Corpus Christi, Texas Airbnb Market Data 2026

How much does a Corpus Christi Airbnb make, and can you rent out a beach house on Padre Island once you've bought it?

Well, the second answer changes the first more than you'd think. Inside the City of Corpus Christi, a house in a single-family zoning district on Padre or Mustang Island can't be rented for less than a month. If you were picturing a single-family beach house on the city's side of the island, then unfortunately it won't get a short-term rental permit. Condos and other units in the island's multifamily and commercial zones can still apply, and so can homes across the rest of the city. Where the owner doesn't live on the property, though, the rental counts against a 15% cap on its block face in single-family districts.

That rule only reaches as far as the city line, and this market doesn't stop there. I'm covering Corpus Christi, in Nueces County on the Texas coast, yet the city itself holds roughly one in three of the listings BNBCalc measures here, while Port Aransas, a separate city just north of Corpus Christi's island district, holds a bigger share on its own. Across all of them, listings grew about 10% over the latest year, and average nightly rates finished about 16% higher.

How Much Do Corpus Christi Airbnbs Earn in 2026?

Those nightly rates are averages across the whole coast, though, and averages hide a lot here. Bedroom count sets the broad range, but the gap between strong and weak listings of the same size is big enough that I'd watch it more closely than the size itself. A two-bedroom performing near the top for its size out-earns a typical three-bedroom, and even a top-performing one-bedroom beats a four-plus-bedroom that's struggling, which tells me location and how the place is run can matter as much as the extra rooms you're paying for.

Once I looked at gross yield instead, the sizes flattened out even further. From two bedrooms up, typical gross yields land within about a point of each other, while one-bedrooms trail by several points and studios manage well under half of what the bigger units return. So on yield alone, a two-bedroom condo and a four-bedroom house start from about the same place, and the rules and the island are what should settle it.

Who's pricing against you, then? A lot of professionals, since they operate a large share of this coast's listings, and my guess is that plenty of owners live somewhere else and hand the keys to a manager. Expect tight pricing as a result, because people who manage rentals for a living tend to watch summer weekends closely.

The ceiling sits a long way up, too, since BNBCalc's top performance tier here brings in about 2.4 times what an average listing makes. I'd still plan on the average and count anything above it as upside.

Is the Corpus Christi Airbnb Market Oversaturated?

Planning on the average only works if the average holds up, though, and listings kept arriving over the last twelve months.

Metric	Year-over-year change
Average nightly rate	+16%
Active supply	+10%
Purchase price	−1%

BNBCalc data across all listings BNBCalc tracks in the market, for September 2025 to August 2026 set against September 2024 to August 2025, rounded to the nearest whole percent. Purchase price tracks home prices rather than listings. Occupancy and booking lead time are left out, because this year's data doesn't settle which way either of them moved.

Unfortunately, I can't tell you yet whether Corpus Christi is oversaturated, because this year's figures don't settle it. Active supply grew about 10%, which is the kind of growth that crowds a market when bookings don't keep pace, but the occupancy figures point in different directions depending on which twelve months you measure, so there's no telling whether that happened here.

The nightly rate is one number you can trust, and it climbed about 16%, although these figures don't show whether guests paid more because demand rose or because the newer listings are pricier places.

Either way, I'd keep an eye on supply, because a tenth more listings in a single year is a lot for a market this seasonal to absorb, and my guess is that if they keep arriving at that pace, occupancy is where you'll feel it first. So before you buy, make sure to check occupancy on the listings most like the one you're considering, then look at those same listings again every few months after you buy.

When Is Corpus Christi's Peak Airbnb Season?

Occupancy swings a lot through the year here, too, because Corpus Christi's peak Airbnb season is summer, with a smaller bump in March.

Month	Occupancy	Avg nightly rate
Sep 2025	22%	$296
Oct 2025	26%	$289
Nov 2025	19%	$290
Dec 2025	17%	$273
Jan 2026	18%	$217
Feb 2026	22%	$211
Mar 2026	39%	$353
Apr 2026	27%	$315
May 2026	34%	$378
Jun 2026	50%	$497
Jul 2026	60%	$528
Aug 2026	35%	$400

BNBCalc market data across all listings in the market, one row per month. Occupancy and nightly rate are each averaged on their own, so don't multiply one by the other.

July sits at the top of the year and winter at the bottom, and the gap is enormous: July came in at 60% occupancy and $528 a night, while December managed just 17% at $273, and February's $211 was the lowest rate of the year. The busy stretch is short, too, since only June and July booked half their nights or more, whereas from November through February no month filled even a quarter of its nights and rates stayed under $300.

