It’s nonetheless 94 levels out, however everybody has collectively determined it appears like fall; any individual’s uncle is already livid a few backup quarterback he has by no means watched play a snap; and 100,000 persons are about to drive 4 hours to take a seat on scorching aluminum and scream at 19-year-olds.
Soccer season can also be probably the most reliable income spike a short-term rental will get all yr in a number of choose cities. It’s six or seven Saturdays the place your nightly price does issues it will by no means do in June.
I pulled AirDNA information on extra faculty markets than I am happy with to determine which cities truly flip that into cash. Then I did the half no person does and browse the zoning ordinance in each single finalist. That second step took about 9 hours, and it reordered the entire checklist.
Actuality Test
Are these the ten greatest short-term rental markets in America? Probably not, and I’m not going to faux in any other case.
If you’d like pure returns with no strings hooked up, there are markets on the market with higher math and less complicated guidelines that don’t have anything to do with soccer. Half these cities have a fall price premium beneath 1.3x, which suggests the soccer impact is near a rounding error on their annual income. A number of have zoning guidelines that restrict what you’re allowed to purchase. And one or two wouldn’t make anyone’s prime 100 for those who took the stadium away.
If considered one of these cities is already in your radar since you went there, your child goes there, otherwise you dwell two hours away and know which streets are which, then soccer season is an actual tailwind. Six or seven weekends when your price doubles are real cash, and it exhibits up clearly within the information.
What I might not do is purchase a home 900 miles away in a city you’ve gotten by no means visited as a result of a staff is ranked eleventh. Each market on this checklist has a particular catch, which I put in every entry. Learn these earlier than you fall for a yield quantity.
How I Ranked These
I began with the house markets of the highest 50 applications. Applications enjoying inside main metros received minimize first, as a result of a 100,000-seat stadium in a metro of two million disappears into the noise, and the information proved it.
Markets too skinny to learn a price curve went subsequent. Twenty-two made the complete workup.
Every one received scored on 5 issues:
- Income yield after property tax (35%): Annual STR income divided by the Zillow Residence Worth Index, much less the estimated efficient property tax price for a non-owner-occupied property. This can be a market-comparison metric, not a property-level return. It doesn’t subtract administration, cleansing, utilities, insurance coverage, furnishing, upkeep, or platform charges.
- In-season carry (30%): The one highest month between September and November, divided by the typical of June and July. I ran that for 2023, 2024, and 2025 and averaged the three. It’s designed to seize a market’s largest football-month price spike, not its full fall-season common.
- Income pattern (20%): Yr-over-year income change.
- Appreciation (10%): One-year change in residence worth.
- 2027 recruiting class (5%): 247Sports Composite staff rank. It’s a small, forward-looking proxy for program relevance, anticipated fan demand, and the chances that future residence schedules will stay commercially fascinating. It doesn’t predict returns by itself. It issues sufficient to me as a tiebreaker to hold 5%.
And unofficially, whether or not the city is a ghost city from February by way of August, as a result of a number of of those very a lot are.
Income, ADR, occupancy, and provide figures are AirDNA market estimates for the trailing 12 months by way of July 2026. Residence values are Zillow Residence Worth Index figures pulled in August 2026. Laws had been reviewed in August 2026 and are continuously altering. All of it’s a market-level estimate, not a projection for any particular property.
Two gates sit on prime of the rating. A market with income down greater than 5% over the trailing yr didn’t make this checklist. That’s a screening rule, not proof that no particular person deal can work there. And a market the place a distant investor can’t function in any respect is out.
The preseason ballot rank is right here for context and carries zero weight. I examined it towards returns. I’ll present you the place it breaks on the finish.
Yet one more factor earlier than the checklist: This can be a market-level display screen, not a property-level professional forma. AirDNA numbers are market estimates, not a promise a few particular home.
Before you purchase anyplace on this checklist, affirm {that a} non-owner-occupied whole-home rental is authorized at that precise deal with, confirm any night time restrict and whether or not a allow is definitely accessible, and browse the HOA or apartment paperwork.
Honorable Mentions
State Faculty, PA (Penn State)
The one market I eliminated on regulation, and it stung, as a result of it produced the best gross income of something I studied at $46,825. State Faculty permits short-term leases solely when the property is the first residence of an proprietor or tenant dwelling there for eight-plus months a yr. Adjoining Faculty Township caps them at 30 nights.
