Newark, New Jersey Airbnb Market Data 2026

Can a Newark Airbnb earn enough to justify buying one, and will the city even let you rent it out if you don't live there?

Well, you'll want the second answer first, because it decides whether the first one matters to you. The City of Newark, in Essex County, New Jersey, only permits a short-term rental where an owner lives on the property, whether that's the condo or house itself, the other unit of a two-family or another unit in the same multi-family building. If you were hoping to buy a place, live somewhere else and rent it by the night, unfortunately Newark won't give that plan a permit, however good the numbers look.

The market BNBCalc tracks under Newark's name mostly sits outside the city, though. Newark itself holds roughly an eighth of its listings, while far more sit in Jersey City, Hoboken and the rest of Hudson County, where Newark's ordinance doesn't reach. Across that whole market, guests paid about 28% more a night over the latest year, although occupancy slipped about 7%, so I'd want to know how often a home books before I'd trust the rate it charges.

How Much Do Newark Airbnbs Earn in 2026?

Whatever a home charges, though, its size still does most of the work in this market. When I break revenue down by bedroom count, a typical two-bedroom earns about one and a half times what a typical one-bedroom does, and yet each size covers such a wide band that a one-bedroom near the top of its band takes in more than a four-bedroom-plus home near the bottom of its own.

Gross yield flattens those steps out, since one- to three-bedroom homes sit within about half a point of each other, four-bedroom-plus homes pull about a point ahead, and studios manage roughly half of what a one-bedroom does. A one-point edge isn't enough to make me stretch for a four-bedroom, especially in a city where the rental has to fit around the home you live in.

Who sets the prices you'll compete with? A large share of the market's listings are managed by professional hosts, and the ones BNBCalc groups into its highest-performing tier earn over twice as much as the average listing. That top group shows what's possible here, but I wouldn't build a budget around reaching it.

Inside Newark itself, though, the numbers run a little lower. The city's median listing earned $26,758 over a trailing twelve months, whereas listings outside the city line had a median of $30,051, and that gap comes back when you're choosing where to buy.

Is the Newark Airbnb Market Oversaturated?

Before you pick a spot, I'd read the yearly change carefully, because its rows don't all point the same way.

Metric	Year-over-year change
Average nightly rate	+28%
Occupancy	−7%
Booking lead time	Down

BNBCalc data across all listings BNBCalc tracks in the market, comparing September 2025 to August 2026 with September 2024 to August 2025, with each change rounded to a whole percent. Every row is a monthly average worked out on its own, so the rows don't multiply into one another. Where a row shows only a direction, the size of the change isn't settled yet, and a measure is left out altogether when this year's data doesn't settle which way it moved.

Unfortunately, I can't say yet whether Newark has more Airbnbs than its guests can fill. Crowding shows up as more listings arriving while each one books less of its calendar, and although Newark's occupancy did slip about 7%, the number of listings doesn't point clearly up or down this year, so I've left it out of the table instead of guessing.

What the table does show is guests paying about 28% more a night even as listings booked a smaller share of their calendars, and that's why I wouldn't underwrite a Newark deal on occupancy climbing back.

So where does that leave you if you're buying? I'd look up occupancy for the handful of listings most like the one you're weighing, the same size in the same town, and see whether their calendars are filling up or thinning out. Keep checking those same homes every few months, since their calendars will show competition building well before a market-wide number settles it.

Bookings are also arriving closer to the stay than they did a year earlier, so don't panic over a calendar that looks thin a few weeks out.

When Is Newark's Peak Airbnb Season?

This year nightly rates peaked in June and July, but I wouldn't plan a purchase around that, because these monthly figures cover one year, and one year can't show you whether that's Newark's usual pattern.

Month	Occupancy	Avg nightly rate
Sep 2025	44%	$239
Oct 2025	44%	$248
Nov 2025	37%	$240
Dec 2025	46%	$290
Jan 2026	25%	$205
Feb 2026	24%	$191
Mar 2026	30%	$213
Apr 2026	36%	$238
May 2026	41%	$264
Jun 2026	44%	$372
Jul 2026	42%	$367
Aug 2026	40%	$274

BNBCalc market data across all listings in the market, one row per month. Occupancy and nightly rate are each averaged across listings on their own.

