By Bear Howard
Talk to any longtime resident of Sedona, and you’ll probably hear the phrase, “Remember when?” They reminisce about the small market on Highway 179, the Flicker Shack, and the funky Mars/Alien burger stand on 89A in West Sedona. They recall fights over streetlights on 89A and debates over whether a CVS should be built at the corner of Airport Road and 89A.
Change has always been part of Sedona’s story, but something about this latest shift feels different—and not in a good way. Sedona is losing its middle class, the backbone of any real community. More than 1,000 homes that once belonged to local families and workers have been turned into mini-hotels called short-term rentals.
In most places, gentrification happens gradually over decades. In Sedona, it has happened almost overnight. What was once a diverse town is quickly becoming a 55+ luxury retreat for the wealthy. In some ways, Sedona is turning into Paradise Valley North.
As local families and workers leave, Sedona isn’t just losing housing—it’s losing its identity. The artistic, mystical, and creative energy that once made this place special is fading. A healthy community needs a mix of incomes, ages, and perspectives. Just like a recipe needs different ingredients to taste great, a town thrives on diversity. Without it, Sedona risks becoming dull, expensive, and out of reach—a place designed only for tourists and retirees who can afford it.
At the same time, visiting Sedona has become more expensive. Tourists who once stayed in hotels now rent entire homes, making short-term rentals even more profitable. This shift has made Sedona an even bigger draw for high-end travelers while leaving fewer homes for people who actually live and work here.
And it’s hurting the town in serious ways. With fewer workers able to afford to live here, businesses are struggling to stay open. Schools, once full of life, are now seeing enrollment drop, leading to budget cuts. City services rely on tourist spending, but the wealthiest new residents mostly contribute only through property taxes—money that largely goes to the county, schools, and fire districts, not the city itself.
Some people want to turn Sedona into an exclusive, members-only retreat—a gated community in the red rocks. But instead of membership fees, the price of entry is sky-high home prices and rental costs.
What Happens Next?
If Sedona keeps going down this path, it will soon look like a high-end retirement village, where newcomers take control while longtime locals get pushed out. Look at local platforms like Nextdoor, and you’ll see how many newer residents don’t understand how small government works or how Sedona has evolved since becoming a city in 1988—just 37 years ago.
Fixing this won’t be easy. But a big part of the solution is increasing housing density—building three- and four-story apartment complexes, some with subsidies to keep rent affordable for middle-class families and workers. More housing could bring back young families, stabilize schools, and help keep businesses alive.
The days when the middle class could afford single-family homes in Sedona are over. Now, the priority needs to be workforce housing, stricter short-term rental rules, and policies that make Sedona a place where people can live—not just visit.
Do we really need more mega-mansions? Or do we want to fight for a Sedona that still feels like home?
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12 Comments
100% Agree! I started a small business here 4.5 yrs ago. Finding employees has always been hard but it’s nearly impossible today. And yes, I pay well. Demand is high, but I can’t serve everyone because I don’t have enough help. I love Sedona but will be leaving ASAP. It’s sad.
Go back to any town you have ever lived and you’ll likely be disappointed that what you find doesn’t match your memories of it. People places and things change. That’s part of life. To expect a town to remain the exact same for all of eternity is unrealistic and ridiculous.
Having stated the obvious, it is also ridiculous to go gang busters and develop every free square centimeter of undeveloped land. That’s what happened to Phoenix at the hands of money grubbing developers who developed the city faster than proper planning could keep up with it. And now it’s an overpopulated dehydrating pipe dream disaster.
Fortunately Sedona is surrounded by protected lands. Unfortunately the Orange moron doesn’t respect the need to have them and wants to “drill baby drill” them into contaminated toxic wastelands just to make money off of an outdated commodity he and big oil prefer over breathable air, potable water and safe food sources. No matter as I am certain Elonia will convince ill deuce that M’erica needs to buy “Tesler” “clean energy” exploding rockets, trucks and cars! 😂
Perhaps the master plan for Sedona is to make it impossible to work or live in it unless you are worth a million bucks or more? Without hourly salaried employees Sedona will cease to exist. Say buh bye to your fancy restaurants, resorts and shops. Without workers it all goes away! And as stated, that could very likely be by ignorant design in order to keep the lower income peasants out of their gilded kingdom they stole from it’s rightful owners.
Mr Howard
There is a clear reason for the STR explosion directly related to city actions.
If you have interest in discussing please feel free to call me.
Bill
928.451.9215
Doesn’t have anything to do with Ex Governor Ducey forcing municipalities like Sedona to have zero say in who can operate a STR or how many?
