Damaged homes, canceled bookings and visitor hesitancy has shaken the once-roaring short-term rental (STR) market in Asheville and throughout Western North Carolina since Tropical Storm Helene ravaged the area in late September.
Tyler Coon, CEO and founder of Savvy Realty, which focuses exclusively on short-term rentals for both buyers and sellers, remembers watching the slow but meaningful impact on the local STR inventory in the weeks and months following the storm.
“There was a massive decline in the number of [active short-term rental] listings. In October, I remember thinking, ‘OK, we lost like, 3% or 4% [of active listings]. By November, I think it climbed to 7%,” recalls Coon. “It was really December and January where we started realizing that this is going to have a much larger effect than we really thought.”…