Greensboro, NC, Ranked Best Place to Invest in the Nation for Airbnb

GREENSBORO, NC (WGHP) — You may have rented a home or part of it for a vacation stay through an agency such as Airbnb or VRBO. It is becoming increasingly popular, especially for families, with millions of rentals worldwide every day.

What you might not know is that the hottest of the biggest markets in the United States to invest in Airbnb may be right here in Greensboro.

Greensboro is the highest-rated market for Airbnb investments, according to an assessment.

Incfile, a company that helps start-ups get organized and get started, measuring the 100 largest cities through the prism of various data and trends and landing on GSO – the Gate City – as your best bet for investing.

More on the criteria later, but know this: Greensboro jumped to the top because its home prices are relatively low ($247,739 is the median) in a a still strong marketand its monthly Airbnb revenue of $3,771 — yes, the first digit before the comma is a “3” — is third best among those 100 cities, which included all of the majors in North Carolina.

Greensboro also has a typical occupancy rate of just under 50%, Incfile found, and its average rate per night was around $193 (though that fluctuates seasonally).

The rest of the top seven cities, according to Incfile ranked them: Nashville (much higher prices), New Orleans, Birmingham, Buffalo, Memphis and Pittsburgh.

All ranked below Greensboro in almost every data category.

For example, Nashville would generate an average monthly income of $3,911, with an occupancy rate of 56%. But its median price was by far the highest ($455,157).

And no, not everyone in town may be happy to hear that. Some hosts have lost their enthusiasm. Yet it is remarkable.

About the process

So how did Incfile make this assessment of Greensboro? It collected, weighted and shredded data. And be sure to know that this analysis focuses on Airbnb, not VRBO or any other vacation rental agency.

The data included Airbnb’s average price by state, occupancy rates, cost of living, median home price, and average monthly income. These numbers were weighted to create a ranking. For example, monthly income was valued at 0.26 and median house price at 0.12.

Aggregators and listing agents such as All bedrooms and Zillow provided historical data that powers much of this report.

For example, Allbedrooms.com found that the average daily rate in Greensboro — not Winston-Salem — in the 30 days after Christmas was $131, down from a much higher average closer to Thanksgiving. Some of this data analysis was hidden behind a subscription requirement.

But there were variables for whole homes, private rooms, shared rooms/suites, and hotels, both traditional and extended stay. All major North Carolina markets are individually metered.

Hotels or rentals? 7 things to know

  1. According to research by the Family Destinations Guide, most vacationers would prefer prefer traditional hotel rooms, with more than half of adults surveyed saying they would choose hotel rooms. A house/villa was second, and a self-contained apartment was further down the list, after a campsite and a motorhome.
  2. In some cities, hotel rooms may be cheaper than Airbnb. Nashville and New Orleans appear on this list, also. Just like Austin, Texas, San Diego and San Francisco.
  3. Google searches can tell us that there are over 150,000 hotel rooms in Las Vegas and almost as many in Orlando and New York (the top three in the country). We also learn that there are approximately 27,000 in Charlotte and at least 17,000 in Wake County. But we can’t find out exactly how many hotel rooms might be available in Greensboro or even in Wilmington (the coast) or Asheville (the mountains).
  4. Similarly, there are many properties listed for Airbnb or analyzes of their financial impact, but counting and measuring can be moving targets. Data for 2021 suggests that in North Carolina, new Airbnb hosts earned about $75 million. It was sixth of all states, behind California, Florida, Texas, New York and Georgia. That’s out of a total pool that the company says is up 34% from 2019.
  5. Some cities have strict limitations on Airbnb rentals based on landlord speculation. In New York, for example, an owner cannot market one Airbnb property at a time. Santa Monica, California, coastal Los Angeles and south of Malibu, business licenses and occupancy taxes were required. Paris, Barcelona and Berlin were also suppressed.
  6. In North Carolina, you do not need to register as a business or acquire a license but there is the vacation rental law for landlords and tenants. State law prohibits local governments from making such regulations for a city or county. But owners are responsible for collecting and paying state sales tax, which ranges from 6.75% to 7.5%.
  7. The most recent data suggests that more than a billion people have stayed at an Airbnb and the company suggests that 2 million per night stay at one of its facilities. You have other questions, there are many, many responses and data points.

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