Austin, Texas Airbnb Market Data 2026

Is an Austin Airbnb still worth buying in 2026, and can you even get one licensed now? Well, getting licensed got a lot friendlier in October 2025, when Austin allowed short-term rentals alongside homes in every zoning district and wrote into its code that they can't be banned there.

What you still can't skip is a city operator's license for every unit, and if you're planning more than one rental, make sure you understand the site cap before you buy anything. On a house, duplex or triplex, an individual can run up to two rentals on a site, and any other site has to sit at least 1,000 feet away, which is the rule I'd check first on any investor deal.

As for the market, it didn't get more crowded over the latest year, because listings dipped slightly, although occupancy still slipped while nightly rates climbed about 13%. I'm covering the city of Austin, mostly in Travis County, Texas, though BNBCalc's market data for it runs wider than the city: about 62% of its listings sit inside the city limits, and the rest spread out into the suburbs and toward the lakes.

How Much Do Austin Airbnbs Make in 2026?

I'd start with one-bedrooms, because in Austin they're the largest single group. The high tier of them earns roughly six to seven times what the low tier does with the same bedroom count, so near-identical units can end up with very different incomes.

Yield doesn't climb with bedrooms the way revenue does, though. Typical gross yield sits in a fairly tight band from one-bedrooms through four-plus-bedroom homes, and only studios fall well behind. Once you're past a studio, then, I wouldn't choose a size for its yield; I'd choose it for the guests you want to host and the price you can buy at.

Who's on the other side of the search results? Hosts with more than one listing run a large share of Austin's rentals, so you'll often be up against operators with pricing software and a cleaning crew, and if that sounds like a contest you'd rather outsource, the rundown of Austin property management companies lists the local firms.

As for the ceiling, the strongest tier of Austin listings earns more than two and a half times what the average listing does, on a noticeably fuller calendar, and although some operators do reach it, I'd leave that band out of your base case.

Is the Austin Airbnb Market Oversaturated?

That ceiling only means something if the market under it isn't sinking, so I compared the latest year with the one before.

Metric	Change vs the Sep 2024 to Aug 2025 baseline
Average nightly rate	+13%
Active supply	−2%
Occupancy	−3%
Purchase price	−3%
Booking lead time	Down

BNBCalc market data across all listings BNBCalc tracks in the market, for the twelve months through August 2026 compared with the twelve months through August 2025, rounded to the nearest whole percent. Every row is averaged on its own, booking lead time shows only which way it moved, and a measure is left out when this year's data doesn't settle its direction, while purchase price tracks home values rather than listings.

So is it oversaturated? Going by the latest year, I'd say no, since the number of active listings fell about 2%, although there's a catch: occupancy still slipped about 3% even though there were fewer listings around to compete with.

The hosts who stayed raised their prices anyway, with nightly rates up about 13% in a year when purchase prices fell about 3%.

That catch is the part I'd plan around, because rates climbed while calendars got a little emptier, so if you're buying, I'd build the estimate on the occupancy Austin has today and not on another rate jump like that one.

When Is Peak Airbnb Season in Austin?

Those annual figures hide a lumpy calendar, though.

Month	Occupancy	Avg nightly rate
Sep 2025	31%	$299
Oct 2025	38%	$375
Nov 2025	34%	$308
Dec 2025	29%	$283
Jan 2026	27%	$257
Feb 2026	31%	$277
Mar 2026	40%	$374
Apr 2026	38%	$338
May 2026	39%	$354
Jun 2026	39%	$359
Jul 2026	40%	$371
Aug 2026	34%	$322

BNBCalc market data across all listings BNBCalc tracks in the market, September 2025 to August 2026. Occupancy and nightly rate are each averaged separately.

March filled 40% of its nights at a $374 average rate, which lines up with SXSW taking over the city every March, while January filled only 27% at $257, the lowest occupancy and rate of the year. December through February all stayed below a third of their nights booked, so if you're financing, keep in mind it's January's calendar, not March's, that has to cover the payment.

October is the odd one out, with the year's highest average nightly rate at $375, a dollar above March, and it's the month Austin City Limits Music Festival fills Zilker Park across two weekends, so I'd start event pricing there and with SXSW week.

What surprised me is early summer, since May through July all hold 39% to 40% occupancy at $354 to $371 a night, so the Texas heat doesn't empty the calendar the way you might assume. The calendar thins out in August and September, though, and the real soft patch is December through February, when nightly rates sink to their lowest of the year.

The week has a steeper shape than the year does: Saturday occupancy runs 35% above the average day and Friday's 31% above, while Monday and Tuesday run 23% and 22% below.

