Going around on Twitter, housing advocates are sharing maps of various zipcodes showing new rental listings on Zillow within the last 14 days. While we do expect listings to go up in spring, a key factor in this is airBNB markets melting down during COVID-19 travel restriction, both legal and social.

Here is Zillow for the metro, showing 500 of 1240 results in the area:

Here is Zillow centered on 55401, showing 93 in a small geographic area:

While certainly many of these units may not have been temporary rentals, it has been clear in many markets that temporary rentals are now being listed for more conventional use as the revenue stream becomes problematic and mortgages remain to be paid.

Minneapolis has rules around short-term rentals:

• Hosts who rent out a room in a house that they are living in while guests are there are not required to register or get a license.
• If the hosts live in a house, but vacate for guest use, they have to pay an annual registration fee for their short-term rental.
• If the hosts do not live in the unit and rent it out — even short-term — they have to obtain a standard rental license, similar to that used for any form of  housing for rent.

The last convert quickly to standard Zillow rental listings.

What do you think? Is the number of rentals likely a product of short-term rental issues during pandemic?