BELLOWS FALLS-I see as a huge problem the number of apartments and houses being used as short-term vacation rentals instead of by "real Vermonters" who need places to live.
I read of a wealthy young couple who had purchased more than a dozen properties here in Vermont - all for their own Airbnb profits.
I'm not sure how to cap Airbnb offerings here, but in my own little town of 3,000 people, there are nearly a thousand Airbnb spaces.
Some of these are just spare bedrooms, but a good amount are entire houses or apartments that have been taken off the market for people living and working in Vermont and made available only to vacationers.
There are loads of homeowners making obscene amount of money at the expense of locals who need to find housing. I get it: Why settle for $900 a month from a long-term tenant when you can make $2,000 a month renting through Airbnb?
But the cost to locals is bigger than it should be.
Holly Bartel
Bellows Falls
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