June and July charged the most, averaging $372 and $367 a night, more than $75 above any other month, and yet they filled 44% and 42% of their nights, a smaller share than December did.

Those are also the months the New York New Jersey Stadium in East Rutherford hosted World Cup matches, from June 13 through the final on July 19. I can't separate the tournament from the rest of that summer, though, so I'd treat June and July as this year's high point rather than a promise for next summer.

December earns a mention of its own, since it filled 46% of its nights this year, the highest occupancy of any month, at a $290 average rate, while January and February booked only about a quarter of theirs at $205 and $191.

When I look at the week, Saturday nights book 23% better than the weekly norm and Fridays 18% better, whereas Monday and Tuesday nights book 14% worse. Rates move well under half as far, peaking on Saturday at 10% above average, so if every night on your calendar costs the same, the weekend is where I'd start raising prices.

Where Should You Buy an Airbnb in Newark?

Where a listing sits shapes its numbers as much as when it books, and what surprised me most about this market is how few of its listings are in Newark at all.

Roughly one listing in eight in this market sits inside Newark's city limits. Nearly half are in Hudson County, where Jersey City alone has more listings in the market than Newark does, and the rest spread as far as Manhattan, Princeton and the lake towns of Morris and Sussex counties. So I've split the numbers into two tables, Newark's official neighborhoods first and then the towns with the most listings, and because they're drawn on different boundaries, please don't rank a neighborhood against a town.

Inside the City of Newark

Newark's planning office splits the city into 20 official neighborhoods, so I assigned each measurable Newark listing to the neighborhood it sits in and then ranked the ones with enough data behind them.

Rank	Neighborhood	Median annual revenue	Median nightly rate	Median occupancy	75th-percentile revenue
1	Upper Clinton Hill	$36,883	$293	34%	$41,954
2	University Heights	$32,727	$274	41%	$49,133
3	Weequahic	$31,827	$308	26%	$40,643
4	Lower Clinton Hill	$30,701	$305	29%	$41,973
5	Lower Broadway	$29,535	$234	32%	$34,711
6	Belmont	$29,458	$291	28%	$32,655
7	Fairmount	$29,200	$280	30%	$41,618
8	Lincoln Park	$29,130	$238	34%	$38,350
9	Downtown	$28,215	$222	34%	$33,619
10	Lower Roseville	$27,294	$280	36%	$38,558
11	Upper Roseville	$25,340	$263	28%	$28,983
12	Ironbound	$24,485	$223	34%	$34,717
13	Vailsburg	$23,157	$238	37%	$35,697
14	West Side	$23,068	$239	29%	$38,071
15	Mount Pleasant	$22,328	$256	31%	$29,062
16	North Broadway/Woodside	$18,458	$167	34%	$29,731

BNBCalc 2026 listing data inside the City of Newark's official neighborhood boundaries, trailing twelve months. Every figure is a median except the last column, which marks the 75th percentile, where the best-earning quarter of a neighborhood's listings begins. I calculated each column on its own, so they don't combine, and I've left out neighborhoods too thin to measure.

The occupancy column belongs to each neighborhood's middle listing, so compare those figures neighborhood to neighborhood and don't expect them to match the monthly ones.

I wouldn't lean on the top of that list, either. Upper Clinton Hill's typical listing has three bedrooms, so its $36,883 median says as much about house size as about the neighborhood, and University Heights, home to NJIT and Rutgers University–Newark, ties for the smallest sample in the table, even if its 41% median occupancy is the best in the city.

I trust the deeper samples more, and they tell a flatter story. Downtown takes in Newark Penn Station, the Prudential Center and NJPAC, and it posts a $28,215 median with a typical listing of only one bedroom. The Ironbound has the biggest sample in the city by a wide margin, yet its $24,485 median ranks twelfth, so a deep supply of listings clearly hasn't translated into higher earnings there.

