Bend OR STR Market 2026: What the Data Shows for Investors in Oregons Premier Outdoor Recreation Economy

Bend’s last-twelve-months average daily rate sits at $294 across 1,430 tracked short-term rentals, according to StaySTRA data. That puts it below the elite Colorado ski towns but firmly in the conversation for investors looking at mountain and outdoor recreation markets in the Pacific Northwest. Think of it this way: if Vail is the Porsche dealership, Bend is the well-maintained Subaru with all-wheel drive and a kayak rack. It gets you where you need to go, and the cost of ownership is a lot easier to stomach.

I have been watching mountain STR markets for the better part of four decades now, and Bend keeps showing up as the market that investors underestimate. The numbers tell a specific story, and it is not the one most people expect. Let me walk you through what the data actually reveals.

StaySTRA Market Snapshot for Bend, Oregon

Before we dig into the seasonality and investment math, here is where Bend stands right now based on StaySTRA’s Bend market data:

• Active STR Listings: 1,430
• Last-Twelve-Months ADR: $294.00
• LTM Occupancy: 55.6%
• LTM Average Monthly Revenue: $3,686
• Current ADR (June 2025): $339.12
• Current Occupancy (June 2025): 75.9%
• Estimated Annual Revenue: $44,232 (LTM basis)
• Population: 106,926
• Annual Visitors: 3,000,000

That visitor-to-resident ratio of roughly 28:1 is worth pausing on. Bend is a town of 107,000 people absorbing three million visitors a year. That kind of tourism pressure creates consistent STR demand, but it also explains why the city has built a regulatory framework to manage it.

The Seasonality Story: Summer Rules, Winter Helps

Here is where Bend surprises people. If you are looking at this market because of Mt. Bachelor skiing, the data wants to redirect your attention.

StaySTRA’s monthly breakdown tells the real story:

July revenue ($7,522) is 3.6 times November revenue ($2,102). That swing matters for cash flow planning, but stay with me here: it is actually more moderate than what we see in pure ski towns. Sun Valley and Mammoth Lakes both show sharper seasonal cliffs because their economies revolve more heavily around a single winter season. Bend’s outdoor recreation calendar spreads the demand more evenly.

Summer (June through August) is the real revenue engine. Those three months alone generate roughly $19,958 in gross revenue, or about 45% of the annual total. Hiking, mountain biking on the Deschutes River Trail system, fly fishing, paddleboarding on the Deschutes River, and Bend’s 30-plus craft breweries keep the town packed from Memorial Day through Labor Day.

The winter ski bump is real but modest. December through March produces a secondary revenue plateau around $2,500 to $3,300 per month. The 2025-2026 ski season at Mt. Bachelor had a notably late start due to low snowpack, which likely compressed winter bookings further. Mt. Bachelor generates an estimated $157 million in annual economic impact for Central Oregon, but that impact is increasingly shared with summer recreation rather than concentrated in the ski months.

Property Type Performance: What Sells in Bend

StaySTRA tracks the following property distribution across Bend’s 1,430 active listings:

• Studio: 114
• 1-Bedroom: 665
• 2-Bedroom: 807
• 3-Bedroom: 1,198
• 4-Bedroom: 659
• 5+ Bedroom: 461

The 3-bedroom category dominates with the largest count of any segment. That tells you something about who visits Bend: groups. Couples with friends sharing a mountain house for a long weekend. Two couples splitting a ski trip. Small groups cycling the high desert trails or floating the river. Bend’s guest profile skews toward group travel rather than solo or couple getaways, and the listing distribution reflects that demand.

For investors, this means the 3-bedroom sweet spot is also the most competitive segment. You are competing against 1,198 other listings in that category. If you can find a well-located 4-bedroom that accommodates larger groups at a higher nightly rate, you may find less competition and stronger per-night revenue. The trade-off is a higher purchase price and potentially longer vacancy during shoulder months.

Bend’s Regulatory Framework: The 500-Foot Rule

Bend’s STR regulations are more structured than most mountain markets, and investors need to understand them before running the numbers on a property.

The city divides short-term rentals into two permit categories:

Type I permits cover owner-occupied rentals (up to two bedrooms while you live in the home), infrequent whole-house rentals (30 days or fewer per year, maximum 4 rental periods), and properties in commercial or mixed-use zones. These do not face density restrictions.

