You used to have to be really rich to own a vacation property. There were vacation rentals, but the system was used a lot less, had a lot more friction, etc. N

You used to have to be really rich to own a vacation property. There were vacation rentals, but the system was used a lot less, had a lot more friction, etc. Now, "everyone" can afford a vacation property, but depending on how much money you have, it depends on low interest rates, and as-close-to-full occupancy on AirBnB as possible just to pay the mortgage. It's like when "hey, maybe our household could use a second income" turned into "everyone needs 2 earners to get by". It's inflation. I reached the same conclusion as you about people "condensing expenses". I was puzzling over how the economy is on fire, and yet businesses "aren't able to find workers" (read: workers who will accept what they're offering in pay) on the back of a huge unemployment spike, where you'd expect that previously-unemployed folks would be desperate for a paycheck. Some people point to Covid unemployment assistance, which is going away, but they must have compressed those living expenses in order to afford to demand higher wages.