With the bookings bunched up like that, only March and the four months from May to August charged more than the year's average nightly rate, and those same five months filled the most nights, too. If your budget assumes every month does as well as an average one, then, you'll probably run ahead for five months and behind for the other seven, so keep a cash cushion big enough to cover the property through fall and winter. March stands apart from the months on either side of it, since it filled 39% of its nights at $353, against 22% in February and 27% in April. I'd put that down to spring break, although the monthly figures can't tell me who those guests were.

Within each week the pattern is every bit as lopsided. Taking all listings together, BNBCalc's current day-of-week figures show Saturday occupancy running 46% above an average day and Friday's 42% above, while Mondays and Tuesdays sit 27% below. Rates barely follow, peaking about 8% above average on Saturday, which is a far smaller swing than occupancy's. If I owned a place here, I'd test higher Friday and Saturday rates before touching anything else, since those are the nights guests already compete for.

Where Should You Buy an Airbnb in Corpus Christi?

You can change your weekend rates any time after you buy, whereas the location is fixed the day you close. So before you pick an area, you'll want to know that most of this market isn't in Corpus Christi at all.

About 35% of the listings BNBCalc measures sit inside Corpus Christi's city limits, while about 45% sit in Port Aransas, with the rest spread through Rockport, Aransas Pass and smaller towns around them. Inside the city, about two-thirds of the listings are in its Padre/Mustang Island planning district.

So if revenue were the only test, I'd point you to Port Aransas, which out-earns Corpus Christi at every bedroom count, and inside the city I'd look at condos in the island district or bigger homes in Flour Bluff. I split the numbers two ways, by the city's own planning districts and then by the cities across the market, and because the boundaries differ, don't compare the two tables row for row.

Inside the City of Corpus Christi

Corpus Christi divides its planning into official Area Development Plan districts, and I matched every measurable in-city listing to the district it falls in.

Rank	District	Median annual revenue	Median nightly rate	Median occupancy	75th-percentile revenue
1	Flour Bluff	$30,552	$263	34%	$46,781
2	Padre/Mustang Island	$26,849	$279	28%	$39,164
3	Bayside	$22,870	$215	33%	$35,950
4	Southside	$21,359	$173	32%	$28,761
5	Downtown	$14,566	$134	30%	$17,982

The figures come from BNBCalc 2026 listing data over a trailing twelve months, placed using the City of Corpus Christi's official city limits and Area Development Plan districts. Every column is a median except the last, which is the 75th percentile, where a district's top quarter of listings begins. Each column is calculated separately, so they don't multiply, and districts with too little data are left out, along with a small group of in-city listings that fall outside the city's mapped districts.

Each district's occupancy figure is its middle listing's own number, which makes it useful for comparing districts but not for setting against the monthly averages.

Flour Bluff leads, but I wouldn't read that as the better location on its own, since the typical Flour Bluff listing is a three-bedroom while the island district's is a two-bedroom. Once I match sizes, the two sit close together for two-bedrooms, and the island pulls ahead at three bedrooms. Flour Bluff's four-plus-bedroom homes do come out ahead, though, so if you're shopping for a big house outside the island district, that's where I'd look first.

The island district is where most of the city's rentals are, and it's also where the house rule bites. Only homes in single-family zoning are shut out there, so I'd limit a search on the city's side of the island to condos and other units in multifamily or commercial zones. I'd also keep in mind that the island's figures still include houses, and listing data can't tell a permitted rental from one that isn't, so don't price a single-family home off that row. Make sure you confirm the zoning by address before you make an offer, too.

Downtown lands at the bottom, partly because its median listing is a one-bedroom. If you want to know what each area is like to own and manage in, BNBCalc's Corpus Christi city guide walks through them.

The Rest of the Corpus Christi Market

Does Port Aransas earn more, or does it just have bigger houses? These are the cities across the market with the most listings, the city of Corpus Christi included.

Rank	City or town	Median annual revenue	Median nightly rate	Median occupancy	75th-percentile revenue
1	Port Aransas	$45,692	$463	28%	$70,473
2	Corpus Christi	$25,672	$255	29%	$38,801
3	Rockport	$24,273	$242	27%	$34,787
4	Aransas Pass	$19,228	$198	28%	$26,770
5	Fulton	$17,301	$185	27%	$23,868

BNBCalc 2026 listing data inside US Census incorporated place boundaries, trailing twelve months, for the cities with the most listings. Columns are medians except the 75th percentile, each calculated separately, and the Aransas Pass and Fulton rows rest on far thinner samples than the others.

Port Aransas does earn more, and not only because of house size. Its typical listing has three bedrooms against Corpus Christi's two, but when I compared homes of the same size, Port Aransas's median still came out ahead at every bedroom count, by 29% on two-bedrooms and 53% on three-bedrooms. What surprised me is that occupancy isn't the reason, since Port Aransas's median occupancy runs below the city's at every size while its median nightly rate runs higher, so the lead comes from what guests pay rather than from fuller calendars.

