Buying a Depoe Bay Rental: What the Revenue Numbers Actually Support

Aug 21

10 min read

Updated: Aug 28

Empty coastal kitchen interior, Depoe Bay lodging, no people

Depoe Bay's short-term rental numbers tell a clear story for anyone underwriting a purchase this year: typical listings earned about $45,628 in gross revenue over the trailing twelve months from August 2025 through July 2026, across 235 active listings in the AirROI sample. Average daily rate was $334, occupancy ran 44.4 percent, and revenue per available night landed at $151. Year-over-year growth was a modest but positive 2.2 percent, and active supply barely moved, up 0.0 percent over the same period.

Those are the numbers to bring into a purchase conversation, not a blended figure borrowed from a nearby coastal town. Roughly a day's drive south, Bodega Bay, California posted $70,812 in typical revenue across 228 listings over the same window , a materially different market with its own permitting desk, its own visitor patterns, and its own regulatory calendar. Treat the two as separate underwriting exercises. This guide walks through what the Depoe Bay numbers mean, how a lender is likely to read them, and what belongs in a buyer's due-diligence packet before an offer goes in.

The town itself is small , a few blocks of Highway 101 wrapped around a harbor entrance , but it draws steady coastal tourism from the harbor itself, from the "Spouting Horn" saltwater geyser formation along the seawall, and from whale-watching charters that run nearly year-round out of the harbor. That built-in draw is part of why a market this size supports 235 active short-term rental listings, and why demand holds up outside the peak summer months.

DSCR: What the $45,628 Number Actually Supports

For a debt-service-coverage-ratio loan, lenders start with actual trailing revenue, not a hopeful projection. On this sample, that figure is $45,628 across 235 listings, drawn from AirROI's trailing-twelve-month window of August 2025 through July 2026. Revenue per available night , the more useful figure for DSCR math than average daily rate alone, since it already accounts for the vacancy built into a 44.4 percent occupancy rate , was $151.

Average nightly rate on this sample was $334, with a typical stay length of 4.1 nights booked about 65 days in advance. None of these figures function as a purchase-price recommendation; DSCR underwriting still needs the specific property's projected revenue, verified against comparable listings, before a lender will commit. What this dataset supports is the baseline: this is what a typical Depoe Bay listing earned over the last year, not what any one property will earn after a purchase.

Buyers without an existing operating history on a target property should expect the lender to lean on a short-term rental market analysis or appraisal-based rent survey rather than the seller's own booking calendar. Where an existing listing does have twelve months of platform history, that operating history , not the area average , becomes the primary evidence a DSCR lender will underwrite against.

Why Bodega Bay's $70,812 Doesn't Belong in This Deal

Bodega Bay published $70,812 in typical revenue across 228 listings over the same trailing-twelve-month window , a stronger number, and one that occasionally shows up in packets that blend two different coastal markets into one "regional" average. Resist that instinct. A lender who asks for "the coastal comp" is not asking for Bodega Bay's rent roll grafted onto a Depoe Bay parcel; treat that request as a prompt to clarify which town's numbers actually apply.

The two markets differ in more than gross revenue. Bodega Bay sits in Sonoma County, California, under a different STR permitting authority, a different transient occupancy tax structure, and a different guest base than Lincoln County, Oregon. Mixing the two into a single underwriting narrative , even informally, even just to make a weaker Oregon number look better , invites a lender or an appraiser to ask harder questions than the deal needs.

Keep the two figures on separate lines in every document a buyer produces: the loan application, the internal pro forma, and any conversation with a broker. $45,628 on 235 listings is Depoe Bay. $70,812 on 228 listings is Bodega Bay. They should never appear averaged together.

Location, Parcel, and Permitting: Confirm Before You Bid

Short-term rental permitting in Depoe Bay runs through Depoe Bay City Hall at 570 SE Shell Avenue, Depoe Bay, OR 97341, under the town's transient occupancy business registration requirements. As of this pass, a dedicated 2026 STR permit fee was not confirmed as a live dollar amount on the primary city page , buyers should call or visit before assuming a figure, rather than working from a number pulled from a listing description or an agent's estimate.

