Does Airbnb Presence Increase Rental Values? Evidence from Portland, Oregon Neighborhoods

This paper examines the impacts that the Airbnb platform has had on indexed rental values in Portland, Oregon neighborhoods from January 2010 - July 2019. Through the study of a new geographic area, this paper adds to the existing quantitative work that has been done in this field and tests to see if their findings hold in a smaller metropolitan area compared to previous cities of study. As policy makers around the world continue to take action against home sharing services like Airbnb, there is a need for increased empirical work to provide statistical insight on these issues. This study reveals that a subsetted group of neighborhoods in Portland experience a 0.6% increase in indexed rental values for an increase of one Airbnb listing per 1000 neighborhood residents. Ultimately, this study is inconclusive in estimating the true effect that Airbnb’s presence has on indexed rental values in Portland