Auburn, AL
It was the second-best soccer premium in your complete research at 2.14x, however the numbers nonetheless say no. Provide grew 29% final yr whereas occupancy fell 10.7% and income dropped 10%. Auburn homes run $423,354, which places income yield at 6.7%.
Faculty Station, TX
The No. 1 recruiting class in America, and it missed the highest 10. Income was down 4.2%, with flat appreciation and 1.50% tax. The soccer sign is actual at 1.63x. Permits are workable: $100 plus a $100 inspection price, $75 to resume, and a month-to-month lodge occupancy tax owed to each town and Brazos County.
Knoxville, TN
Tennessee’s 0.37% efficient property tax is the most affordable carry anyplace on this research. What stored it out of the highest 10 is 2,685 energetic listings, extra provide than any market right here, and a 1.06x fall premium.
In case you store it anyway: Sort 1 permits require that the property be your principal residence, so an investor wants a Sort 2, which is barely accessible in nonresidential districts. Purchase downtown or mixed-use.
Lincoln, NE
Nebraska has bought out each residence recreation since 1962. All people who needs to look at Nebraska play already lives in Nebraska. The principles are clear, although: a $250 annual license, most residential zones qualify, and no night time cap.
And with none additional ado, right here’s the highest 10.
10. Columbus, OH (Ohio State Buckeyes)
- Income: $35,143
- Median home price: $248,686
- Income yield: 12.7%
- ADR: $170.23
- Occupancy: 62%
- In-season carry: 0.98x
Why it really works
The very best occupancy of something I studied was 62% on a home beneath $250,000. Columbus has an financial system that has nothing to do with Saturdays. It’s the house of Intel, Nationwide, a large hospital system, and a conference calendar that by no means actually stops. That’s why it books in February whereas neighboring Oxford sits empty.
Soccer replace
Ohio State opens No. 1 within the nation with the seventh-ranked 2027 class.
Investor angle
Ohio State is the most effective staff in America, and Columbus is tenth on this checklist. Sit with that for a second, as a result of it’s the entire argument of the final part of this text.
The market posts a 0.98x carry, that means a soccer night time prices a hair lower than a median night time. I zoomed into the campus submarket searching for any sign in any respect, and October nonetheless completed behind Might, which is commencement plus the Memorial Match. Residence values additionally slipped 1% final yr.
Guidelines are straightforward right here. You’ll want an annual allow by way of the Division of Public Security, which is $150 a yr for an funding property plus a $20 software and a $32 background verify. You disclose that you just don’t dwell there, and that’s the top of it. No night time cap.
You do want an area accountable get together and $300,000 in legal responsibility protection that particularly names short-term rental use.
9. Columbia, MO (Missouri Tigers)
- Income: $29,920
- Median home price: $327,680
- Income yield: 8.3%
- ADR: $158.50
- Occupancy: 58%
- In-season carry: 1.25x
Why it really works
Income climbed 15.6% final yr whereas the variety of listings dropped 2.7%. Fewer properties splitting more cash is about the most effective setup an current operator can ask for. Columbia can also be considered one of solely three cities right here the place fall income beats summer time income outright.
Soccer replace
Missouri sits twenty fifth within the coaches’ ballot with the Twenty eighth-ranked 2027 class.
Investor angle
The highest earner on this market is a 12-bedroom on 51 acres. It opens 125 nights a yr and generates $99,000 in income. The itemizing that put “Mizzou Stadium” proper in its title completed lifeless final of the highest eight.
There’s a purpose a 12-bedroom can exist: 51 acres nearly actually places it outdoors metropolis limits. Inside Columbia, the principles get particular in a rush: Each short-term rental is capped at eight occupants. The town points one license per proprietor, so a portfolio is off the desk.
And for those who don’t dwell within the property, you want a conditional use allow from the Metropolis Council to hire it for greater than 120 nights, with a cap of 210 nights. Downtown and mixed-use zones get looser remedy.
Compliance runs in three steps, and so they must occur so as: zoning clearance, then rental inspection, then enterprise license.
So the play right here is on nation land or a downtown parcel, not a four-bedroom in a neighborhood.
