Portland Housing Bureau: Scofflaw Short-Term Rentals Have Cost City 1,000 Affordable Homes

An estimated value of Portland's affordable homes lost to short-term rentals is $380 million, says bureau director Kurt Creager.

By Rachel Monahan

Portland has lost 1,000 previously affordable homes to short term rentals operating outside city rules, according to an estimate from the Portland Housing Bureau.

"One area of special concern of mine is the number of units that have been converted from month-to-month rentals to short-term rentals," bureau director Kurt Creager told the City Council in testimony Wednesday.

"There are some 2,700 whole homes offered on the short term rental market in Portland. We think about 1,000 of those had been herteofore affordable month-to-month available rentals."

He put the value of those homes at $380 million. "It would cost that much to replace a 1,000 units," he says.

Last week, WW reported that an Airbnb manager was among the estimated 1,718 people breaking city rules by renting whole homes for more than nine months a year, according to data from the website Inside Airbnb.

The city has fined individual Portlanders, but not the company itself.

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