Mr. Spring:
No mystery here… SB1350 passed by the Arizona State Legislature in 2016 is to blame for the rapid STR conversion in Sedona and other places in Arizona. It is out of the city and counties hands when the state makes it legally impossible to regulate STR’s… recall prior to SB1350 Sedona had a 30-day minimum ordinance for rentals. SB1350 threw that control out. And, the ability for any local or county governments to set limits – % caps, for example, was also now illegal by SB1350.
This was a legislation was made possible by the support by the Arizona real estate companies and they made millions of dollars as a result of SB1350 by selling Sedona properties to investors, businesses and hotels for conversion into STR’s to take out the tourism money we attract. It was clearly about making money without any concern for the aftermath on Sedona and other communities in Arizona.
To repeat more directly: it is false to say that the city had anything to do with SB1350. They have been fighting as hard as they are legally allowed to minimize the negative impacts of losing our community and our needed workforce housing to STR’s. In fact, they made a “State of Emergency” proclamation and took it to Phoenix. The responsibility squarely lies in the Arizona legislature for passing SG1350 and refusing since then to repeal it or allow local governments the control to no destroy our community.
Sedona has become popular, very popular as people flee high tax and high crime states. It is a simple law of supply and demand. Sedona has a limited supply of houses and high demand. Subsidized public housing will not solve the problem. You wont make Sedona more affordable by making it less desirable.
You also won’t make it more affordable by not providing fair housing to the people who operate Sedona on a daily basis, because without them Sedona isn’t!
First it was the safe park and now you attack any and all affordable housing in support of mega McMansion’s and unregulated STR’s. Can’t run a city with either of those two options now can you? You need people willing to do the work and to have that you have to have affordable housing for those people!
“Subsidized public housing will not solve the problem. You wont make Sedona more affordable by making it less desirable”
It solves the problem for those un housed workers living in the cars and tents out in BFE because the wealthy are too stingy to help make housing affordable to them rather than selling it to out of state STR companies!
Interesting discussion. We had at least 2 housing opportunities presented by previous owners of the Cultural ,Park. All shot down for various reasons. Now that the city owns it, the rules have changed. So we have taxpayer money at play where it could all have been private.
Then we have the area about 4 milies out of town that the city owns. An excellent development was proposed. Goes nowhere. Now the city wants to annex all the way down there and is spending a fortune for a bus barn design. For what they are spending they could have put up a metal building from any number of manufacturers.
Now they just approved the purchase of about 3+ acres across from Hillsdale, which is on a steep bank and looks like 30 to 40% is in a flood plain. They just like buying property it seems.
Yes, there are some larger homes being built, but when you look at the lots, which are sizable and range from .7 acres to 1.5 or greater, don’t expect a small house.
This is private property after all. Being land locked, we are also like Jackson Hole and many other tourist towns.
We are unique in that we have the Verde Valley and a lot of private property in the valley. The housing shortage is a Valley issue, not just a Sedona issue.
Some like to think we are the beacon on the hill. We are not. The housing issue has to be solved regionally. Sedona cannot solve it by itself. It takes cooperation and leadership to bring the Valley governments (including the county) together.
Transportation is available and would expand if there was a need. The combined cities of the Verde Valley are actually smaller than some major cities where people use buses and other forms of transportation all the time.
Think inside the box and you’ll never get out of the box.
Let’s hope the smaller cities can acquire some local control on their STR properties. That would help, but that’s not the answer.
We also talk about the middle class. Yes, very important. But you have to have industries, or companies that need middle class workers. We’re perfect for tech oriented companies. But at this point it is culinary and tourist based. So that’s the reality. And we need to have reasonable housing for our main industry.
Bro wants to turn Sedona into a rave.
Ain’t you Boomers wrecked enough stuff already?
Litter Sedona with 4 story buildings… Pig Generation at its finest.
“We also talk about the middle class. Yes, very important. But you have to have industries, or companies that need middle class workers. We’re perfect for tech oriented companies”
Yeah mate that worked perfectly well in the Silicon Valley now didn’t it? We already having housing issues that would only exacerbate it 100 fold. And we most definitely don’t need the military industrial complex building who knows what here. Hasn’t worked out well for a single community they have incorporated.
Are you saying long term middle class residents should not be able to sell their house or land (likely the biggest investment they have) at today’s high prices and cash out? What gives you the right to deny them a profit on their investment? You have an elitist attitude if you deny others their financial success because you are nostalgic for the old days.