The rules change at the city line as well, and I think that matters more than any median in these tables. Corpus Christi's island house rule doesn't apply in Port Aransas, which runs its own registration and caps how many guests each rental can sleep, and Rockport and Aransas Pass are separate cities again. So don't assume a rule you've read for one of them carries over to the next town along the coast, and check the zoning with whichever city the address sits in.

Which Amenities Make the Most Money in Corpus Christi?

Once you've picked where to buy, what should go inside the place?

In BNBCalc's current amenity model, bicycles are tied to about 34% more revenue for a listing in this market, and that's the only figure the public market page lets you see. My guess is that's the beach talking, since in a town where the sand is a short ride away, a couple of bikes by the door becomes part of the trip. Don't forget to photograph them and name them in the listing, because guests can't pay for something they never noticed.

The model picks up a measurable effect from eight others here as well: an EV charger, a hot tub, lake access, a barbecue, a pool, a TV, internet and a gym. Their percentages sit behind BNBCalc Markets, so you're getting the names from me without the figures. The model skips a handful of basics on purpose, because every guest assumes they'll be there.

Size changes the answer, too. When I split the model by bedroom count, the strongest signal for one- and two-bedrooms is an EV charger, for three-bedrooms it's lake access, and for four-plus-bedroom homes it's a pool. My read is that it comes down to how people use each kind of place. A group filling a four-bedroom wants somewhere to spend the afternoon when they're off the sand, whereas a couple in a smaller unit is more likely to care about charging the car they drove in.

Is Airbnb Legal in Corpus Christi?

Whatever you fit the place out with, it still needs the city's sign-off first, so yes, Airbnb is legal in Corpus Christi with a permit, although where the property sits decides which permit, which cap and which tax you're dealing with.

As of September 2026, the City of Corpus Christi requires a short-term rental permit for any rental of less than 30 days, and each unit generally needs its own. The exception is a condo building with more than 40 units, which can run under one consolidated permit when a single operator manages more than 75% of its rental units. The permit costs $250 a year, expires every December 31 and can't be transferred to a new owner, so buying a permitted rental still means applying fresh. Every ad has to show the permit number, too.

Which cap applies depends on which of the city's two types you fall into. A Type 1 rental is one where the owner or operator makes their legal residence on the same property, shown by something like a homestead exemption, voter registration or vehicle registration, whereas a Type 2 rental is everything else. In single-family districts, Type 2 rentals are limited to 15% of the residential units on a block face. The city awards those spots first come, first served, and going over the cap takes a special exception from the city manager, with a public hearing, mailed notice to owners within 200 feet and a $650 application fee.

Then there's the island. Since the city amended its development code in 2022, single-family units in a single-family district within the Padre/Mustang Island Area Development Plan can't be rented for less than a one-month period. So what's left for an investor there? The city's short-term rental page still lists units in the island's multifamily and commercial zones as eligible, which is the condo market I pointed you toward earlier.

Running a permitted rental comes with a fast clock, which is why I'd call the city's operating rules strict. Your registered local contact has to answer complaint calls around the clock and resolve a problem within one hour, or, if a call to the guests doesn't fix it, visit the property and resolve it within the next hour. Violations are strict liability offenses with fines of up to $500 each, counted separately for every day, and three violations in six months can cost you the permit, with a 12-month wait before you can reapply for that property. Keep in mind that a city permit doesn't override your HOA, your lease or a deed restriction.

Port Aransas works differently, and if a big house is the plan, I'd read its rules before Corpus Christi's. You have to register there before you advertise, and occupancy is capped at two people per sleeping room plus four more, or plus six in homes with more than 3,250 square feet of conditioned living space. Your local contact has to respond in person within one hour, the property is inspected at registration and at renewal, and every ad must show the registration number and the number of legal off-street parking spaces. Registrations run for the calendar year and aren't pro-rated.

That occupancy cap matters most for the big houses that earn the most. So how many guests should you price a four-bedroom Port Aransas house on? No more than 12 if it's under that size threshold, and only if all four rooms qualify as sleeping rooms, however many beds you could fit.

Guests pay hotel occupancy tax on top of what you charge, but the job of collecting and filing it is yours. Inside Corpus Christi, guests pay Texas's 6% plus the city's 9%, 15% in all, on stays under 30 days. Airbnb's Texas tax page says it collects both on Corpus Christi bookings, and the city says Airbnb and Vrbo pay its share for you under agreements with the city. You still file a monthly return by the 20th, though, as a zero-dollar return if the platform paid, and the city's late penalty is 15% of the tax due.