Permit and registration questions follow the parcel, not the previous owner's paperwork. A change in ownership typically means a new registration process, not an inherited one, so buyers should not assume a seller's existing permit transfers automatically at closing. Confirm current requirements directly with the city before writing permitting costs into a purchase offer.

This is also where the Bodega Bay comparison breaks down most clearly: Depoe Bay Harbor, the town's central landmark and the reason many listings market themselves around walkability to the water, has nothing to do with Sonoma County's permitting desk. If the map says Depoe Bay, the paperwork starts at Shell Avenue, not at a California county office.

Reading the Year-Over-Year Trend Correctly

Depoe Bay's typical revenue grew 2.2 percent year over year on this sample, a modest but positive trend rather than a dramatic one. That figure reflects a single year of comparison on a 235-listing sample , useful context, not a multi-year growth curve, and not a guarantee that the next twelve months repeat it.

Active supply held essentially flat, up 0.0 percent over the same period, meaning the modest revenue gain came from demand and pricing rather than a wave of new listings splitting the same guest pool. That is a reasonably healthy signal for an existing owner, though a buyer should still treat one year of data as a single data point, not a trend line long enough to underwrite a five-year hold on its own.

When building a pro forma, avoid stretching a single year of Depoe Bay growth into a "coastal Oregon" or "Pacific Northwest" growth assumption , and avoid substituting Bodega Bay's own year-over-year figures into a Depoe Bay projection. Keep this town's one-year comparison exactly what it is.

Supply and Competition: What 235 Listings Looks Like

With 235 active listings and supply essentially unchanged year over year, Depoe Bay's short-term rental market is neither flooding with new inventory nor shrinking. Professionally managed listings make up 58.3 percent of that total, with Pacific View Lodging the single largest operator on record at 32 listings , meaningful concentration in a market this size, though still leaving well over half the market split among smaller operators and individual hosts.

Superhost status covers 50.6 percent of active listings, a signal that guest experience and review quality are competitive rather than a market where any listing can coast. A new buyer entering this market is not just buying revenue history; they are stepping into a review and reputation contest where roughly half the competition already carries platform-level trust signals.

For a buyer comparing properties, that combination , flat supply, majority-professional management, strong superhost share , points toward a market where differentiation matters more than simple listing count. A property that can genuinely deliver on walkability to Depoe Bay Harbor, ocean views, or proximity to whale-watching departure points has a real edge over a generic listing further from the water.

Treat the Sample Size With Appropriate Caution

Not every figure in this dataset applies to every listing. A subset of 147 listings set a 30-night minimum stay , arrangements that function more like furnished mid-term housing than classic short-term vacation rentals, and that pull the blended averages in a different direction than a pure weekend-rental analysis would. Buyers should ask whether a target property, or its closest comparables, fall into that longer-stay category before applying the headline revenue figures directly.

Seasonality also matters more than the annual average suggests. February is consistently the slowest month for Depoe Bay bookings, which makes it the right month to model for a vacancy haircut rather than assuming Bodega Bay's shoulder season or a generic "10 percent vacancy" rule of thumb. A buyer packet that quietly borrows another market's slow season is less honest than one that names February directly and prices around it.

The broader point: 235 listings is a real, usable sample for a market of Depoe Bay's size, but it is still a sample, not a census of every unit in town. Treat any single figure from it , average rate, occupancy, revenue , as a starting point for property-specific diligence, not a substitute for it.

Licenses and Permits Don't Transfer With the Deed

Buyers moving from one coastal market to another sometimes assume the licensing process will look similar enough to skip a step. It will not. A short-term rental license or registration tied to a Sonoma County desk , Bodega Bay's permitting authority , has no bearing on what Depoe Bay City Hall requires, and starting at the wrong desk wastes time a closing timeline usually cannot afford.

The safest approach is to treat every new Depoe Bay parcel as a fresh registration, confirmed directly with the city rather than assumed from a prior owner's paperwork, a real estate listing description, or a lender's boilerplate checklist. City office hours change; call ahead or check the current posted hours at 570 SE Shell Avenue before planning a trip to confirm requirements in person.

Build this confirmation step into the purchase timeline itself, not into the post-closing to-do list. A buyer who discovers a permitting gap after closing has far fewer options than one who confirmed requirements before submitting an offer.

