An industry has emerged, abetted by many years of very low interest rates. This industry buys residences and rents them out - it is called 'rent seeking' https:

An industry has emerged, abetted by many years of very low interest rates. This industry buys residences and rents them out - it is called 'rent seeking' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking I masquerades as a real business, but it is essentially a parasitic entity. It maintains a large stock of vacant places that it rent short term = AirBNB etc. It is the root cause of the housing shortage and the rent increases. Some cities tax them as hotels - where they are found - they operate stealthily. What is needed is a specific added tax to offset their spread to new dwelling as well as shrink those in place to force their sale to people to live in them, some city/state/fed action would help.