The cost of rent or a mortgage eclipses local wages. The mass arrival of Bay Area residents with Silicon Valley salaries drove up the cost of living, which pushed Tahoe into a devastating housing crisis that is displacing local residents and straining businesses that cannot find people to hire. Of all the homes sold in 2021, nearly 40% were cash offers, according to the Sierra Board of Realtors. By November of 2021, that figure jumped 178% to a $1.175 million median sale price. In April 2020, the median price of a single family home in North Tahoe was $660,000, according to a report compiled by Placer County staff. The fallout has transformed the way of life for most local residents, and it's easy to see how that happened by looking at the real estate numbers. Then the pandemic hit, and Lake Tahoe experienced a surge of visitors unlike anything else in its history, as people heeded doctors’ recommendations to go outdoors while COVID raged. The need to regulate short-term rentals began as a nuisance issue, responding to noise, parking and trash violations.
The town of Truckee is also in the midst of its own moratorium and debate on how to reign in short-term rentals. Last year, the city of South Lake Tahoe prohibited short-term rentals in residential neighborhoods. There are five separate counties in the basin, each with their own jurisdiction and philosophies. Lake Tahoe has been trying to regulate and enforce the proliferation of Airbnbs across the basin for years, and the rules are anything but consistent. “Every time one of those houses is turned into, essentially, another hotel, that’s one less home for somebody who’s actually contributing to this community.” “I know so many contributors to this community - teachers, people who work in hospitals, people who work in utilities, people who work in restaurants - that are not able to either rent here or buy homes, and it is absolutely heartbreaking,” said Ellie Perry, a North Tahoe resident, at the meeting. Instead of granting more short-term rental permits, as the proposed ordinance would do, local residents pleaded with the board to reduce the number of permits, bring balance back to neighborhoods that are overwhelmed by vacationers and alleviate pressure on a housing crisis that is displacing the workforce, disrupting businesses and sinking the quality of life for local residents.
Nearly 200 people, in person and via Zoom, attended the public hearing for the new short-term rental ordinance, held at a Placer County Board of Supervisors meeting in Tahoe City on Tuesday.ĭozens of commenters, most full-time Tahoe residents who have been in the area anywhere from a couple of years to several decades, spoke up at the meeting, urging the board to take stronger action. Many want the county to crack down on short-term rentals even more. Local residents say the new rules don’t go nearly far enough.
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