"The" implies one driving issue but like most big problems, the current housing crisis has a number of drivers.
Think of a grease fire where the people throwing water on it are making it worse. So are the people pouring gas on it. So are the idiots with the big fans trying to blow it away from their own stuff.
Another search states that there are 329,283 airbnbs in California in 2021. These should go to families first.
New York has 955,437 empty houses according to a quick search, and it's 4th behind Florida, California, and Texas. Take away renting out houses, short-term or otherwise, and sell those houses to people who don't have a first house, the crisis would away. It's simply greed.
No - that's really an issue all over. Especially when viewed thru the broader lens of counterproductive zoning.
But not this particular greed - only. Maybe not even mostly. Whatever (temp) relief would be found by (permanently) forcing owners of empty dwellings to divest - that relief would be quickly overrun by the issues of an overly-constrained housing supply.
> Take away renting out houses,
I'd be homeless.