House size could explain part of that spread, so I also compared two-bedroom listings on their own wherever a neighborhood had enough of them. Lower Broadway, Belmont and Weequahic all land between about $29,000 and $29,500, Downtown's two-bedrooms sit at $27,119 and the Ironbound's at $25,545. So if you're buying inside the city, I'd start with Lower Broadway, Belmont and Weequahic, where two-bedrooms do best on a fair sample, and treat the Ironbound as a deep but competitive option. What the numbers can't tell you is how each neighborhood feels to a guest, and the Newark neighborhood guide for Airbnb investors covers that side.

The Rest of the Newark Market

How does the city hold up against the towns around it? These are the municipalities with the most listings in the market.

Rank	Municipality	Median annual revenue	Median nightly rate	Median occupancy	75th-percentile revenue
1	Hoboken	$47,267	$379	36%	$64,825
2	Jersey City	$39,146	$352	34%	$55,847
3	Bayonne	$35,386	$297	33%	$50,738
4	West New York	$29,119	$288	33%	$43,416
5	Union City	$27,269	$219	32%	$35,214
6	Newark	$26,758	$241	31%	$36,260
7	North Bergen	$26,690	$219	34%	$33,160
8	Elizabeth	$25,155	$197	35%	$31,242

BNBCalc 2026 listing data for the towns with the most listings over a trailing twelve months, drawn on US Census county subdivision boundaries, which follow New Jersey's municipal lines. Every figure is a median except the 75th percentile, and because I calculated each column on its own, they don't combine.

On that ranking Newark lands sixth of eight, and when I checked whether house size explains the gap, it didn't. Comparing two-bedroom listings alone, Newark's median of $25,340 sits below every town on that list except Elizabeth, while Jersey City's two-bedrooms come in at $36,795 and Hoboken's at $47,542. Bayonne's third place leans on bigger homes, because its typical listing has three bedrooms, and its two-bedrooms drop to $27,993.

A higher median doesn't make Hoboken the answer, though, because the rules change at every town line. New Jersey mostly leaves short-term rentals to each municipality's own ordinance, so every town writes its own rulebook: Bayonne, for example, limits rentals where the owner isn't present to 60 nights a year, which Newark's code doesn't do, and guests booking in Hudson and Bergen counties pay a 3% Meadowlands assessment that Newark stays don't carry. Make sure to look up the rules for that exact town before a better number becomes your plan, and because Jersey City has the most listings in the market, I'd open BNBCalc's Jersey City short-term rental guide first if it's on your shortlist.

Which Amenities Make the Most Money in Newark?

Whichever town you settle on, what you put inside the home changes its revenue as well, although Newark's headline amenity comes with a caveat.

BNBCalc's current amenity model puts lake access at about 21% more revenue for this market as a whole, and Newark's market page doesn't publish a percentage for any other amenity. Unfortunately I don't think it tells a Newark buyer much. Fewer than one listing in 40 has lake access, none of those sit inside the city, and they cluster in Jefferson Township, Hopatcong and Warwick, New York.

So what should a Newark buyer look at instead? When I break the model out by bedroom count, the leader changes. Three-bedrooms still point to lake access, at about 17%, but at one and two bedrooms a hot tub tops the model, and at four bedrooms and up a pool does. Those two percentages sit behind BNBCalc Markets, along with the rest of the tracked list: a sauna, a barbecue, an EV charger, a gym, allowing pets and bicycles. A handful of basics that every guest expects aren't scored at all, because nobody chooses a property to add them.

I'd look at cleaning fees too. In BNBCalc's latest figures, the average cleaning fee comes to about $124 among listings that charge it, and because that money mostly pays the cleaner, I'd set it to cover the turnover and look for profit in the nightly rate instead.

Is Airbnb Legal in Newark?

Yes, as long as an owner lives on the property, and if you're buying to invest, that one condition matters more than any revenue figure.