Austin hosts clearly know about weekends, since Friday and Saturday rates run 22% to 23% above average. Midweek is a different story, though: Monday through Wednesday rates drop only 12% to 13% while occupancy falls between 16% and 23%, so I think the nights you can still win back are midweek ones.

What Are the Best Neighborhoods in Austin for Airbnb?

Where you buy still changes the result: even among the top 20 neighborhoods, the median listing earns from about $24,500 to $40,200 a year.

About 62% of this market's listings sit inside Austin's city limits, which is enough for a city ranking to describe most of what you'd be buying. Most of the rest sit in other cities or unincorporated land where Austin's license doesn't apply, so if you're looking at Round Rock, Cedar Park or Georgetown, you'll want the Williamson County short-term rental guide instead.

Inside the city, I mapped every listing to Austin's official Neighborhood Reporting Areas and ranked them by median listing revenue, so here are the top 20.

Rank	Neighborhood	Median annual revenue	Median nightly rate	Median occupancy	75th-percentile revenue
1	East Cesar Chavez	$40,247	$302	35%	$92,173
2	Govalle	$36,763	$357	31%	$62,313
3	Downtown	$35,951	$278	35%	$45,019
4	Holly	$34,941	$284	34%	$58,549
5	South River City	$32,769	$263	33%	$46,911
6	Central East Austin	$32,451	$287	32%	$52,335
7	Bouldin Creek	$31,043	$303	31%	$62,235
8	Old West Austin	$30,747	$254	32%	$49,470
9	MLK-183	$29,799	$264	30%	$47,284
10	Rosewood	$29,515	$293	30%	$46,715
11	Zilker	$29,228	$255	33%	$43,412
12	Cherry Creek	$28,328	$261	33%	$37,631
13	Chestnut	$28,146	$234	34%	$37,310
14	West Austin Neighborhood Group	$28,022	$243	30%	$52,479
15	Barton Hills	$27,465	$237	31%	$39,491
16	Garrison Park	$27,258	$252	30%	$37,620
17	Dawson	$26,161	$213	34%	$43,672
18	MLK	$25,996	$272	30%	$41,276
19	South Manchaca	$25,585	$237	33%	$36,122
20	St. Edwards	$24,501	$167	34%	$32,503

BNBCalc listing data for 2026 inside the City of Austin's official Neighborhood Reporting Areas. Revenue, nightly rate and occupancy are medians, which keeps a single standout listing from lifting an area's rank, and the last column is the 75th percentile, where the top quarter of listings starts. Areas too thin to measure reliably are left out, and even the ranked ones can trade places when the data refreshes.

What jumps out at me is the east side, since four of the top six, East Cesar Chavez, Govalle, Holly and Central East Austin, sit east of I-35. Keep in mind the occupancy column shows each area's median listing rather than a market average, so compare the neighborhoods with each other rather than with the monthly table.

Downtown comes third and behaves like a different market altogether, because its top quarter starts only about $9,000 above its median, which tells me most listings there earn close to the same money and there's not much room to pull ahead.

Some names I expected near the top aren't there, though. The neighborhoods around the UT campus, West University, Hyde Park and North University, all land in the bottom eight of the 41 ranked areas, so being close to campus isn't the draw it's often sold as. A few thinly listed west-side pockets post higher medians, but on samples too small to rank.

The four I'd look at first aren't the top four in order, since I weighed depth and name recognition alongside rank.

1. East Cesar Chavez

East Cesar Chavez sits right next to downtown on the east, between I-35 and the river, and it takes in the eastern stretch of 6th Street.

It leads the ranked areas on both the median and the 75th percentile, and its top quarter starts at $92,173, more than double its $40,247 median, the widest gap in the top 20. That spread means the well-run listings pull far ahead of the typical one, and if you can furnish and photograph a place better than the one next door, this is where I'd expect that effort to pay the most.

2. Downtown

Downtown covers the towers around Congress Avenue and the Capitol, plus Rainey Street, and it's the city's deepest area, so it's the most predictable pick and the hardest one to stand out in. Make sure to read the condo association's rules before you make an offer.

3. Bouldin Creek and South River City

Along most of the SoCo strip, South Congress Avenue is the line between these two. Bouldin Creek is the west side and South River City the east, so a listing marketed as SoCo could sit in either one, and anything in Travis Heights is on the South River City side.

They rank seventh and fifth, at $31,043 and $32,769. Bouldin Creek's top quarter starts at $62,235, about double its median, which tells you the best-run places there pull a long way clear of the typical listing.

4. Zilker

Zilker sits beside Zilker Park and Barton Springs, although the park itself falls in the neighboring Barton Hills area on the city's map. It ranks 11th at a $29,228 median, and you're selling walkability to the park, the springs and, for two weekends a year, the festival.

