Sedona’s local government declared a housing emergency late last year because of the large number of short-term rentals in the world-famous hiking town. Since then, the number of vacation rentals has only gone up.
Sedona Mayor Scott Jablow is sending a message, both to prospective out of town landlords running short-term rentals and to the state government:
"Look someplace else. Sedona has way too many," he said.
Last year, 16% of the city’s housing inventory was vacation rentals. So far this year, it’s 18%. Jablow says his own neighborhood is more than one in three, at 35%.
He wants to press the state to allow Sedona to restrict vacation rentals. Senate Bill 1350 prohibits the city from doing much to stop them.
"When 1350 was initially instituted, a lot of lower value houses were turned into short-term rentals and that situation has continued to this day," he said.
Jablow says another challenge is the rising cost of homes. Investors, he says, are outmatching individual buyers trying to move to Sedona.
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