Obituaries: Zagarola, Sears, Anderson

By DEBORAH E. LANS

Part 1

GHENT – To generate heat on a cold night this winter, start a conversation about short term rentals (STRs). Most everyone has an opinion on whether they are good or bad, should or shouldn’t be permitted or regulated.

A short term rental is one for 30 days or fewer. The rental can be of an entire home or of rooms in a home. Most rentals are facilitated through agencies like Airbnb or VRBO.

According to AirDNA data provided to the Columbia Paper, in the entire county there were 1,267 listings in October 2023 – an increase of 32% over the pre-pandemic October 2019 month. Demand increased 91% between October 2019 and October 2023. AirDNA’s data includes information from Airbnb and VRBO that has been sorted to eliminate duplicative listings.

County-wide, the average daily rental price this October was $422.82. The vast majority of offerings were for entire homes (1,155). Only 112 listings were for one or more rooms.

The town-by-town data, including the annual revenue per STR offered, as of October 2023 looks like this:

Town # Listings Avg. Annual Gross Revenue Per Listing ($)

Ancram 41 78,800

Austerlitz 36 78,800

Canaan 43 72,300

Chatham 56 69,600

Clermont (Included in Germantown)

Claverack 12 81,500

Copake 63 89,600

Craryville 69 121,900

Germantown 71 79,100

Ghent 52 89,000

Hillsdale 137 80,300

Hudson 390 68,100

Greenport 262 124,600

Kinderhook 17 67,200

New Lebanon 38 69,200

Stockport (Included in Hudson)

Stuyvesant 13 177,000

Source: app.airdna.co.

The added costs associated with short-term rentals include cleaning services, booking fees and property management. Airbnb’s fees vary from 3%-15% depending on the type of host (individual or group/institutional). Some owners use property managers who take on all the services associated with the rentals. They typically take 30% of the booking value for their fees.

The reasons for the popularity of STRs are obvious. For tourists, they provide a home-like environment as well as cooking and other facilities not offered by hotels, inns and B and Bs. Often, and especially for a group, an STR rents at a lower price per head. STRs may also make lodging available in communities, like many in Columbia County, that lack other forms of accommodation.

Local communities may accordingly reap tourist dollars they might not otherwise see. A Harvard Business Review analysis of Airbnb effects in cities noted that according to Airbnb roughly three-quarters of their “listings aren’t in traditional tourist neighborhoods, which means that money is going to communities typically ignored by the hospitality industry.”

For property owners, STRs offer a revenue source to assist in paying the carrying costs and maintenance of a home. The rentals can be offered as suits the owner – during a family’s vacation, over the summer or winter months, or more often. For investors, STRs may be a substantial source of income.

So, what’s not to like?

Anecdotally, among the negative effects residents cite are excessive noise, after-hours partying and parking conflicts. Area residents can even tell stories of homes trashed by hordes of partying students or the dramatic influx of cars coming to and parking on the roads near a rental used for weddings. Particularly where the STR owner is not also a local resident, consideration for neighbors may be lacking.

Of broader consequence, the use of properties for STRs has been shown in several academic studies to diminish the supply of long term rentals in a market and also to increase the cost of long term rentals and of homes for purchase. The Harvard Business Review study, which was conducted before the pandemic, found that “the growth in home-sharing through Airbnb contributes to about one-fifth of the average annual increase in U.S. rents and about one-seventh of the average annual increase in U.S. housing prices.”

Interestingly, the study also found that areas with higher owner-occupancy rates are less affected by Airbnb. In other words, it is landlords who switch their properties from long term to short term rentals, while most owner-occupiers use Airbnb more sparingly, because they still primarily occupy their homes.

Chris Brown, the county’s Housing Development Coordinator, sums up the issue by saying “Short-term rentals occupy a complicated position in Columbia County. Tourism remains one of the county’s largest economic drivers, and many of our visitors choose to book short-term rentals, out of either preference or necessity given the relatively low availability of traditional hotel rooms.”

As Mr. Brown notes,“short-term rentals often help retain homeowner affordability, as the income generated from guests offsets mortgage payments. However, short-term rental conversions reduce the number of available units in the county’s housing supply, artificially capping our supply and adding to the upward pressure on rental and home prices.”

The state and the county have been considering the regulation of STRs for some time – several bills are pending in Albany – and many towns in the county have enacted various forms of STR laws, while others are actively considering the issue. The next article will consider the different approaches regulation has taken and can take.