New Research on Airbnb's Impact on the San Francisco Housing Market

Carolyn Said reports (along with a large team of designers, photographers, and editors) on the "Airbnb effect." The feature includes five parts, covering the spectrum of high-level data to personal anecdotes from the experiences of the many different varieties of "hosts" who use Airbnb to rent out property.

The article begins with a claim that in total, 350 homes listed on Airbnb function as full-time vacation rentals—effectively removing those units from the city's housing stock. That number might seem insignificant compared to the population of the city, but the figure gains new significance when compared to the 2,000 units of housing the entire city adds in a typical year.

The Chronicle commissioned data-extraction companies Connotate Inc. and Import.io to gather the data that informs the feature. Part One of the feature describes the findings of that analysis, with the help of infographics, before the next sections of the feature dig into more personal stories of San Francisco's Airbnb experience.

For additional, outside perspective, Kerry Gold recently reported on research into similar effects in the Vancouver housing market.