If you'd rather have the feel of each area than its figures, that's what the guide to the best places to invest in Austin is for.

Which Amenities Increase Airbnb Revenue in Austin?

So what's worth spending money on inside the house? I'd let the amenity data answer that before your taste does.

The one amenity lift BNBCalc shows publicly for Austin is an EV charger, which the current amenity model puts at about 19% more revenue.

Five others also show a measurable effect in Austin: a pool, lake access, a hot tub, bicycles and a barbecue. Their lift figures are only shown inside BNBCalc Markets, though, so you'll get just the names from me. The fixtures nearly every listing already has are left out of the amenity results because guests take them for granted, and an amenity everyone offers can't tell the good listings apart from the weak ones.

Is an EV charger worth adding, then? If guests can park at the property, I think it's worth pricing out, though I'd hold that 19% loosely, since chargers tend to come with newer, higher-end homes and my guess is some of the lift belongs to the house. Don't forget to list it and show it in a photo, because a guest can't pay extra for something they never noticed.

The cheapest fix I can point to here doesn't involve buying anything, because as of September 2026 only about 45% of Austin listings charged a cleaning fee, at an average of $150.15 among those that did. Averaged across every listing, zeros included, cleaning fees still brought in about $2,131 a year, so hosts who charge collect well above that.

Are Short-Term Rentals Legal in Austin in 2026?

Whatever you plan to buy, the city has to license it first, and licensing is where Austin has changed the most.

Yes, they're legal, and in more places than before. Since October 1, 2025, Austin's zoning code has allowed short-term rental use as an accessory to a residential use in every zoning district, and it states that the use can't be prohibited. The old zoning rules for short-term rentals were repealed that same day, so if you've read about Austin's Type 1, Type 2 and Type 3 rentals, that sorting is gone from the code, and advice built on it is out of date.

What replaced them is a business license. You need a city operator's license for each unit you rent for under 30 days, and as of August 2026 a new one costs $836.30 and a renewal $385.30, neither refundable, and the city currently estimates six to eight weeks to process a single-family application. A license lasts up to two years and doesn't come with the property, so buying a licensed rental still means applying fresh. Keep in mind, too, that the zoning section only overrides conflicting city rules, not an HOA or condo declaration.

Then comes the site cap, which is the rule investors trip over. On a site with three or fewer housing units, an individual can operate up to two short-term rentals, and any further sites you add have to be at least 1,000 feet apart. Bigger buildings, meanwhile, get a cap of their own, since on a site with four or more units you can run the greater of one unit or 10% of the units you own or lease there, or 25% if the site also has a commercial use.

On those smaller sites, the word "individual" matters more than it looks. A house held in an LLC only qualifies if every member of the LLC is a natural person, and the same goes for a trust's trustees and beneficiaries, while the 1,000-foot distance follows you through any trust or LLC you're part of. If your plan was several houses on the same block, I'm afraid the spacing rule won't let you do it.

Tenants can now operate too, with the owner's authorization, although on a house, duplex or triplex the owner still has to pass the individual test. Every operator also needs a local contact in the five-county Austin metro area who responds within two hours of an emergency call and can get to the property within two hours when a city employee requests it.

I'd check which of Austin's jurisdictions the address sits in, too, because inside the full-purpose city you need the license and owe city hotel tax, in limited-purpose areas you need the license but owe no city hotel tax, and in the extraterritorial jurisdiction you need neither.

Then there's the tax your guests pay on top of your rate. The state's hotel occupancy tax is 6%, and Austin adds 11%, made up of a 9% occupancy tax and a 2% venue project tax, so a stay inside the full-purpose city carries 17%. Platforms have collected the city's share for you since April 1, 2025, though you still owe the city a quarterly report of what each one collected, and the Texas short-term rental tax guide covers the state side.

Austin is enforcing harder in 2026, too, going by the update staff gave Council in April. The city began scraping online listings in January, and by April 1 staff had identified 2,785 unlicensed addresses against 2,750 active licenses at the end of March, so the city had found roughly one unlicensed address for every active license.

Since July 1, 2026, platforms have had to require a license number on Austin listings, pull a listing within 10 days of a city delist notice, and stop taking booking fees on unlicensed rentals. The city's STR page says removal requests start July 1, 2026, though in April staff told Council they'd pause delist notices for six months once the new licensing system launched and then phase them in, starting with properties that have drawn nuisance complaints. The fines are on the books either way, at up to $500 an offense, with each day counting separately.

