Summit County leads the state in short-term rentals, according to a recent Kem C. Gardner Institute report.Short-term rentals, often found on sites like Airbnb and VRBO, have grown rapidly in popularity statewide since 2021. Per the institute’s study, “the average number of monthly STR [short-term rental] listings increased by 39.4% from 16,803 in 2021 to 23,428 in 2023.”Of those more than 23,000 short-term rentals, 60% are located within three counties: Summit, Salt Lake and Washington. In Summit County, approximately 23.8% of total housing is listed as a short-term rental.“The impact with regards to housing affordability, I don’t think that can be dismissed,” said Economic Development and Housing Director Jeff Jones. “There was a statement [in the report] that said even if there weren’t STRs, the units wouldn’t be made available. They would just be vacant. There was also something else about how they would be beyond the reach of people who could afford them anyway based upon the wage scale in the area.”Jones said that he believes short-term rentals are driving up housing prices in Summit County, a trend that he’s seen studied and reported nationwide. The difficulty for the county is figuring out if short-term rentals need to be more regulated and, if so, how to make that regulation feasible.“If someone is renting out their home, we don’t have any regulations from a land-use perspective,” said Community Development Director Peter Barnes. “You need to go get your business license. You need to abide by the rules and regulations regarding business licensing, but as far as we are concerned [in the Planning Department], it’s a residential unit, and it’s still residential use.”Sociologically, Barnes said that a high percentage of short-term rentals potentially affects the Summit County community as well.“If you have a residential neighborhood and a house that’s a second home for someone sits vacant every four days until the weekend when it’s occupied by a new stranger, then you start to hollow out the community in terms of social engagement, neighbor involvement, stuff like that,” he explained.Historically, first-time home owners would buy fixer-uppers at a lower price point, but those fixer-uppers are now being purchased and flipped by people hoping to invest in the short-term rental market, Jones said.The report also showed that short-term rentals are affecting existing housing. For every 10 residential units added between 2022 and 2023, there was an increase of 14.2 new short-term rental listings.“There is a direct correlation between the number of short-term rental licenses being issued and housing prices and affordability,” Barnes agreed. “When housing becomes an investment, prices rise, and we’re already in a very tricky market. We’re making housing affordability harder for those people who need long-term rental units. It’s an increasingly popular form of property investment, which has implications for all of us as a society. I don’t think we really know how to deal with it yet.”Some cities, such as Palm Springs, California, have seen success by capping the total number of allowed short-term rentals, according to Jones. Right now, however, Summit County doesn’t have any specific plans to follow suit.“I think it’s definitely something that people think about,” Jones said. “I think the county is still in its infancy trying to figure out, first, how many do we have? Where are they located? Do we have everybody under a business license? Kind of the rudimentary things first, and then the second phase will be figuring out all of the policy implications, and there’s a lot more research.”If the county decides to implement short-term rental regulations, the Planning Department would get more involved, especially if those regulations include restrictions on the number of licenses, Barnes said.“It’s a complicated subject,” Jones said. “Do they generate money for us? Yeah, they do. Do they impact housing prices? Absolutely they do. It’s one of those things where this is an issue nationally and, I think, for the entire state of Utah as well.”The post Summit County leads state in short-term rentals appeared first on Park Record.