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ppitm t1_j6zw2mo wrote

It might be a good start in some places, but only a start and not remotely a solution. We would have a housing crisis anyway.

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Armigine t1_j71fnm4 wrote

It's r/Maine, this state is one of the worst impacted by short term rentals eating away the otherwise normal housing stock, and attacking services like Airbnb might have more positive impact here statewide compared to most areas of the country. Between people having a second home in Maine to summer in and short term rentals catering to people doing the same, the street I live on is something like three quarters gobbled up by housing which sits vacant except when rich assholes vacation here for three months out of the year.

Even building more housing here likely won't help without this situation being addressed - since the 60s, Maine has built about one new house for every two people added to the population, but a supermajority of those new houses are not lived in by full time Mainers. New houses right now are majority built by developers looking to sell them to the highest bidder and tailoring them to that market, so it's mostly to the short term rental/vacation home people.

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