8. Columbia, SC (South Carolina Gamecocks)
- Income: $36,303
- Median home price: $230,662
- Income yield: 14.6%
- ADR: $178.39
- Occupancy: 61%
- In-season carry: 1.02x
Why it really works
Columbia has the third-best income yield of all 22 markets. A $230,662 home pulling $36,303 at 61% occupancy truly pays you in March, which nearly nothing else on this checklist does.
Soccer replace
South Carolina is receiving votes however sits outdoors the highest 25, with its 2027 class ranked twenty seventh.
Investor angle
Right here’s what truly decides whether or not you should buy: Columbia permits short-term leases outright in mixed-use, exercise middle, business, and employment-campus districts. If you’d like a residential base zone, a non-owner-occupied rental has to entrance a four-lane road categorized as a serious arterial, minor arterial, or collector. Most neighborhood homes don’t. So store business and mixed-use first.
The town additionally adopted a 365-day moratorium on new residential STR permits beginning in June 2025. Whether or not that expired, received prolonged, or was changed by one thing else is precisely the type of factor that adjustments between after I write this and while you learn it. Ask town in writing earlier than you go beneath contract.
7. Norman, OK (Oklahoma Sooners)
- Income: $29,336
- Median home price: $265,617
- Income yield: 10.1%
- ADR: $187.66
- Occupancy: 47%
- In-season carry: 1.23x
Why it really works
Income was up 12.2% final yr, the third-best on the board, on a house worth that also begins with a 2. There have been solely 558 energetic listings.
Soccer replace
Oklahoma enters at No. 9 with the fifth-ranked 2027 class.
Investor angle
Norman has the cleanest rulebook I discovered in 9 hours of studying these items:
- Quick-term leases are allowed in each zoning district besides the commercial ones.
- No owner-occupancy requirement anyplace within the metropolis.
- A license runs $150 plus a $50 annual inspection.
Deliberate unit developments require council approval, so verify with the council earlier than you make a proposal.
One lure price realizing: The town’s visitor tax printed price is 8%, however Norman put a proposition on the April 2026 poll to lift it to 10% and prolong it to RV areas, so confirm the present quantity earlier than you worth out something.
September charges hit $226, in comparison with $172 in summer time. Actual, however modest.
6. Iowa Metropolis, IA (Iowa Hawkeyes)
- Income: $34,270
- Median home price: $305,824
- Income yield: 9.5%
- ADR: $177.33
- Occupancy: 60%
- In-season carry: 1.23x
Why it really works
This was the most effective progress story within the research. Income was up 18.8%, whereas occupancy was up 12.4% and charges up 7.8%. Provide was down 3.6%. This market grew income by practically 19% whereas shedding listings.
Soccer replace
Iowa opens twenty second with an unranked 2027 class, which price it a few spots in my scoring.
Investor angle
With solely 291 energetic listings, this was the smallest market on this checklist. I noticed that quantity and assumed a allow squeeze. I used to be mistaken within the different route.
Iowa preempts metropolis STR regulation on the state degree. Any keep of 30 days or much less counts as residential use, and cities can’t ban them, cap them, add conditional-use hurdles, or cost an STR-specific allow price. Iowa Metropolis requires a rental allow and compliance with the housing code. That’s your complete checklist.
Iowa’s 1.71% property tax is the best anyplace on this checklist, and it’s the one actual drag on the yield.
Yet one more factor price a glance: Three of the eight prime earners in Iowa Metropolis are log cabins outdoors city. The secluded cabin quarter-hour out beats the home you may stroll to Kinnick from. That sample confirmed up in six completely different markets on this research, and it’s probably the most constant factor I discovered.
5. Lubbock, TX (Texas Tech Pink Raiders)
- Income: $29,154
- Median home price: $212,191
- Income yield: 12.2%
- ADR: $164.38
- Occupancy: 53%
- In-season carry: 1.26x
Why it really works
The most cost effective actual door on this checklist. A $212,191 home incomes $29,154 works out to 13.7% earlier than Texas takes its minimize, and Lubbock County takes 1.51% of it.
Soccer replace
Texas Tech is available in at No. 12 with the ninth-ranked 2027 class, second-best recruiting on this prime 10.
Investor angle
Soccer is just not why you purchase in Lubbock. The autumn premium is 1.26x, and the highest-rate month of the yr is Might. Texas Tech commencement outearns Texas Tech soccer, which I checked thrice earlier than I believed it.
