Arizona’s real estate market has changed dramatically since a 2016 state law that seized local control of most short-term rentals, or STRs, typically used by online travel marketplaces like Airbnb.
KJZZ recently revisited some of those frustrated homeowners for an update and found out that their situations haven’t improved.
We met at one of the area’s oldest and most famous restaurants, Los Olivos, where short-term rentals aren’t such a bad thing for business for longtime owner Maria Corral.
“It’s a great thing, especially for downtown Scottsdale. My son has a house close to here that rents out all of the time," Corral said.
Corral’s parents opened Scottsdale’s first Mexican restaurant in 1947.
“Yeah, it’s great, but everyone in Scottsdale knows how much it’s changed here, I mean it’s different. We’re the Beverly Hills of Arizona. I remember when the streets were dirt," Corral said.
But that change has accelerated in recent years, especially in the real estate market after the state changed its rules restricting local control of short-term rentals.
Some, like Cheryl Triplett, have had enough and are moving away.
“We would have stayed. Scottsdale has changed so much. There’s more short-term rentals on my street than there are residents. It just seems that Scottsdale caters to the tourists and tourism, and we can’t live like that anymore," Triplett said.
Triplett said two years ago that she’d suffered property damage and excessive noise — and that her family had been frequently harassed by drunken and disorderly visitors staying nearby.
She says she’s never gotten any help from local, city or state officials.
“Nothing. I don’t feel the residents have a voice. I never felt like I was represented. Nobody gave us any support," Triplett said.
'I don’t have loyalty to the neighborhood, and I’ve kind of given up on the police'
Fellow Old Town resident Kristie Hudson feels the neighborhood continues to go downhill.
“They know the police aren’t going to do anything if it’s prior to 10 p.m. So the daytime noise has gotten considerably worse," Hudson said.
Hudson says she doesn’t buy the theory that the city’s growth as a tourist destination is fueling the rise of STRs.
“Scottsdale has always been a tourist destination," she said. "Scottsdale never struggled as a tourist destination prior to the Airbnb craze — so why can’t people go back to staying in hotels and resorts?”
We also met Stephanie Nestlerode back in 2023. She says she still feels trapped.
“I tried to sell my house, but no one was interested. Um, so, we’re just staying put for right now, but I mean I don’t have loyalty to the neighborhood, and I’ve kind of given up on the police," she said.
Nestelrode says she’s had to put off major life decisions because of her predicament.
“I did move there because it was a very family-oriented neighborhood by schools. Now, I would never raise a child there. It’s just not conducive with what’s good for a kid to have in their backyard, you know what I mean. It’s constantly foul, there’s constant expletives, there’s constantly people drinking," she said.
According to their website, Scottsdale has around 3,600 short-term rental-only properties. Most owners pay a licensing fee to the city — that amounted to $850,000 in 2024. According to the Scottsdale Progress, the city also receives more than $1 million a month in sales tax from the short-term renters themselves.
'They’re being decimated'
Kate Bauer with the Arizona Neighborhood Alliance says she’s been assisting city officials in other parts of the state to help reverse the effects of SB 1350, the 2016 law that tied the hands of local governments to regulate such properties.
“We’ve actually been working more with mayors from the rural towns of Arizona, and they’re being decimated. Williams, you know, lost their Section 8 HUB housing because so much turned (to) short-term rentals. Jerome has been decimated, Bisbee, Lake Havasu. They’re now trying to put more pressure on state officials," Bauer said.
Bauer says she fully supports the right of residents to profit from their own properties, including benefiting from a new Arizona law that allows homeowners in larger cities to build and rent out their on-property casitas.
“That would be great. We’d love to see more owner-occupied short-term rentals. The main problem is all of these full time, for the most part, empty homes," she said.
Empty except for when the partying never ends.
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