Buying a Stroudsburg, PA Short-Term Rental: The 2026 Numbers
A Stroudsburg short-term rental purchase should start with one town's numbers, not a regional average and not a neighboring city's file. On Air ROI's extract covering August 2025 through July 2026, typical Stroudsburg listings earned about $35,590 last year across 34 active rentals. That is the number a buyer packet should carry into an underwriting conversation. It is not the number that belongs to Scranton, where 85 active rentals earned about $14,656 on the same window. Two different towns, two different guest pools, two different listing counts, and two different revenue stories that should never be merged into one pitch.
This piece stays inside that Stroudsburg window. The job here is straightforward: keep Stroudsburg facts on Stroudsburg, keep Scranton facts on Scranton, and confirm whatever remains open for 2026 directly with the borough desk before you close or before you advertise. A buyer who blends the two towns to make a deal look better is building a packet that falls apart the first time a lender or a permit clerk checks the address against the numbers.
None of what follows is a substitute for a walkthrough, an appraisal, or a conversation with a lender who underwrites short-term rental income specifically. It is a way to organize the numbers that are already public in this sample, and to flag exactly where a buyer still needs to confirm something directly with the borough before treating a figure as settled. The goal is a packet that a second reader can check line by line, not a pitch that sounds convincing until someone asks where a number came from. This is not legal advice.
What Stroudsburg Rentals Actually Earned
On the August 2025 through July 2026 extract, typical Stroudsburg listings earned about $35,590 last year from 34 active rentals. That figure sits alongside an average daily rate of about $383 and occupancy of about 34.0 percent, which together produce a revenue per available room, or Rev PAR, of about $125. Those four numbers belong together. A buyer who quotes the $383 nightly rate without the 34.0 percent occupancy is telling half a story, because a strong nightly rate on a thin occupancy base is exactly what produces a $125 Rev PAR instead of a much higher one.
This is the number set to bring into a buying conversation: $35,590 typical revenue, 34 active listings, $383 ADR, 34.0 percent occupancy, $125 Rev PAR, all from the same August 2025 through July 2026 extract. A buyer packet that carries all five numbers together, on the same window, is a packet that can survive a second look from a lender, a partner, or a skeptical spouse.
Why Scranton's Numbers Don't Belong in This Packet
Scranton listings earned about $14,656 last year from 85 active rentals on the same August 2025 through July 2026 extract. That is a different city, a different guest pool, and a listing count more than double Stroudsburg's 34. Folding Scranton's revenue, occupancy, or guest origin into a Stroudsburg pitch is not a shortcut. It is a factual error that a lender, an appraiser, or a future buyer's own research can catch in minutes.
The discipline is simple even if it is easy to skip under deadline pressure: keep $35,590 on 34 listings on the Stroudsburg line, and leave Scranton's $14,656 on 85 listings on its own separate line, in its own separate document if that is what it takes to stop the two from blending. A mixed-metro pitch is the wrong note to hand a lender who is underwriting one specific 34-listing town, not a regional blend.
Reading Occupancy and ADR as One Story
Occupancy of 34.0 percent and an average night of $383 are not two separate facts to cherry-pick from. They are one story about how this market actually books. A buyer who models revenue by multiplying a hoped-for 60 percent occupancy against the $383 ADR is not underwriting Stroudsburg. They are underwriting a market that does not exist in this sample. The real math starts from the $125 Rev PAR, because that number already carries the occupancy discount built in.
About 26.5 percent of Stroudsburg listings set a 30-night minimum. That is a listing-level filter, not a measure of demand, and it should not be read as evidence that occupancy is higher than the extract shows. A 30-night minimum changes who can book, not how full the market actually runs. Buyers underwriting a property with that kind of minimum in mind should model against the 34.0 percent occupancy figure, not against an assumption that a long-stay filter quietly fixes the occupancy math.
This distinction shows up again and again in how buyer pitches get written, and it is worth stating plainly one more time: a 30-night minimum is a setting a host chooses inside a listing dashboard, not a fact about how many nights the market actually fills. A buyer who sees a competitor property advertising a 30-night minimum should not conclude that the property is running near full occupancy. The 34.0 percent figure in this sample already reflects the mix of short-stay and long-stay listings across all 34 active Stroudsburg rentals, minimum-stay settings included.
The Growth Story Behind the Numbers
Year over year, Stroudsburg revenue is up about 72.1 percent while supply is up about 112.5 percent on the same extract. Read those two figures side by side and the story is more nuanced than either one alone suggests. Revenue climbed sharply, but new listings arrived even faster, which is consistent with a market where individual owner-operators are still writing most of the desk and new supply keeps landing on top of a base that was smaller a year earlier.