Type II permits are for whole-house rentals exceeding 30 days per year in residential zones. These are subject to Bend’s signature regulation: a 500-foot separation requirement between permitted whole-house STRs. Measured radially from property boundaries, this density cap effectively limits how many STRs can operate on any given residential block.

Don’t let the permit structure scare you off, but do your homework before you make an offer. The 500-foot rule means you cannot simply buy any house in Bend and convert it to a full-time vacation rental. You need to verify that no other Type II STR permit exists within that radius. The city maintains a permit database, and checking it is a non-negotiable step in your due diligence.

The fee structure is straightforward:

• Type I Land Use Permit: $1,315 plus 4% surcharge
• Type II Land Use Permit: $3,657 plus 4% surcharge
• Annual Operating License: $255 renewal plus $200 transportation supplement (whole-house)
• Room Tax: 10.4% of gross revenue

That 10.4% room tax comes straight off your top line. On $44,232 in annual gross revenue, you are sending approximately $4,600 to the city before you pay your mortgage, property management, or cleaning costs. Factor it into every pro forma you build.

One more thing worth knowing: operating licenses are tied to the owner, not the property. When a property sells, the new owner must apply for a fresh license within 60 days. There is no guarantee of transfer, which adds a layer of risk that pure-preemption states like Idaho (where HB 583 now prevents cities from restricting STRs) do not have.

The Investment Math: DSCR and Realistic Returns

Here is where I need to be straightforward with you. The DSCR math in Bend is tight.

Let me walk through a realistic scenario:

• Median home price: ~$700,000 (Bend Bulletin reported prices approaching $700,000 in early 2026; Redfin and Zillow data show a range of $679,000 to $745,000 depending on the month)
• Down payment (25%): $175,000
• Loan amount: $525,000
• DSCR loan rate (2026): ~7.5%
• Monthly P&I: ~$3,671
• LTM average monthly STR revenue: $3,686
• DSCR ratio: 1.00

A DSCR of 1.00 means the property barely covers its debt service before you account for property management (typically 20-25% in vacation rental markets), cleaning costs, insurance, maintenance, property taxes, and that 10.4% room tax. In practice, you would need to outperform the market average significantly to achieve positive cash flow.

Think of DSCR like a bridge over a river. A ratio of 1.0 means the bridge reaches the other bank, but just barely, and there is no railing. You want at least 1.25 to have a safety margin, and lenders typically require that as a minimum anyway. At Bend’s current price-to-revenue ratio of roughly 16:1, you need to either find properties below the median price, generate above-average revenue, or bring a larger down payment to make the numbers pencil out.

The investors who make Bend work tend to do one or more of these things:

1. Target properties in the $500,000 to $600,000 range rather than the median. A $550,000 purchase with 25% down produces a monthly P&I of roughly $2,886, which gives you meaningfully more breathing room against that $3,686 average revenue.
2. Maximize the summer window. Dynamic pricing that captures the full $340-plus ADR during June through August, when occupancy tops 75-90%, can add thousands to annual revenue. Do not leave money on the table during your peak months.
3. Use the property personally during the November trough. If you are going to have a 30% occupancy month anyway, enjoy it yourself and save on vacation costs elsewhere. Some investors treat November and April as their personal-use months and list aggressively the rest of the year.

How Bend Compares to Other Mountain Markets

I have spent the last several weeks analyzing mountain and outdoor recreation markets across the West, and Bend occupies a distinct position in the data. Here is how it stacks up against three other markets we have covered in this series:

A few patterns stand out. Bend’s entry price is lower than Sun Valley and dramatically lower than Vail, which matters if you are trying to minimize your capital at risk. Mammoth Lakes offers a similar price point with a larger, more competitive listing pool. Bend’s advantage over Mammoth is its year-round demand profile: while Mammoth is heavily winter-weighted, Bend generates its strongest revenue in summer with a secondary winter lift from Mt. Bachelor.

The trade-off is revenue. Bend’s $3,686 monthly average is solid but not spectacular compared to the premium mountain markets. Vail operators routinely clear $5,500 or more per month, but they are also carrying mortgages on million-dollar-plus properties. On a price-to-revenue basis, Bend and Mammoth are reasonably comparable, while Vail demands a premium entry price for its premium returns.

