Oregon coast cities continue to struggle with rentals
NEWPORT, Ore. – Hot housing markets in major cities like Seattle and Portland have pushed the cities to regulate short-term rentals like Airbnb. But small Pacific Northwest towns popular with visitors are also struggling to balance the growth of Airbnb-type rentals with a tight housing supply.
Newport, Oregon, is the latest to put those types of rentals in the crosshairs.
Newport is a beach town on the central coast known for its working waterfront, sea lions, lighthouses and aquarium. Now, the town finds itself at the messy intersection of the sharing economy, the tourism business and a housing crunch.
The town has held two meetings so far for residents to ask questions and sound off on short-term rentals.
Sandy Benning came to the first open house last week to support capping the number of short-term vacation rentals available in Newport. Benning said she learned firsthand how tight the housing market on the Oregon coast is when she and her husband moved to Newport two years ago.
“We literally looked for a place to rent for almost 90 days,” Benning said. “That entire time we stayed in VRDs (vacation rental dwellings) around the local area. It was a huge expense for us to stay here over the summer for what, three months, before we found a place to live.”
Benning shares a widely held concern around the Northwest that landlords are converting long-term units for the local workforce into short-term rentals for visitors because the temporary rentals are more lucrative.
“This was something we found repeatedly,” Benning said. “In fact, we ended up having to purchase a home. And the availability of homes for us to purchase was very, very limited.”
Newport resident Carla Perry lives in an oceanfront neighborhood where vacation rentals have proliferated and created what Perry calls “a critical situation.”
“Lots of traffic. Lots of noise. Garbage. Lots of people,” Perry said. “This was a quiet neighborhood. It’s changed that. There are no neighbors. It’s not like you can know who is staying anywhere.”
Perry is part of a committee that came up with options for regulating short-term rentals. Alternatives include limits on the number of vacation rentals, their location and density.
Northwest News Network