Under the short-term rental ordinance Newark adopted in 2019 and amended in December 2023, the city counts any stay of 28 consecutive days or fewer as a short-term rental, and you need a permit from the city's Department of Engineering before you advertise one. Only an owner can hold that permit, and the property has to be that owner's home in the full sense. The code's test for a principal residence is the address where you spend most of your non-working time, the center of your domestic life, and the address on your driver's license. Tenants are ruled out as well, because a tenant can't apply and the code overrides any lease that would let a renter sublet by the night.

Within that rule, Newark leaves an owner more room than I expected. You can rent out the condo or single-family house you live in, if a condo association's rules allow it, or up to two rooms in that house that share your kitchen and bathroom. In a two-family house you can rent the unit you don't live in, and in a larger multi-family building the code allows short-term rentals in units where you, the owner, live in another unit of the same building. What won't qualify is a house or two-family where no owner lives, or three or more rooms rented in a single-family home. Can an investor still make Newark work? I think the realistic route is a two-family or larger building you move into, because the code lets you rent the unit or units you don't live in.

The $250 annual permit fee isn't refunded even when an application is denied, and it also covers the rental Certificate of Code Compliance, while every application brings an annual inspection for fire safety and property maintenance. On top of that, the code asks for general liability insurance of $500,000 or more, a Zoning Compliance Certificate, a condo association's letter of approval where one applies, and the permit number in every ad. The city won't consider an application while you're behind on city taxes, water or sewer charges or have open code violations, and a rental that's already operating needs two clean years, with no more than two verified police calls and no noise ordinance violations. A permit lasts one year and ends automatically when the property changes hands, so a buyer can't take over a seller's permit. Separately, Newark's rental registration chapter covers short-term rentals too, so the city also expects the unit to be registered, with a Certificate of Habitability issued, before any guest checks in.

Once you're running, each unit is limited to one rental contract at a time, signs advertising the rental aren't allowed, and the guest who signs the agreement has to be over 21. While guests are there, you, your agent or your responsible party must be reachable around the clock and respond to complaints within two hours.

Taxes on a Newark booking land on the guest's bill, not on your nightly rate. On an Airbnb stay that means New Jersey's 6.625% sales tax, a state occupancy fee that Airbnb's New Jersey tax page charges at 1% in Newark instead of the usual 5%, and the city's own 6% tax on hotel rooms and transient accommodations, so a guest pays about 13.6% on top. The same Airbnb page says locally imposed occupancy taxes are collected too, but it doesn't name Newark's 6% specifically, so I'd check your payout statements for it. Newark's code also holds the person who collects the booking payment, a platform included, personally liable for the city's share.

I'd take enforcement seriously, because Newark's rules put pressure on the booking sites as well as on hosts. Since the December 2023 amendment, a platform that takes a fee for a Newark short-term rental without checking the registration through the city's verification system faces a civil penalty of up to $2,000 per transaction. Owners, agents and guests can be fined up to $2,000 per violation for every day it continues, and two or more substantiated complaints can get a permit revoked, with no new application for a year. Newark announced in September 2024 that it had started enforcing the ordinance, and its online permit portal lists the same $250 annual fee, one unit per permit, as of September 2026.

If your plan fits those rules, BNBCalc's Newark short-term rental regulation guide walks through the application, the paperwork and which city office handles each piece.

Where Do These Newark Airbnb Numbers Come From?

That guide handles the permit, whereas the revenue, occupancy and rate figures I've used come from BNBCalc Markets, where BNBCalc lines short-term rental markets up against one another so you can see which ones pay. One of its rankings sorts US markets by gross yield, weighing what a market's rentals earn in a year against what its homes cost, and that's the view I'd check for Newark. Homes in the Newark market cost more than in Trenton or Atlantic City yet less than down the Shore, so the ranking shows whether that middle price buys you enough rent to justify it.

How Do You Estimate Airbnb Revenue for a Newark Property?

A market median can't tell you what one Newark house will earn. So how should you turn these Newark numbers into a forecast for one particular home?

