The law was supposed to force homeowners and landlords to put their rentals back on the market, increase supply, and allow rents to soften.* And while supply did re-enter the long term market, it still doesn’t capture if it eased rents. We can measure this by comparing rents in the Airbnb-heavy neighborhoods and see if they fell or grew more slowly after the ban compared to neighborhoods with almost no Airbnbs.

Six of the ten fastest-growing neighborhoods were high-Airbnb areas. The ten densest sat dead mid-pack, with 10.4% rent growth against a citywide median of 11.1%2. Midtown, the most exposed big neighborhood in Manhattan with 776 banned listings, saw asking rents rise 14.6%. The places that lost the most Airbnbs got rent increases at or above the same rate.