Downtown Low Down Ep 7: Referendum On Short Term Rentals In San Diego

If you're a fan of the HIT web series, the Downtown Lowdown, that I do with David Spiewak, I imagine that you might be going crazy wondering where episode 7 is. Well fear not. We DID tape episode 7, about the recent ban on short term rentals in San Diego County, but, the SD card clicked off about 4 mins in, and pretty much the entire relevant part of our discussion was cut out. We have linked to the beginning of the video below, but episode 7 will only live on YouTube, we will not be embedding on our Facebook page.

So, what was our episode about? I was in reference to this recent ruling by the San Diego City Council to LIMIT the ability of a homeowner to rent out their home to "primary residences" ONLY. This ruling has a HUGE impact on investors and homeowners throughout the county who own second and third homes (or more) that they earn extra income on by renting out via popular short term rental sites like AirBnb.

While homeowners across the county will be effected by the ruling, this will most prominently be felt in popular tourist sites, like Pacific Beach. It's estimated that over 30% of the homes owned in Mission & Pacific Beach are NOT primary occupants, and are used as short term rental investments. While we do see that here in Downtown as well, almost every HOA has some sort of rule requiring a minimum stay already in place, to deter against short term renting. 

Since we filmed episode 7, AirBnb has actually already supported a new referendum, to combat this ruling. This is a pretty fluid situation, and I don't forsee the debate ending anytime soon. -Jason