NYC is supposedly cracking down on Airbnb. I sure hope they make it illegal altogether. But I am sure the crackdown is not about making rents more affordable, but about squeezing more tax revenue from Airbnb.
NYC is a great city -- if you can find reasonable housing. But that is a big if. Why is it so expensive? Hint: it's not really greedy landlords, it's mostly rent control laws. Also, Airbnb. Even if you ignore inflation (everything else doubled in the last few years, so it's not a surprise that rents did also). But the real problem is rent control. According to some sources, 70% of NYC apartments are stabilized or controlled, and are pretty much forever off the market. You'd be an idiot to give up a rent-controlled apartment in NYC.
The landlords are forced to keep the rents artificially low -- ridiculously low (in many cases, a few hundred dollars rent for 8 room palaces with views). To compensate, the remaining, market rate units are artificially high. Very often old buildings have old tenants paying a thousand dollars for the same apartment new tenants are paying ten thousand.
Now I must add that NYC is a pretty wonderful place because of that. There are many characters who would never be able to afford to live in NYC otherwise (although without rent control rents would be at least 2x to 3x cheaper just on supply). The city would not be the same if they were gone and replaced by stupid midwestern kids.
A rent-controlled apartment is a blessing - you are set for life. It is also a curse, as you will probably die in that apartment, because giving one up is incredibly stupid - you will never find another deal of a lifetime like that. It's really a blessing though.
Sadly, rent-controlled apartments are not offered according to need - the city just froze 1970's rents, and dictates the allowed increases completely disregarding inflation. Tons of rich New Yorkers live in subsidized apartments. My partner's landlord, who ows dozens of large buildings in NYC, spent his life living in a rent-stabilized apartment (owned by someone else). Mayor Koch famously lived in an $80 rent-controlled apartment.
I am furious that instead of enjoying life in their under-one-thousand-dollar classic six with a view, people treat it as a business, renting out room after room. These tenants who should count their blessing are now little land barons, collecting hundreds or even thousands of dollars per night, and living the high life. I've met a few - they are generally boomers with very otherwise left leanings. I had dinner with one recently and nearly got thrown out for saying that I was hoping Airbnb would become illegal in NYC, along with motorized Citibikes.
So not only do these shameless jackasses keep most of NYC apartments locked down, and not only are they making obsene profits on short-term rentals, but they are also driving the prices through the roof for the rest of us. There are people who just rent apartments - not even rent-controlled, and Airbnb them, tripling or quadrupling their rent investment. These apartments are off-the market, and stratospheric pricing is becoming normalized.
And in the process, Airbnb is getting billions in fees. Do we really need them? What value exactly do they add? They actually do nothing, just keep a database of reservations, and handle the payments. If you can't be bothered to collect money from people who stay at your house, you should definitely not be doing it.
But I think the whole crackdown is really to extort more taxes out of Airbnb. If the city was genuinly concerned with affordability (they are certainly not) or quality of life (that's a joke), they would go after the property owners, not the renters who re-rent their apartments contrary to their lease. The landlords would face steep penalties and kick out the offenders - freeing up controlled apartments in the process. If you knew you'd lose your cheap apartment, you would never jeopardize it by Airbnb'ing it, and there would be no problems like this.
My guess is that the crackdown will end after Airbnb coughs up a few million bucks.