housing to help displaced residents.

More than 1,400 vacation rental units left the market in the months after the storm, a 21% reduction in active listings.

Occupancy rates for short-term rentals dropped 33% compared to the previous year, with 43% fewer guest check-ins during summer 2025.

A regional housing study found the area needs more than 34,000 new housing units by 2028, including nearly 14,000 rental units and over 20,000 for-sale homes.

The median home price in Asheville has climbed to $595,000.

Gatlinburg, Tennessee

Gatlinburg has over 3,350 active vacation rental listings in a town with only about 4,200 year-round residents.

Some neighborhoods are practically 50% vacation rentals, and locals tell stories of trying to buy a home only to lose it to an out-of-state cash offer within 48 hours.

Real estate hovers around $400,000 for a decent single-family home, with prime cabins going for much higher.

Short-term rental investors have muscled into the market, tightening the supply of long-term rentals and pushing monthly rents above $1,200 for modest places.

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park draws millions of visitors annually, and most of them need somewhere to stay.

Savannah, Georgia

Only about 10% of rental properties in Savannah cost what the federal government considers affordable based on local wages.

The city ranks as the 20th least affordable rental market in the United States, with average rents around $1,546 per month.

Mayor Van Johnson has called vacation rentals “mini-hotels” that take houses people could otherwise live in off the market.

The city’s tourism industry creates steady demand for vacation properties, especially near historic sights in the city center.

Long-term solutions are being debated, but for now, workers in one of America’s most visited cities are competing with tourists for a shrinking pool of homes.

Key West, Florida

In December 2025, Key West let 280 transient rental licenses expire in the Truman Annex neighborhood, ending a 20-year experiment with weekly vacation rentals.

Property owners had offered $15 million for affordable housing in exchange for a 20-year extension, but city commissioners refused.

Officials said renewing the licenses would open a legal can of worms, with every other property owner in town potentially suing for the same rights.

Key West stopped issuing new transient licenses years ago and grandfathered only existing operations.

Moab, Utah

Over 19% of Grand County’s housing stock is short-term rentals. A local survey found 25% of renters reported having to move two or more times per year.

Workers who keep the town running say they cannot afford to live there, and some are living in cars or tents.

Residents need to earn an average of $34 an hour to afford an average three-bedroom rental and meet national affordability standards.

A 300-unit affordable housing development called Arroyo Crossing is in the works, but for now, the town’s tourism economy keeps growing while its workers keep struggling to find anywhere to sleep.

The Fight for What’s Left

These towns are trying everything.

Permit caps. Lottery systems. Taxes earmarked for affordable housing. Programs that pay owners to rent to locals.

Some places have banned new vacation rentals entirely. Others are building workforce housing as fast as they can. But the math is brutal.

A house that earns $300 a night as a vacation rental will almost never go back to being a $1,500 monthly apartment.

The towns that tourists love most are becoming places only tourists can afford.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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