What if you already run a place and never licensed it? There's one thing working in your favor: the city said it would pause enforcement based solely on operating without a license for people who've applied, so if I were in your shoes I'd file now, because that risk goes away for as long as your application's under review.

Austin rewrote these rules in 2025, so read the current version before you commit, and the Austin short-term rental regulation guide covers the documents, noise limits and city contacts.

Where Does BNBCalc Get Its Austin Airbnb Data?

That guide handles the licensing side, whereas the market figures in this post come from BNBCalc Markets, the part of BNBCalc built for researching a market before you narrow it down to one house. It maps every Airbnb and Vrbo listing across a market. Since the city's own sweep of online listings turned up about as many unlicensed addresses as there were active licenses, that map is where I'd check how busy the streets around a house really are, rather than trusting the licensing records alone.

How Do You Calculate Airbnb Revenue for an Austin Property?

You're buying one address, not a market average, so I'd treat everything I've quoted so far as context and not as a forecast for your house.

I'd start on the Austin market page for current revenue, occupancy and the seasonal curve, then see where the city sits among the best Texas markets by gross yield if you haven't settled on Austin, and once you're down to one address, run that address through BNBCalc using your actual purchase price, loan terms and running costs.

Before I trusted that estimate on an Austin deal, I'd want to know I could license the address myself. That means the right jurisdiction, room under the site cap, and an entity whose members are all natural persons if you're buying through one. If the deal only pencils at peak rates, you'll end up covering the soft winter months yourself, so I'd underwrite on December through February rather than on SXSW week. And since guests are booking closer to arrival, make sure your pricing can react in the last few weeks before each stay.

When nightly rates climb while calendars thin out, the hosts already charging those rates have the reviews and repeat guests to back them up, and a new owner usually starts with neither. What's left for you is the harder work of running a place better than the operators who stayed.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Much Does an Airbnb Make in Austin?

Yield varies more with how a listing is run than with bedroom count. In BNBCalc data, typical gross yield sits in a similar range from one-bedrooms to four-plus-bedroom homes, while among one-bedrooms, Austin's largest group, the high tier earns roughly six to seven times the low tier. Market-wide, the strongest tier of listings earns more than two and a half times the average listing's revenue.

Is an Austin Airbnb Still a Good Investment in 2026?

It can be, although returns depend on buying and operating well, since the latest year's higher nightly rates came with slipping occupancy. Across all listings BNBCalc tracks, the year to August 2026 brought about 2% less supply, about 3% lower occupancy and about 13% higher average nightly rates than the year before, and purchase prices fell about 3%.

When Is the Busiest Month for Airbnb in Austin?

March, the month of SXSW, is one of Austin's busiest, with 40% occupancy and a $374 average nightly rate, and May through July hold about the same, at 39% to 40%. January is the weakest, at 27% occupancy and $257 a night, both the lowest of the year. October carries the year's highest average nightly rate, at $375. The figures cover every listing BNBCalc tracks in the Austin market from September 2025 to August 2026.

Do You Need a Permit or License for an Airbnb in Austin?

Yes. Every short-term rental inside Austin's full-purpose or limited-purpose jurisdiction needs a city operator's license, one per unit. As of August 2026 a new license costs $836.30 and a renewal $385.30, both non-refundable. Licenses last up to two years, don't transfer or convey with a sale, and the number must appear in every advertisement. Property in Austin's extraterritorial jurisdiction doesn't need a city license.

Can You Run an Airbnb in Austin If You Don't Live There?

Yes. Austin's short-term rental chapter requires the operator to own or lease the unit, not to live in it. On sites with three or fewer housing units, an individual can operate up to two rentals, with additional sites at least 1,000 feet apart. On those smaller sites, a unit held by an LLC or trust qualifies only if every member, or every trustee and beneficiary, is a natural person. A local contact in the five-county Austin metro area is required.

What Is the Best Area in Austin for an Airbnb?

East Cesar Chavez has the highest median annual revenue of any ranked neighborhood inside the city, at $40,247, ahead of Govalle at $36,763, Downtown at $35,951 and Holly at $34,941. Four of the top six sit east of I-35. The neighborhoods around the University of Texas campus rank near the bottom. All figures are 2026 medians of BNBCalc listing data within the City of Austin's official Neighborhood Reporting Areas.

How Many Airbnbs Are There in Austin?

In the year to August 2026, BNBCalc's Austin market page averaged about 13,500 active listings, and about 7,500 listings cleared BNBCalc's activity filter as of September 2026: open at least 127 nights a year, at least 30% booked, and not a private or shared room. Roughly 62% of those filtered listings sit inside Austin's city limits. Hosts with more than one listing run a large share of them.