The impact of Airbnb on residential real estate price rises

[chriscls]

Something I don't see discussed much is the impact of AirBnb on price growth in the residential real estate markets. As I started looking to buy a house after being out of the market for a while I was surprised to see so few good options and then to look on Airbnb and see tons of great houses listed for short term rentals (which makes sense given the low interest rates). It seems if the local governments continue to allow short term rental platforms then there will be a lot more price upside potential for residential real estate and a lot more supply shortage and concurrent increase in long term rental rates.

Previously I had been thinking we were more in a real estate bubble but I hadn't been factoring in the Airbnb short term rental market being a real economic driver. So it seems tourism will be a major/larger driver in rental / house prices and increase as a factor as compared to local business economy / wages growth.

I'm curious to hear others thoughts on this. I'm also pretty curious to see how many houses come back on the market due to a massive tourism decrease / lack of viability for over leveraged Airbnb homes. Would appreciate any thoughts or anecdotes! (For reference: I live in Knoxville, TN)