How college football is crushing housing markets across the country
The Georgia Bulldogs — the two-time defending champions — draw about 90,000 spectators to Sanford Stadium for six or seven home games each fall, essentially creating an alternative market for short-term rentals that last about three months. Real estate investors buy and build homes for fans who have to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars for a weekend of housing before a home game, and the effects of that impact local residents year-round. According to Air DNAwhich tracks Airbnb and VRBO vacation rental performance data, there are currently 1,135 short-term rentals available in Athens – up from 865 in November 2022 – of which 88 percent include a fully private home.
Ms. Malcolm, who lives on the west side of Athens, runs a nonprofit called Farm to Neighborhood and a food truck and catering company, Rashe’s Cuisine, on the city’s east side, not far from Sanford Stadium. “It’s a historically black area,” she said, “so when football games happen, you see more and more non-black people coming through the neighborhood and walking to the liquor store to get beer and take it back to their rental. ”
Athens is not an outlier. Across the United States, in small towns that rely on college sports to keep their economies afloat, short-term rentals are destabilizing housing markets, fueled by wealthy fans and investors who transform single-family homes into de facto hotels for a few weeks. years, and often leaves them empty for the rest of the time.
“College athletics, especially college football, has become so huge in this country, especially in the Southeast, that it has created this short-term rental phenomenon,” said Adrien Bouchet, director of the DeVos Sport Business Management Program at the university. of Central Florida. “On the one hand, it creates value, but on the other hand, it certainly harms people who have lived in and around the university for a long time.”
Mr. Bouchet pointed to similar market trends in Southern college towns such as Auburn, Ala., Tuscaloosa, Ala., Gainesville, Fla., and Oxford, Miss., where football rules the economy during the fall. Over the past year, short-term rental offerings have grown 34 percent in Tuscaloosa (home to the University of Alabama), 33 percent in Columbia, Mo. (University of Missouri) and by 11 percent in South Bend, Indiana. University of Notre Dame), according to AirDNA data. Bookings usually peak in November.