Los Angeles’s short-term rental market is significantly less competitive than that of Phoenix. A 2019 law made it illegal to rent out any property other than your primary residence in Los Angeles, effectively shutting investors out of the market.
Though Arizona homeowners need to obtain a license to operate a vacation rental, there are fewer restrictions making the market a free-for-all and ripe for investors, big and small.
Investors like Ms. Ochoa snapped up more than 30 percent of Phoenix’s housing stock in the third quarter of 2022. She will still make money during the Super Bowl — she owns a second property, a five-bedroom, three-bath house that she bought for $670,000 and has been able to rent it for $2,500 per night that weekend. One company alone, the Dallas-based Invitation Homes, now owns more than 8,700 homes in Phoenix.
Casago, a vacation rental company headquartered in Scottsdale, has added about 3,000 new listings in just the last two months, said Ryan Dame, Casago’s co-owner.
Terri Compton blamed the proliferation for what will be an empty guest suite and casita at her house on Super Bowl Sunday.
Ms. Compton, 58, a retired building inspector, began renting her house after her adult children moved out and she remodeled her home. She said she has “made a lot of money,” generally charging $125 a night for the casita and $70 a night for the guest room.
Based on advice from online forums for short-term rental owners, she set prices at four times that for the week of Super Bowl. Now, with a vacancy on a night when she should be booked, Ms. Compton has lowered prices about 30 percent, but is hesitant to go much lower, because she is worried about attracting guests who might be disrespectful or heavy partyers.
