Wilmington NC STR Market 2026. What the Data Shows for Investors in North Carolinas Coastal and River City Vacation Rental Economy

Wilmington’s 2,259 active short-term rental listings are producing a last-twelve-month average daily rate of $187 and an occupancy rate of 54.8%, according to StaySTRA data for Wilmington, NC. Think of it this way: if those 2,259 listings were hotel rooms, more than half would have someone sleeping in them on any given night, and each one would be generating roughly $2,437 per month in revenue. That is a market with real demand behind it, not just listing activity.

What makes Wilmington unusual right now is not the numbers alone. It is the regulatory landscape underneath them. A 2022 court ruling stripped away the barriers that kept this market artificially constrained for years. Investors who searched for Wilmington data two or three years ago found a city with a registration cap, a spacing rule, and a lottery system that made entry nearly impossible. That framework is gone.

I have been watching North Carolina’s coastal STR markets for a while now (the Outer Banks piece I wrote last week painted a very different picture of extreme seasonality), and Wilmington stands out because it combines coastal tourism appeal with something the barrier islands simply cannot offer: year-round demand from a university, a military corridor, and a growing film industry. Let me walk you through what the data actually shows.

Wilmington STR Revenue and Performance Data

StaySTRA tracks 2,259 active short-term rental listings in Wilmington as of mid-2026. Here is the full picture across the last twelve months of available data.

For comparison, Airbtics tracks approximately 1,233 Airbnb-specific listings in Wilmington with a 58% average occupancy and a $150 ADR. The gap between StaySTRA’s broader dataset (which includes Vrbo and direct-booking listings) and the Airbnb-only count is worth noticing. It tells you that roughly 1,000 additional listings are operating on platforms beyond Airbnb or through direct booking channels. That is a significant chunk of supply that investors relying on a single platform’s data would miss entirely.

The $29,244 annual revenue figure is a market average. It includes everything from studios pulling $15,000 a year to well-positioned three-bedroom homes clearing $45,000 or more. Stay with me here, because the monthly breakdown reveals where the real earning power lives.

When Wilmington Earns: Monthly Revenue Patterns

Wilmington is a warm-season coastal market, and the monthly numbers reflect that. But the seasonality is more moderate than you might expect from a beach-adjacent city.

July is the peak at $3,942, and January is the trough at $1,258. That is a 3.1x seasonal swing. Compare that to the Outer Banks, where Corolla sees an 8.2x swing between peak summer and dead winter, and you can see why Wilmington appeals to investors who want coastal revenue without the stomach-dropping off-season valleys.

The reason is straightforward. Wilmington is not just a beach town. It is a city. The University of North Carolina Wilmington brings roughly 17,000 students (along with visiting parents, prospective students, and event attendees). Camp Lejeune sits about 50 miles north in Jacksonville, and military personnel rotating through the region need short-term housing regularly. The Wilmington film industry (locals call it “Wilmywood”) generates production crews who book for weeks at a time. These demand sources do not disappear when the beach crowd leaves in September.

Don’t let that January number scare you, though. At $1,258 per month, you are still covering a meaningful portion of your holding costs even in the slowest month. Properties that price aggressively through the winter and target the university and military crowds can push that floor higher.

The Deregulation Story: Schroeder v. City of Wilmington

This is the part that separates Wilmington from most other coastal markets in the Southeast, and it is worth understanding in detail if you are considering an investment here.

Before 2022, Wilmington regulated short-term rentals through a registration system that included a cap limiting STRs to 2% of residential properties, a 400-foot separation requirement between rentals, and an annual lottery for new registration slots. If you wanted to operate an STR in Wilmington, you had to win a lottery. That is not a metaphor. It was a literal lottery.

In April 2022, the North Carolina Court of Appeals issued its ruling in Schroeder v. City of Wilmington (2022 NCCOA 210). The court found that North Carolina General Statute 160D-1207(c) prohibits local governments from requiring permits or registration for rental property. The ruling struck down Wilmington’s entire registration framework, including the cap, the lottery, and the 400-foot separation requirement.

What the court left intact was equally important. The ruling preserved the city’s authority to regulate STRs through traditional zoning and development standards. That means parking requirements, safety codes, insurance mandates, occupancy limits, and zoning district restrictions all survived. The city cannot stop you from operating an STR by refusing to register you, but it can absolutely require you to meet operational standards.

The Wilmington ruling sent shockwaves through North Carolina. In February 2025, Greensboro removed its own 750-foot spacing rule after its city attorney’s office advised that the rule likely would not survive judicial challenge in light of the Schroeder precedent. Other NC cities have been quietly adjusting their ordinances to comply.

For investors, the practical meaning is this: Wilmington went from one of the most restrictive STR environments in coastal North Carolina to one of the most accessible. There is no registration cap. There is no spacing rule. There is no lottery. If your property meets the operational standards (which I will detail below), you can list it.

What the Rules Look Like Now

The Schroeder ruling cleared away the gatekeeping mechanisms, but Wilmington still has meaningful operational requirements. Here is what remains in force.

Occupancy Limits: No more than two guests per bedroom. This is a hard rule and one of the few that directly affects revenue potential. A three-bedroom home maxes out at six guests.

Insurance: Owners must carry a minimum of $500,000 in commercial general liability insurance. This is not your standard homeowner’s policy. You will need an STR-specific commercial policy, and you should budget $1,500 to $3,000 per year depending on the property. I wrote a guide to DSCR lenders for STR investors recently that covers how lenders evaluate insurance requirements during underwriting.

