Short-term rentals could be to blame for Sedona housing shortage
SEDONA, AZ (AZFamily) — The city of Sedona has declared a housing shortage to crack down on the number of short rentals and get the state to help.
According to the city of Sedona, the number of short-term rentals has tripled from about 400 in 2020 to over 1,200 hundred at the end of 2024.
Mayor Scott Jablow said nearly 20% of housing options in Sedona are short-term rentals but 66% of them are owned by people who live outside of the city.
Jablow has lived in town for about 15 years and said the increase in short-term rentals has impacted the community feel of neighborhoods.
“I have more than 50% of the houses on my particular block are short-term rentals,” Jablow said.
He said short-term rentals have also increased housing prices. Sedona’s housing is 105% higher than the national average.
“Those $300,000 houses are going for $1 million because when they were turned into short term rentals they were always increasing in value,” Jablow said. “While we never really had adequate workforce housing now we have virtually none.”
So in December, the city declared a housing shortage. This includes asking the state to allow them to create their zoning restrictions on short-term rentals because right now there is no cap or no way for the city to prevent more short-term rentals.
“We’re saying give us local control,” Jablow said. “Let us enact a cap. Each city and town and even the county unincorporated areas should have the right to cap them.”
Camp Verde, Cave Creek, Cottonwood, Jerome, Prescott, Show Low, Snowflake, Winslow, and Williams have all also adopted a similar declaration while also struggling with short-term rentals.
Sedona has also tried other solutions, including affordable housing complexes in the works, but those take years.
In November voters rejected another idea, Safe Place to Park, which would have allowed people working in Sedona to live in their vehicles.
Jablow said while he didn’t agree with everything about the parking plan, he did say it was a solution that could have helped people.
“We need to help our businesses stay strong and have employees,” he said.
According to the 2020 Sedona Housing Needs Assessment and Action Plan, Sedona needs 1,300 additional affordable housing units.
Mayor Jablow said they want to make Sedona affordable not just for tourists and millionaires, but for teachers, nurses, and minimum-wage workers in their community.
“In the grand scheme of things we hope that the state legislature would finally listen to us,” he said. “So we’re pushing for this community. We’re trying to save it from ourselves actually.”
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