Read the report: Airbnb, Housing, and the City of Cambridge
Airbnb is an economic lifeline for thousands of residents throughout the Bay State who rely on home sharing to pay the bills, save for retirement and stay in the homes they love. Airbnb is committed to working with communities, including right here in Cambridge, to foster responsible home sharing and the economic opportunity it creates for families, businesses, and neighborhoods.
We share the belief that Cambridge’s continued growth and prosperity depend on ensuring that neighborhoods remain inclusive and affordable for all residents — and welcome the discussion about the role that home sharing can play in advancing those goals.
In that spirit, we have released a new report that examines the impact of Airbnb on the Cambridge housing market. The data shows how the majority of Cambridge hosts are using Airbnb as a supplemental source of income to remain in the communities they call home and that Airbnb’s impact on the long-term housing market is limited.
Based on trips in 2016, here are the key findings:
- Airbnb ‘entire home’ listings represent a tiny fraction of the total housing stock in Cambridge — while Airbnb has grown in recent years, just 2.2% of Cambridge housing units hosted at least one trip last year.
- Most ‘entire home’ listings are only shared occasionally — two-thirds of entire home listings in Cambridge were rented for less than 90 days. This reaffirms how most hosts are occasionally sharing their own home when they are out of town.
- Most Cambridge hosts make modest, supplemental income from sharing their homes — the typical entire home Airbnb listing in Cambridge earned about $770 per month. Far from taking long-term housing off the market, most hosts are sharing their homes on a part-time basis to cope with rising rents and the cost of living in Cambridge.