Parking: One off-street parking space per bedroom rented. In Wilmington’s historic downtown neighborhoods, where lots are narrow and on-street parking is limited, this rule can effectively limit how many bedrooms you list.

Local Manager (Whole-House Rentals): If you are renting the entire property without being present (the “whole-house” category), you must designate an operator within 25 miles who is available 24/7. Their name and contact information must be posted in the unit and included in online listings.

Two Rental Categories: Wilmington distinguishes between homestay rentals (host is present and onsite) and whole-house rentals (host is absent). Both are defined as stays of 30 consecutive days or less. The whole-house category carries the local manager requirement.

Taxes: Hosts must collect and remit a 6% New Hanover County occupancy tax on all bookings. This is separate from state and local sales taxes. Platforms like Airbnb typically handle the state portion automatically, but the county occupancy tax may require separate registration and filing.

Enforcement: Post-Schroeder, enforcement is largely complaint-driven. Without neighbors filing noise or parking complaints, the city is less likely to intervene proactively. Fines for violations range from $100 to $500 per incident.

City of Wilmington vs. New Hanover County: Two Different Rulebooks

This is a detail that catches investors off guard, and it matters more than most people realize. The City of Wilmington and unincorporated New Hanover County operate under separate regulatory frameworks for short-term rentals.

If you are buying a property in the unincorporated areas of New Hanover County (including zones adjacent to Wrightsville Beach and areas along the Intracoastal Waterway), the county rules apply instead of city rules. The county framework is generally lighter. No specific STR permits are required. The $500,000 insurance minimum still applies. Occupancy limits (two adults per bedroom plus two additional) are similar. The local manager requirement carries over.

Where the county differs is in enforcement structure and tax obligations. The county actively monitors occupancy tax compliance. You will owe the same 6% occupancy tax plus a combined 7% sales tax (4.75% state plus 2.25% county). Monthly returns are typically due by the 20th of the following month.

The county also requires formal written rental agreements for each booking, with records retained for at least one year. This is a lighter administrative burden than some city frameworks, but it is a requirement that out-of-state investors sometimes overlook.

Before you close on a property, confirm which jurisdiction it falls under. The boundary between city and county can cut through neighborhoods in ways that are not immediately obvious from a listing address.

Property Mix: What Wilmington’s Supply Looks Like

StaySTRA data breaks Wilmington’s 2,259 listings down by bedroom count, and the distribution tells a useful story about what the market rewards.

Three-bedroom units lead the pack at 25.2% of all listings, closely followed by one-bedrooms at 23.2%. This is a different shape than what you see in pure beach markets like the Outer Banks, where four and five-bedroom homes dominate because the Saturday-to-Saturday booking tradition rewards large group capacity.

Wilmington’s skew toward smaller units reflects its mixed demand base. University visitors, military travelers, and business guests often need one or two bedrooms. Vacation groups heading to nearby Wrightsville Beach or Carolina Beach want three bedrooms. The sweet spot for investors targeting broad appeal is likely the two-to-three-bedroom range, where you capture both leisure and non-leisure demand without the higher acquisition cost of a four-bedroom home.

I noticed something interesting in the booking data, too. About 63% of Wilmington bookings happen one to three months in advance, with another 61% of future inventory booked four to six months out. This is a market where guests plan ahead for summer but book closer to arrival for shoulder seasons. That pattern rewards hosts who price dynamically and do not leave summer rates flat through March.

How Wilmington Compares to Nearby Coastal Markets

Sitting at my desk in Santa Fe with my coffee getting cold again, I keep coming back to how Wilmington fits within the broader Carolina coastal picture. The comparisons matter because investors often evaluate multiple markets simultaneously.

The Outer Banks produces dramatically higher peak revenue (Corolla averages $6,426 per month, nearly triple Wilmington’s $2,437) but with an 8.2x seasonal swing that requires nerves of steel and deep reserves for the winter months. Myrtle Beach tracks 17,148 listings with a $198 ADR and 58% occupancy, which means its revenue per property ($2,595/month) edges Wilmington’s slightly. But Myrtle’s massive supply (more than seven times Wilmington’s listing count) creates intense competition and more pricing pressure.

Charlotte, by contrast, is an urban market with 62% occupancy and a $198 ADR. Charlotte also removed all STR regulations from its zoning code in April 2022, making it perhaps the most permissive regulatory environment of any major Southeast metro. Wilmington’s occupancy (54.8%) and ADR ($187) sit a step below Charlotte’s, but the coastal premium on property values and the vacation rental audience create a different investment profile.

Wilmington’s advantage is not in peak revenue. It is in consistency. The 3.1x seasonal swing, the diversified demand base, and the post-Schroeder regulatory clarity make it a market where you can underwrite with more confidence about the floor. That $1,258 January figure is not going to make anyone rich, but it is not going to force you to subsidize an empty property through four months of winter either.

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 on a Wilmington Property

If Wilmington is on your shortlist, the next step is running the numbers on a specific property. The StaySTRA Wilmington Airbnb Calculator lets you enter an address and see projected revenue, occupancy, and comparable rental data based on actual market performance. It is free for basic analysis and takes about 30 seconds.

For a deeper look at Wilmington’s full dataset, including monthly trends, property type breakdowns, and neighborhood-level performance, visit the StaySTRA Wilmington market page.