Start with the Newark market page to follow revenue, occupancy and the seasonal swings across the whole market. If you're still choosing where to buy, New Jersey's best Airbnb markets by gross yield puts Newark next to the state's other markets. When you've found a particular property, enter its purchase price, financing and operating costs in BNBCalc to see the returns on that address.

Before you trust that result, test it against what makes Newark different. I'd put whether an owner will live on the property first, because without that the city won't issue a permit and the nightly figures don't apply to you. After that, I'd budget June and July more cautiously than this year's rates suggest, since a single year can't show you a typical summer, and I'd plan for a February that books roughly one night in four at well under $200 a night. Keep in mind, too, that guests pay about 13.6% in state and city taxes in addition to the rate and cleaning fee you charge, so the price they compare against a hotel is higher than the one you set. And don't forget to check which town an address sits in, since the market figures mix listings from towns with very different rules.

Whenever a market's yearly figures pull in different directions, I'd trust the calendars of the few homes most like yours over any market-wide average, because those homes are the ones your guests will compare you against.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is the Average Airbnb Income in Newark?

Inside the City of Newark, the median short-term rental earned $26,758 across the twelve months in BNBCalc's 2026 listing data within the city's official neighborhood boundaries. Listings in the rest of the Newark market had a median of $30,051. Across the market, a typical two-bedroom earns about one and a half times a typical one-bedroom, and BNBCalc's highest-performing tier earns over twice as much as the average listing.

Is Airbnb Still Profitable in Newark in 2026?

It can be for owners who live on the property, which Newark's permit requires. Across all listings in the market, comparing September 2025 to August 2026 with September 2024 to August 2025, the average nightly rate rose about 28% while occupancy fell about 7%, so guests paid more for each night even as listings booked a smaller share of their calendars. Whether a particular home makes money depends on its price, its running costs and how well its own calendar fills.

What Is the Best Month for Airbnb in Newark?

It depends on whether you want the highest rate or the fullest calendar. June and July 2026 had the market's highest average nightly rates, $372 and $367. World Cup matches were played nearby in East Rutherford from June 13 to July 19 that summer. December booked the highest share of its nights, 46%, at a $290 average rate, while February was the slowest month, filling 24% of its nights at $191. Within the week, Saturday and Friday book best.

Do You Need a Permit to Run an Airbnb in Newark?

Yes. Newark requires a short-term rental permit from its Department of Engineering for stays of 28 consecutive days or fewer. It costs $250 a year, also covers the rental Certificate of Code Compliance, and is only available to an owner whose principal residence is on the property. Applicants need at least $500,000 in general liability insurance and a Zoning Compliance Certificate, and every advertisement has to show the permit number.

Can You Buy an Investment Property in Newark and Run It as an Airbnb?

Only if an owner lives there. Newark permits short-term rentals in an owner-occupied condo or single-family home, up to two rooms in that home, the second unit of a two-family house where the owner lives in the other, and units in a multi-family building where the owner occupies another unit. A property where no owner lives doesn't qualify, and tenants can't hold a permit.

Which Newark Neighborhood Is Best for Short-Term Rentals?

It depends on the home. Upper Clinton Hill has the highest median revenue among Newark's official neighborhoods, $36,883, but its typical listing has three bedrooms, and University Heights has the best median occupancy, 41%. Among two-bedroom listings, Lower Broadway, Belmont and Weequahic lead at about $29,000 to $29,500, while the Ironbound, the city's largest cluster of listings, sits at $25,545. All of those figures are 2026 medians from BNBCalc's listing data.

How Much Is the Airbnb Tax in Newark?

Guests on a Newark Airbnb booking pay about 13.6% on top of the stay: New Jersey's 6.625% sales tax, a state occupancy fee that Airbnb charges at 1% in Newark instead of the usual 5%, and the city's own 6% tax on hotel rooms and transient accommodations. Airbnb's New Jersey tax page says it also collects locally imposed occupancy taxes, without naming Newark's rate. Under Newark's code, the person collecting the booking payment, a platform included, is liable for the city tax.