Purchase it as a result of it’s an affordable home in a market with 6.8% income progress. You’ll want an STR allow and to remit month-to-month taxes on occupied visitor nights.
4. Athens, GA (Georgia Bulldogs)
- Income: $38,028
- Median home price: $344,516
- Income yield: 10.2%
- ADR: $265.88
- Occupancy: 45%
- In-season carry: 1.71x
Why it really works
Athens doesn’t win any single class, nevertheless it finishes close to the highest of most of them: Income was up 7.6%. A 1.71x fall premium. A tax price of 0.82% that gained’t damage you.
Greatest element out there: Athens misplaced 7.2% of its listings final yr and raised charges 17% anyway. Provide walked out the door, and the operators who caught round collected.
Soccer replace
Georgia opens third within the nation with the Twelfth-ranked 2027 class.
Investor angle
Learn this earlier than you get excited concerning the No. 4 rating: Athens is just not a simple marketplace for a distant investor, and the speed information is doing all of the work right here.
Athens-Clarke County runs two STR classes. A Residence Occupation allow requires you to be the owner-occupant or a long-term tenant, which guidelines out anybody shopping for from out of city. A Business STR drops that requirement however is zoning-dependent and wishes a Particular Use Allow.
That allow is discretionary, and the fee has not been pleasant to them. In January 2026, they denied one, and the minutes have a number of commissioners saying they oppose the method usually.
So Athens is a specific-address market. Purchase in a qualifying business zone, funds for a public listening to, and don’t signal something you may’t stroll away from if the vote goes badly.
3. Oxford, MS (Ole Miss Rebels)
- Income: $41,703
- Median home price: $419,443
- Income yield: 9.1%
- ADR: $438.41
- Occupancy: 33%
- In-season carry: 2.21x
Why it really works
That is the most football-dependent market in America. It has the best nightly price anyplace within the research: $438; lowest occupancy: 33%.
An evening in Oxford prices $277 in July and $611 in September. And it doesn’t drop again down after. September, October, November, and December all clear $500.
Take into consideration what 33% occupancy truly means. The typical home there sits empty two nights out of each three, all yr lengthy, and nonetheless produces $41,703. That’s what 28,000 individuals and a 64,000-seat stadium do to a price calendar.
Soccer replace
Ole Miss enters tenth with the 14th-ranked 2027 class.
Investor angle
Right here’s the unusual half, and I solely discovered it by studying the precise Land Growth Code: Oxford doesn’t cleanly classify a non-owner-occupied whole-home short-term rental as a use. The code addresses an owner-occupied bed-and-breakfast, which is a particular exception within the AG, RCN, ER, SR, and NR districts. A daily Airbnb the place no person lives full-time isn’t on the desk of makes use of.
That’s not the identical as permission. The code states that an omitted use isn’t robotically allowed, and Part 1.9 delegates interpretation of omissions to the Planning Director. So whether or not your particular home qualifies comes all the way down to a written willpower, and also you need that in hand earlier than you shut, not after.
For what it’s price, I additionally discovered no code provision expressly imposing an owner-occupancy mandate, an annual night time cap, or a 1,500-foot separation rule on a whole-home rental. Folks repeat all three on-line. The separation rule seems to belong to Oxford, Mississippi. However as a result of the use isn’t clearly categorized, the absence of a restriction doesn’t imply a inexperienced mild.
2. Tuscaloosa, AL (Alabama Crimson Tide)
- Income: $37,800
- Median home price: $232,816
- Income yield: 15.3%
- ADR: $360.85
- Occupancy: 34%
- In-season carry: 2.04x
Why it really works
Fall nights common $513 towards $252 in July. That’s about 2.04 occasions July’s price, or 104% greater, and it lands on a 34% annual occupancy price.
So Tuscaloosa sits quiet many of the yr after which turns into the most costly deal with in Alabama for seven Saturdays. There are presently solely 525 energetic listings, the second-thinnest provide within the research.
Soccer replace
Alabama enters eleventh. Its 2027 recruiting class ranks forty first nationally.
Investor angle
Now, the half that decides your deal, and it’s the only most necessary sentence on this article: For a residential dwelling within the relevant Vacationer Overlay space, Tuscaloosa permits short-term rental operation by proper for not more than 45 days per calendar yr. Going past that will require discretionary approval.
