Though Ocean Springs implemented a 115-property cap on short-term rentals allowed in the city more than a decade ago, it has done little to slow rising housing prices and rental figures, said Alderwoman Shannon Pfeiffer, who represents Ward 4 for the city.
Pfeiffer views the cap as just a starting point for addressing issues associated with short-term rentals and said the board is currently back to the drawing board on addressing their local impact through additional legislative steps.
“We have some situations here in Ocean Springs, for instance, a woman that’s lived here her whole adult life. She’s in her later years, and she’s burdened by having (a short-term rental) on all sides,” Pfeiffer said. “That’s a problem. … You want to offer housing opportunities for year-round residents because there’s that quality that you get from that.”
Columbus could see a similar impact from short-term rentals if development is left unchecked, and they could make a difficult housing market more challenging for residents, Building Department Director Nathan Katona told The Dispatch.
“I wouldn’t say I see it as a problem at this point,” Katona said. “We’re just kind of looking at other cities and other places that the more short-term rentals you get it could cause problems. I wouldn’t say it’s caused a problem yet in this specific community.”
According to AirDNA, a data analytics platform that tracks and provides data on the short-term rental market using data from platforms including Airbnb and VRBO, there are 145 properties in Lowndes County. There are 659 listings in Oktibbeha County. Clay County has 83 listings.
From 2021 to 2024, AirDNA said the availability of short-term rental options has grown from 1.1 million to 1.65 million nationally, with projected growth through 2027 to hit 1.85 million.
Pfeiffer said Ocean Springs’ cap was primarily developed to help get an idea of how many short-term rentals were in the area and create a registration process for them.
Columbus and Starkville both created ordinances with similar purposes over the last year, but neither city has implemented a cap.
In October, Columbus implemented a short-term rental ordinance, which requires property owners to apply for a permit with the city and renew it each year for $50. In Starkville, the board of aldermen approved an ordinance in July requiring short-term rentals to register with the city by October.
“We’re probably not going to have a complete sense of (how many short-term rentals there are) for quite a while, because in some cases we’re going to probably have to chase people down and figure it out because some people don’t know about (the ordinance),” Mayor Lynn Spruill said. “They’re out-of-towners, and they aren’t paying attention to our ordinances, so it’ll be one of those things that we’re just going to have to gather that information as the opportunity provides itself.”
To pair with Columbus’ ordinance, Mayor Stephen Jones in July floated the idea of implementing a cap for short-term rentals to help curb potential issues with overdevelopment taking up too much of the housing supply and raising rental prices.
In July, Jones told The Dispatch he would like to discuss the policy with residents, homeowners, City Attorney Jeff Turnage, and Cory Clark, the recently hired city planner, who began this month, before implementing a new policy.
Jones told The Dispatch Sept. 10 that there has not been much progress on developing a cap since then, but it is still something he believes needs to be monitored.
“You also have a lot of people out of town that’s buying these (properties) and turning them into short-term rentals,” Jones said. “So now you’re taking up (would-be rental properties). … If you take the few properties that we have and somebody buys them and turn them into short-term rentals, then where are the other people going to go?”
Other municipalities in Mississippi have also instituted caps beyond Ocean Springs. In March 2025, Hattiesburg implemented a 2.5% cap for the total number of residential properties in the city that could be designated as short-term rentals.
But Spruill doesn’t think a cap is needed for Starkville because short-term rentals fill a gap left by area hotels. She believes short-term rentals aren’t impacting rent prices in Starkville but are driving up prices of starter homes.
“That’s my knee-jerk impression to it, I don’t think it’s impacting (rentals),” Spruill told The Dispatch. “If it’s impacting rentals, it’s impacting rentals by virtue of the fact that there’s less and less on the market to be available for long-term rental. But it wouldn’t be; it’s not impacting normal apartment rentals.”
			
						
						
			
      
      
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