[mantraxC]

I get your point, but housing isn't like ice-cream. You can't just decide you don't want ice-cream because it's too expensive.

The alternative is living on the street, which brings with itself inability to maintain employment and so on down the spiral. It's literally better not to eat for a few days, than it is to find yourself on the street with all your stuff. A point of no return.

So the incentive to seek "tricks" is high (whether it be Airbnb, or living with 5-6 other people in a small apartment), and demand is dictated purely by how many people are there needing to rent, versus how much money they have.

[uptown]

Housing isn't an all or nothing decision. You can always opt for something smaller, in a worse neighborhood, or outside the metro area ... requiring a longer commute. The impact that Airbnb has is that transient visitors are utilizing real estate zoned for longer-term residential use instead of booking stays in hotels. Hotels are upset because they're losing business to an entity not subject to the same regulations and oversight they're subjected to. But more-importantly, long-term residents of a city are impacted by a shortage of available real estate because they're looking to sign a year long lease ... not move from Airbnb rental to Airbnb rental from week to week.

I understand what you're saying with your ice cream analogy, but I'm not sure I agree that it relates to housing in the way you suggest.