Sun Valley is perhaps the most interesting comparison. It shares Bend’s year-round outdoor recreation appeal at a higher price point but with fewer regulatory constraints thanks to Idaho’s new statewide STR preemption law. If you want the outdoor recreation lifestyle market with less regulatory friction, Sun Valley is worth a look. If you prefer a larger town with more economic diversity and a lower entry price, Bend has the edge.

Booking Patterns and Forward-Looking Demand

StaySTRA’s booking window data reveals how far ahead guests plan their Bend trips:

• 1-3 months out: 63.9% booked
• 4-6 months out: 69.9% booked
• 7-9 months out: 50.1% booked
• 10-12 months out: 8.1% booked

The 4-6 month window showing the highest booking rate is notable. Guests are planning their Bend vacations roughly a season in advance, which aligns with what you would expect from a summer-driven market: people booking their July and August trips in February and March. This gives operators good forward visibility and time to adjust pricing strategy.

The low 10-12 month booking rate (8.1%) suggests that Bend is not a “book a year ahead” destination like some luxury ski resorts. Most demand materializes within six months, which means your pricing and marketing strategy should intensify in Q1 for the summer peak.

The Bend Bull Case and the Bend Bear Case

After forty years of looking at market data (most of them from this desk in Santa Fe with a mug of black coffee that never seems to stay full), I have learned that every market has both a story the optimists tell and a story the skeptics tell. Both usually contain some truth.

The bull case: Bend’s outdoor recreation economy is genuinely diversified. Skiing, cycling, hiking, fishing, river sports, and one of the best craft brewery scenes in the country create year-round tourism demand. The 500-foot density rule limits new STR supply in residential areas, which protects existing operators’ pricing power. Population growth in Central Oregon continues to bring new residents and visitors. Mt. Bachelor is investing in infrastructure improvements, including a recent move into hotel operations, which signals confidence in the tourism economy’s long-term trajectory.

The bear case: Entry prices near $700,000 make the DSCR math difficult at current interest rates. LTM occupancy of 55.6% means properties sit empty nearly half the year. The 2025-2026 ski season’s late start due to poor snowpack is a reminder that climate variability can compress the winter revenue bump. And with 1,430 active listings in a city of 107,000, market saturation is a legitimate concern for new entrants, particularly in the crowded 3-bedroom segment.

My read? Bend is a hold-and-wait market for most investors at current prices. If you already own property here, the data supports continued operation. The demand fundamentals are sound, the regulatory framework (while strict) is predictable, and the year-round recreation calendar differentiates Bend from markets that go quiet between seasons. But if you are buying new at $700,000 with a DSCR loan, the math requires you to be better than average. That is not impossible, but it is not a comfortable margin.

What I Would Watch in 2026 and Beyond

Three things are worth monitoring if Bend is on your radar:

Mt. Bachelor’s hotel move. The resort recently acquired a 70-room hotel near the mountain and plans to reopen it for summer 2026. If Mt. Bachelor starts capturing overnight guests who would otherwise book STRs in town, that could nibble at winter occupancy for Bend properties. Then again, more on-mountain capacity could also attract additional visitors to the region, expanding the overall pie.

Interest rate trajectory. A 100-basis-point drop in DSCR loan rates would improve Bend’s investment math meaningfully. At 6.5% instead of 7.5%, that same $525,000 loan drops to roughly $3,319 per month, giving you a DSCR closer to 1.11. Still not generous, but workable.

The density rule’s long-term effect. The 500-foot separation requirement constrains supply growth, which should gradually improve pricing power for existing operators. As Bend’s population grows and new residential development expands the city’s footprint, new Type II permit opportunities may open in areas where no existing STR operates. Patient investors may find opportunities in newly developed neighborhoods before the density map fills in.

We do our best to keep our data accurate and up to date, but markets move fast and we are only human. Always verify current figures directly with local sources before making investment decisions.

Run the Numbers for Your Bend Property

Every property in Bend performs differently depending on location, bedroom count, amenities, and how aggressively you price the summer peak. The market averages I have shared here are a starting point, not a verdict. Use the StaySTRA Bend Airbnb Calculator to run projections based on your specific property parameters, and explore the full Bend market data page for monthly breakdowns, property type comparisons, and booking window analysis.

If you are comparing mountain markets across the West, we have published detailed data analyses for Sun Valley, Mammoth Lakes, and Vail as part of this mountain market series. Each one uses the same StaySTRA data framework so you can compare apples to apples.