A buyer weighing a purchase against this growth curve should treat the 112.5 percent supply growth as a caution flag worth pricing in, not a detail to leave out of the packet. Faster supply growth than revenue growth can compress returns for new entrants even in a market where the headline revenue number looks strong. This is exactly the kind of tension a buyer packet should show plainly rather than smooth over.
Registration and Permitting Before You Close
Stroudsburg requires confirmation of what remains open for the Hotel Tax Article, the zoning-permit files, and the Ordinance 1087 license files, all of which are tracked at stroudsburgboro.com. This piece does not carry a specific 2026 fee or renewal figure for this file, and it should not guess one. What a buyer can carry into a purchase conversation is the requirement itself: registration, zoning, and licensing under Ordinance 1087 are borough-level matters that need to be confirmed directly with the desk before a listing goes live, not assumed from a prior owner's paperwork or a neighboring town's rules.
A buyer packet built around a Stroudsburg purchase should carry a line that says, in plain terms, that remaining 2026 registration status has been confirmed with the Borough of Stroudsburg, with the date of that confirmation noted. That single line does more for a closing conversation than any amount of revenue modeling, because it tells a lender the buyer has actually checked the file against the parcel rather than assuming continuity from the seller.
Independent Owners Still Write Most of This Desk
Independent hosts still write most of this 34-listing desk, which is a detail worth weighing against any pitch that promises a fully hands-off, professionally managed investment from day one. A buyer entering a market where owner-operators dominate the listing count is entering a market where the day-to-day work of pricing, guest communication, and turnover is still largely done by individuals rather than large management firms. That is neither a reason to avoid the purchase nor a reason to romanticize it. It is a fact that should shape how a buyer plans staffing, whether that means self-managing, hiring a local co-host, or budgeting for a management fee from the outset.
This context also affects how a buyer should read the $35,590 typical revenue figure. That number reflects a mix of listings run by owners with varying levels of pricing sophistication and guest experience polish. A buyer who plans to run a tighter operation than the market average, with better photography, more responsive pricing, and a cleaner listing, has a reasonable basis to expect results above the typical figure, but that expectation should be stated as a plan, not carried into a lender packet as if it were already the market's baseline.
Modeling Cash Flow Month by Month
A single annual figure like $35,590 hides more than it reveals unless a buyer breaks it into a monthly shape. this sample names June, July, and December as the peak months, and March as the revenue hole, which means a realistic model should show three strong months, a soft March, and a spread of moderate months carrying the rest of the $35,590 total. Spreading that annual figure evenly across twelve months produces a monthly cash flow projection that will be wrong in both directions: too low for June, July, and December, and too high for March.
This matters most in the first year of ownership, when a new buyer is often also carrying acquisition debt, renovation costs, or a learning curve on pricing. A buyer who expects March to perform like June will misjudge how much reserve cash is needed to carry the property through the identified revenue hole. Building the monthly model around the named peak months and the named hole, rather than around an even split of the annual figure, is the difference between a cash flow plan that survives March and one that does not.
What a Lender Will Actually Ask
A lender underwriting a short-term rental purchase in Stroudsburg is going to ask for the source behind every number in the packet, not just the numbers themselves. Citing Air ROI's extract for the August 2025 through July 2026 window, and being able to point to the $35,590 typical revenue, the $383 ADR, the 34.0 percent occupancy, and the $125 Rev PAR as figures drawn from that single source, is what makes a packet credible under that kind of scrutiny. A packet that cites a blended regional figure, or that quietly substitutes a stronger-sounding neighboring market's numbers, will not hold up to that same question.
The registration and permitting line matters here too. A lender who sees a dated confirmation that remaining 2026 status has been checked with the Borough of Stroudsburg, rather than an assumption carried over from the seller's paperwork, is looking at a buyer who has done the actual homework. That single line, paired with the five core revenue numbers, is usually enough to move a Stroudsburg purchase conversation from a general pitch to a specific, checkable deal.
Building a Buyer Packet That Holds Up
A buyer packet for a Stroudsburg short-term rental should carry, at minimum: the $35,590 typical revenue figure on 34 listings, the $383 ADR, the 34.0 percent occupancy rate, the $125 Rev PAR, the confirmation that Scranton's $14,656 on 85 listings is a separate city and stays off this page, and a dated confirmation of remaining 2026 registration status from the Borough of Stroudsburg. Every one of those items comes from the same August 2025 through July 2026 extract, and every one of them can be independently checked by anyone reading the packet after the fact.