Port Aransas levies its own city hotel tax on top of the state's 6%, and its tax portal says plainly that neither Airbnb nor Vrbo collects that city tax. Airbnb's Texas page has no Port Aransas entry either, so if you buy there, plan on collecting and filing the city's share yourself, and I'd set that up before the first booking lands. BNBCalc's Texas lodging tax guide explains how the state layer works.

The application steps, documents and city contacts are all in the Corpus Christi short-term rental regulation guide.

Where Does This Corpus Christi Airbnb Data Come From?

For the permit side, that guide is the place to go, whereas the earnings and seasonality numbers here come from BNBCalc Markets, which orders markets by how much their listings earn, so you can see how this stretch of coast compares before you buy. Pull up Corpus Christi there and it shows the extra revenue tied to a pool, a hot tub or bikes, split out by bedroom count. Before you dig a pool at a beach house or buy a rack of bikes for a condo, you'll want to see what each one is worth at that size.

How Do You Estimate Airbnb Revenue for a Corpus Christi Property?

Amenity figures help once you're fitting out a specific place, but how do you turn averages for a whole coastline into a revenue number for one address?

Begin with the Corpus Christi market page, where revenue, occupancy and the seasonal curve cover the whole market, and if another Texas town is still in the running, Texas's gross yield rankings will tell you whether it pencils out better. Once you've found a property, run the asking price, your loan terms and expected expenses through BNBCalc.

Then I'd check the result against a few things this coast does to a pro forma. The zoning comes first, because a single-family house on the city's side of the island needs a plan built on stays of a month or longer instead. The guest cap comes next if the home is in Port Aransas, since revenue on a big house depends on how many people it can legally sleep. After that it's the calendar, where December booked just 17% of its nights against July's 60%, and the tax, which guests pay in addition to your rate and cleaning fee.

Wherever a market leans this hard on one season, the quiet months decide whether a property works, so the first number I'd ask about is what it earns in its slowest month, not its busiest.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is the Average Airbnb Income in Corpus Christi?

BNBCalc listing data puts the 2026 median for a listing inside Corpus Christi's city limits at $25,672 over its trailing twelve months. Port Aransas, which sits in the same market, posted a median of $45,692. Earnings swing widely between homes of the same size, and BNBCalc's top performance tier earns about 2.4 times what an average listing makes across the market.

Is Airbnb Still Profitable in Corpus Christi in 2026?

That depends on the purchase price and running costs of the property. Market-wide, active supply grew about 10% and average nightly rates went up about 16% from September 2025 through August 2026, measured against the twelve months before. BNBCalc's figures for that year don't settle whether occupancy rose or fell, so check occupancy on comparable listings before relying on a revenue projection.

What Is the Best Month for Airbnb in Corpus Christi?

Across all listings, July 2026 led the year with 60% occupancy and a $528 average nightly rate, followed by June at 50% and $497. December had the lowest occupancy, at 17%, and February the lowest rate, at $211. March, at 39% occupancy and $353, ran well ahead of February and April, and Saturdays and Fridays book best within the week.

Can You Rent Out a House on Padre Island as an Airbnb?

Not inside the City of Corpus Christi if the house is in a single-family zoning district. The city's development code bars renting single-family units in single-family districts for less than one month within the Padre/Mustang Island Area Development Plan. Units in the island's multifamily and commercial zones remain eligible for a permit. Port Aransas is a separate city with its own short-term rental registration.

Do You Need a Permit for an Airbnb in Corpus Christi?

Yes. Every short-term rental of less than 30 days inside the city needs a permit, which costs $250, expires on December 31 and must be renewed each year. Each advertisement must display the permit number. Non-owner-occupied rentals in single-family districts are capped at 15% of the units on a block face, and exceeding the cap requires a $650 special exception.

How Much Is the Airbnb Tax in Corpus Christi?

Guests pay 15% hotel occupancy tax on stays under 30 days inside Corpus Christi: 6% to the State of Texas and 9% to the city. Airbnb's Texas tax page says it collects both on Corpus Christi bookings. Hosts still file a monthly city return by the 20th, a zero-dollar return when a platform has paid. In Port Aransas, the city's tax portal says Airbnb and Vrbo don't collect its city hotel tax, so hosts pay that share directly.

Which Part of Corpus Christi Is Best for Short-Term Rentals?

Within the city, Flour Bluff had the highest median revenue in 2026 at $30,552, partly because its typical listing is larger, followed by the Padre/Mustang Island district at $26,849, where most of the city's listings sit. Across the wider market, Port Aransas led with a $45,692 median and out-earned Corpus Christi at every bedroom count. All three are 2026 medians drawn from BNBCalc listing data.