A breakdown of the 5,000 Airbnb listings in San Francisco

Flickr / David McSpadden

It's no secret that San Francisco housing is pricey, but a San Francisco Chronicle report sheds light on one factor that could be limiting housing supply: Airbnb rentals.

There are nearly 5,000 Airbnb rentals in the city, according to the Chronicle's report.

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Renters are increasingly listing whole properties rather than extra rooms. Of San Francisco's 5,000 rentals, nearly 3,000 are entire houses and apartments, meaning that nobody else is living there.

Most of these listings probably would not have been long-term rentals anyway. The article notes that two-thirds of the listings had only a few reviews, suggesting that owners were using Airbnb for its intended purpose - to rent out their place when they weren't there.

But about 300 listings had more than 50 reviews, implying heavy usage.

The Chronicle also discovered that 513 of Airbnb's San Francisco hosts control multiple properties.

However, the report did not find widespread abuse of Airbnb listings being used like hotels, unlike a similar study in New York did last year.

San Francisco has sought to regulate Airbnb like other area hotels. Last week the company paid the city "tens of millions" in owed hotel taxes.

Before San Francisco passed the so-called "Airbnb law," hosts were being evicted for violating the city's ban on short-term housing.

The Chronicle report has lots of other information, like which neighborhoods have the most expensive rentals. Read it here>>