That is the actual test for whether a buyer packet is ready: can a second reader, a lender, or a skeptical partner check every number in it against a source and get the same answer. A packet that mixes towns, invents occupancy assumptions, or skips the registration confirmation will not survive that test. One built from these numbers, kept on their own lines, sourced to a single named extract and a single named borough desk, will.
It is worth repeating the discipline one more time because it is the single most common way a Stroudsburg buyer packet goes wrong: a stronger-sounding number from a nearby market finds its way into the pitch, usually without anyone intending to mislead, simply because a regional average felt easier to write than a single-town figure. The fix is not complicated. It is naming the extract, naming the window, naming the town, and leaving every neighboring city's numbers, Scranton's included, on their own separate line where they belong.
Related Reading
More Buying a Stroudsburg, PA Short-Term Rental host reading on desks, calendars, and listing clarity.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a Stroudsburg STR permit before I advertise?
Yes, in principle. this sample shows the Hotel Tax Article, zoning-permit files, and Ordinance 1087 license files all apply to Stroudsburg short-term rentals, and the borough tracks what remains open on each for 2026. This file does not carry a specific fee or renewal figure, so a buyer should confirm current status directly at stroudsburgboro.com before listing rather than assuming a prior owner's paperwork still applies to a new purchase or a new operator.
What did a typical Stroudsburg short-term rental earn last year?
About $35,590, based on 34 active listings on Air ROI's extract covering August 2025 through July 2026. That figure pairs with an average daily rate near $383 and occupancy near 34.0 percent, producing a Rev PAR of about $125. A buyer packet should carry all four numbers together rather than quoting the ADR alone, since the occupancy rate is what keeps the annual total from tracking higher.
How does Stroudsburg compare to Scranton for a rental purchase?
They are not comparable in this sample and should not be blended. Scranton listings earned about $14,656 last year from 85 active rentals, versus $35,590 from 34 listings in Stroudsburg, on the same window. Different guest pools, different listing counts, different revenue stories. A buyer packet should rather than presenting a blended or averaged figure to a lender.
Is a 30-night minimum the same thing as high occupancy?
No. About 26.5 percent of Stroudsburg listings set a 30-night minimum, but that is a booking filter, not a measure of how full the market runs. Occupancy in this sample sits at about 34.0 percent regardless of which listings use a long-stay minimum. A buyer should model revenue against the occupancy figure, not assume a minimum-stay setting quietly raises the underlying demand.
What is driving the 72.1 percent year-over-year revenue growth?
The extract does not break the growth into individual causes, only the year-over-year totals: revenue up about 72.1 percent while supply grew about 112.5 percent over the same period. Read together, the figures suggest a market where more listings are entering faster than revenue is climbing on a per-listing basis, which is worth weighing carefully against any purchase built primarily on the growth trend alone.
Should faster supply growth than revenue growth worry a buyer?
It is worth pricing into an offer rather than ignoring. Supply grew about 112.5 percent year over year against revenue growth of about 72.1 percent on the same extract. That gap can compress per-listing returns for new entrants even while the headline market looks strong, so a buyer packet should show both figures side by side rather than leading only with the revenue growth number.
When is the weakest month for Stroudsburg short-term rentals?
March, according to this sample, which identifies March as the revenue hole for the August 2025 through July 2026 window. A buyer underwriting a purchase should build a monthly model that accounts for a soft March rather than spreading the $35,590 typical annual revenue evenly across twelve months, since the real pattern includes both strong peak months and this identified low point.
Which months are strongest for Stroudsburg bookings?
this sample identifies June, July, and December as the peak months for the August 2025 through July 2026 window. A buyer packet should note these three months by name when modeling seasonal cash flow, rather than assuming revenue distributes evenly across the year, since the peak months carry a disproportionate share of the $35,590 typical annual total.
Who books a Stroudsburg short-term rental?
this sample shows most guests arriving from New York, followed by Philadelphia, for a typical stay of about 3.1 nights. That guest origin and stay length are specific to Stroudsburg on this window and should not be assumed to match a neighboring town's guest pool, including Scranton, which this sample tracks separately at about $14,656 in typical revenue across 85 listings.
What should a buyer packet include before making an offer?
At minimum: the $35,590 typical revenue on 34 listings, the $383 ADR, the 34.0 percent occupancy rate, the $125 Rev PAR, a note keeping Scranton's separate $14,656 figure off the Stroudsburg page, and a dated confirmation of remaining 2026 registration status from the Borough of Stroudsburg. Each item should be independently checkable against the same August 2025 through July 2026 extract or the borough's own records.
Work with Crest & Cove Creative
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We help independent hosts rewrite listing and market pages so guests get operable facts instead of soft slogans. Use the live draft and the numbers you can actually cite - we will pressure-test what stays and what gets cut before publish.
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