Rental prices have been increasing throughout the country for the last several years. While New Orleans is no exception to this trend, rental rates have decreased in most area zip codes in the last six months. In the meantime, vacancy rates have been fairly constant at their average rates. In this study, Loyola University professors John D. Levendis, Ph. D., and Mehmet F. Dicle, Ph. D. investigate whether any increases in New Orleans’ rental rates are correlated to Airbnb activity, or whether they are part of overall trends in prices. For each zip code in New Orleans, we investigated whether changes in rental prices are correlated with changes in Airbnb activity, after controlling for regional rental rate changes (outside New Orleans).
The report concludes that there is no evidence that rental rates and Airbnb presence are correlated, and conclude that Airbnb has no discernible impact on rents in any of New Orleans’ zip codes.