That $37,800 income determine is a market common. It consists of grandfathered operators and approval holders working full calendars. At $360 an evening, 45 nights will get you to roughly $16,000. In case you’re shopping for by proper, underwrite 45 nights and deal with any approval as upside fairly than the plan. Name the Workplace of City Growth, give them the precise deal with, and get the night time depend in writing.
Yet one more factor: Alabama assesses owner-occupied properties at 10% of worth and leases at 20%. Your efficient price doubles the day you checklist it, so funds 0.90%, not the 0.45% printed.
1. South Bend, IN (Notre Dame Combating Irish)
- Income: $39,546
- Median home price: $202,170
- Income yield: 17.7%
- ADR: $285.89
- Occupancy: 46%
- In-season carry: 1.82x
Why it really works
South Bend completed 18 factors away from second place, the widest hole on the board, by successful practically each class directly. A typical home prices $202,170, and the typical itemizing earns $39,546. Income is up 7.7%. Residence values are up 6.9%, the quickest appreciation within the research. September charges run 82% above the July ground.
Soccer replace
Notre Dame opens fifth with the second-ranked 2027 class, behind solely Texas A&M.
Investor angle
The 46% occupancy price scares individuals off, and it shouldn’t. Six or seven Saturdays at $433 an evening is the entire mannequin, and Irish alumni will fly in from Phoenix for a 6-6 season.
Right here’s the comparability I would like caught in your head: Ann Arbor produces $38,872 per itemizing, inside $700 of South Bend. A typical Ann Arbor home prices $536,036. You’d be paying an additional $334,000 for equivalent income and a greater soccer staff. Solely a type of exhibits up in your money circulation.
There are two issues to look at anyway. The Widespread Council held a public assembly in July 2026 about regulating STRs and floated annual permits plus public proprietor contact information, which is the gentle finish of what a metropolis can do. Nothing handed. Test the agenda earlier than you shut.
And Indiana caps non-homestead leases at 2% of assessed worth whereas giving them not one of the homestead deductions, so funds 1.9%, not the 0.86% any county lookup exhibits you.
Closing Play Name: What the Knowledge Really Says
1. The perfect soccer markets are the toughest ones to purchase into
Three of the 5 largest fall-rate premiums I measured are in cities with the tightest guidelines:
- Tuscaloosa at 2.04x with a 45-day by-right restrict
- State Faculty at 1.80x with a primary-residence mandate
- Athens at 1.71x behind a discretionary allow
That’s not a coincidence. Soccer pushed charges so excessive in these cities that traders poured in, neighbors received loud, and the council responded. The factor that creates the premium is the factor that creates the restriction.
2. Soccer is a price occasion, not a quantity occasion
Throughout the 17 markets the place I might learn month-to-month occupancy, I didn’t discover one the place fall occupancy persistently beat summer time. On this pattern, the soccer impact confirmed up much more reliably in nightly charges than in booked nights. You’re normally monetizing a handful of higher-value weekends, not relying on a broad carry in annual occupancy.
3. Ballot rank and recruiting rank don’t reliably predict returns on their very own
Recruiting examined damaging towards income on this pattern. Texas A&M has the No. 1 class in America, and Faculty Station didn’t crack the highest 10. Oregon is ranked second within the nation, and Eugene completed lifeless final out of twenty-two. Ohio State is No. 1, and Columbus posts a 0.98x soccer premium.
I nonetheless gave recruiting 5% of the rating as a forward-looking tiebreaker as a result of faculty soccer relevance is a part of what this checklist is attempting to seize within the first place.
4. Revealed property tax averages understate what an investor pays
County efficient charges get averaged throughout a pool filled with owner-occupants claiming homestead exemptions and evaluation remedy you don’t get. I checked 5 states, and each understated the non-owner-occupied tax invoice. Alabama assesses leases at double the owner-occupied ratio. Indiana caps leases at 2% whereas denying them any homestead deductions.
That’s lots of numbers. In case you’ve had AirDNA, Zillow, and ESPN open in three tabs for the final 20 minutes, I get it.
So do what Lee Corso did each Saturday morning for nearly 40 years: Attain beneath the desk, pull out the mascot head, and commit. That’s the way you go from tab-hopping to the Heisman of hosts.
