Utah’s short-term rental market has grown a lot in recent years. But, most of that growth is concentrated in areas with tourism and it's not significantly impacting the state's housing supply. That’s according to a new report from the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute.
The average number of Utah monthly short-term rental listings offered through sites like Airbnb and Vrbo, grew by 39.4% from 2021 to 2023, from 16,803 to 23,428. The market grew dramatically across the U.S. as the pandemic changed consumer behaviors.
Not only has the number of units increased, but also the share of units compared to residential housing. In 2021, 1.41% of Utah’s residential housing units were short-term rentals. In 2023 that grew to 1.86%.
“While this number seems relatively low, the rise of short-term rentals in Utah disproportionately impacts the state’s tourism areas, affecting housing affordability and accessibility in these communities,” said Senior Research Fellow Dejan Eskic, one of the report’s authors. He said data for the first half of 2024 shows the number of units is continuing to increase.
Of Utah’s listings, over 60% are in Summit, Salt Lake and Washington counties. The report says 83% of the listings were within 10 miles of a state park, national park or national monument. Additionally, nearly half were within 10 miles of a ski area. The units also tended to be in neighborhoods with higher housing prices and household incomes. About 40.8% of these are apartment-style units and 39.2% are single-family homes.
While short-term rentals have often been singled out in conversations about housing affordability, the report’s authors say these units aren’t substantially impacting housing stock at a statewide level. However, in certain tourism-dependent counties, like Summit and Grand, they are losing existing housing stock to short-term rentals.
In Park City, 41.7% of housing units are short-term rentals, it’s 23.8% in Summit County and in Salt Lake County, 1.1% are short-term rentals.
These rentals are only one piece of Utah’s housing affordability problem and it’s not the biggest piece of that puzzle, Eskic said
“Even if we banned all short-term rentals today, we still have a housing shortage. And then when we look at where these short-term rentals are, they're not necessarily in the highest growing areas of our state, just tourism-heavy areas.”
Summit County has the highest concentration of short-term rentals and Eskic said a lot of those properties are second homes for people who live out of state. Even if those units were put on the market for people to buy as permanent housing, “they’re still going to be Summit County prices.”
“If we do a blanket state policy, I don't think it's going to create much impact on affordability statewide,” Eskic said.
The report didn’t delve into whether these rentals are overall a positive or negative thing for the state. They can have positive economic impacts on local communities because they attract tourists. But at the same time, there are concerns about long-term rental availability. Eskic isn’t sure at what point these rentals become so saturated in a community that they’re a clear net negative, but added, “I hope we never find out.”