What a Buyer Packet Should Carry

A clean Depoe Bay buyer packet keeps four things straight: this year's trailing revenue figure ($45,628 on 235 listings, August 2025 through July 2026), the correct permitting authority (Depoe Bay City Hall, not a neighboring county desk), a clear reference to Depoe Bay Harbor as the market's defining feature rather than a generic "coastal" description, and a firm refusal to blend in another town's numbers.

Visitor spending data, tourism board statistics, and regional coastal reports are useful context for a listing description or a marketing plan, but they are not debt-service coverage. If a loan officer asks for a more recent or more favorable coastal-market year than this one, the honest answer is that a fabricated number does not hold up under later verification any better than an accurate one that shows real, modest growth.

Above all, keep Depoe Bay's $45,628 and Bodega Bay's $70,812 on separate lines throughout the packet , in the pro forma, in any lender conversation, and in the buyer's own notes. The two towns will not be evaluated together by anyone doing real diligence, and a packet that already keeps them separate looks more credible, not less.

Frequently Asked Questions

What revenue figure should a buyer underwrite for a Depoe Bay purchase?

Use $45,628 in typical annual revenue across 235 active listings, AirROI's trailing twelve months from August 2025 through July 2026. Revenue per available night was $151, average nightly rate was $334, and occupancy ran 44.4 percent. Treat this as the baseline for the town, not a promise for any single property.

Why shouldn't Bodega Bay's $70,812 be used in a Depoe Bay deal?

Bodega Bay is a separate California market that posted $70,812 across 228 listings over the same period, under its own Sonoma County permitting authority and tax structure. Blending the two, even informally, invites a lender or appraiser to ask harder questions than the deal needs. Keep the figures on separate lines.

Where does STR permitting happen for a new Depoe Bay purchase?

Permitting runs through Depoe Bay City Hall at 570 SE Shell Avenue, Depoe Bay, OR 97341, under the town's transient occupancy business registration rules. A specific 2026 permit fee was not confirmed as a live dollar amount on the primary city page as of this writing, so confirm current costs directly with the city before closing.

How should a buyer read the 2.2 percent year-over-year growth?

It reflects one year of comparison on a 235-listing sample, not a multi-year trend. Active supply stayed essentially flat, up 0.0 percent, so the gain came from demand and pricing rather than new listings splitting the market. Don't stretch it into a regional growth assumption or substitute another town's year-over-year figure.

What does the 235-listing supply picture show about competition?

Professionally managed listings make up 58.3 percent of the market, with Pacific View Lodging the largest single operator at 32 listings. Superhost status covers 50.6 percent of listings, so a new owner is entering a market where review quality and reputation already matter, not one where any listing can coast on location alone.

Why does the 147-listing, 30-night-minimum subset matter?

Those 147 listings function more like furnished mid-term housing than classic vacation rentals, and they pull the market's blended averages in a different direction than a pure short-stay analysis would. Confirm whether a target property or its closest comps fall into that category before applying headline figures directly, and model February , the town's slowest month , for any vacancy haircut.

Do existing STR licenses transfer with the deed?

No. Treat every new Depoe Bay parcel as a fresh registration confirmed directly with the city, not one inherited from a previous owner's paperwork or a listing description. Confirm current office hours and requirements at 570 SE Shell Avenue before assuming any prior permit carries over.

What should a buyer packet include before making an offer?

This year's trailing revenue ($45,628 on 235 listings, August 2025 through July 2026), the correct permitting authority, a reference to Depoe Bay Harbor rather than a generic coastal description, and a firm refusal to blend in Bodega Bay's numbers. Visitor spending data is useful marketing context, but it is not debt-service coverage.

Work with Crest & Cove Creative

A Depoe Bay listing priced off Bodega Bay's numbers is importing a California market into a two-block Oregon harbor town. The Spouting Horn geyser and whale-watching charters, not a borrowed comp, are what actually pull guests here.

We build Depoe Bay listing copy and pricing around the Spouting Horn, the harbor, and whale-watching season, not a California town's rate card. That's positioning sized to a 235-listing Oregon coast market on its own terms.

Reach out at crestcove.co or (256) 998-7502.