[pithymaxim]

Maybe, but the regression they use to argue this is pretty bonkers...they need to assume that once they control for income, population, education, and employment, the coefficient on the Airbnb share captures the causal effect of Airbnb on prices. But obviously AirBnB share will be correlated with many other things that make a neighborhood nice, which will also be correlated with prices. So this just says that desirable neighborhoods are desirable.

[wikiwawa]

Note that the regression is on the differences, y_t - y_t-1 not the levels, just y_t.

So the argument is more subtle, that the "change" in AirBnB share is correlated with changes in rents. So level effects such as being a nice neighborhood are accounted for.

Having said that, a large change in AirBnB share is probably still related to unobservables related to factors that would increase rent. E.g changes in hipness of a neighborhood unaccounted for by changes in demographics. Therefore the $616M figure is biased upwards, though I bet in reality still a large number.