Narrowsburg, NY STR Market Report for Independent Hosts

Jacob Mishalanie
Jul 31
15 min read

Updated: 9 hours ago

If you've spent any time researching short-term rental markets along the Upper Delaware River, you've probably heard of the Catskills and the Poconos. You may not have heard of Narrowsburg , a hamlet of just 379 year-round residents (2020 census, down 12.1% from 431 in 2010) tucked inside the Town of Tusten, Sullivan County, New York, sitting on the eastern shore of the Delaware River right at the New York/Pennsylvania line. It's roughly 2 to 2.5 hours from New York City, squarely between the Catskills to the north and the Poconos across the river to the south.

That obscurity is exactly why it's worth a closer look. According to AirDNA, Narrowsburg carries anamed-town AirROI pins, not invented ranking weights, an unusually high figure for a town this small , anchored by AirROI Narrowsburg $30,816 as of 2026-07-31 in average annual revenue per listing, AirROI 32.4% occupancy as of 2026-07-31, and an AirROI $436 as of 2026-07-31 (ADR). And unlike a lot of markets that post a strong number and then plateau, Narrowsburg is still climbing: revenue is upand occupancy is up. This is a market getting stronger, not one that just cleared a bar and stopped.

The more important story, though, isn't just that Narrowsburg's numbers are good in isolation. It's that Narrowsburg is quietly outperforming the river towns immediately around it. This report lays out exactly what that means, why it's happening, and what it signals for anyone evaluating the Upper Delaware River vacation rental market. A lot of Upper Delaware River vacation rental market coverage treats the whole corridor as one undifferentiated regional story , "the Catskills-adjacent river towns are hot." That framing misses what's actually happening on the ground.

A Fragmentation Story, Not a Regional Halo

A lot of Upper Delaware River vacation rental market coverage treats the whole corridor as one undifferentiated regional story , "the Catskills-adjacent river towns are hot." That framing misses what's actually happening on the ground. Narrowsburg isn't riding a tide that's lifting every neighboring hamlet equally. It's pulling ahead of them. That's the answer to the question anyone researching this stretch of river should be asking: not "is the Upper Delaware corridor hot," but "which specific town is actually pulling ahead" , and right now, the data says it's Narrowsburg.

The clearest confirmed comparison point is Livingston Manor, a nearby river town with independently confirmed AirDNA figures:AirROI Livingston Manor $27,314 as of 2026-07-31 average annual revenue, AirROI Livingston Manor 30.0% occupancy as of 2026-07-31, an AirROI $367 ADR as of 2026-07-31, and a RevPAR across AirROI Livingston Manor as of 2026-07-31. Those are respectable numbers for a small river town , but they sit meaningfully below Narrowsburg's on every metric that matters: roughly $8,000 less in average annual revenue, four points lower occupancy, and nearly $60 less in daily rate.

Callicoon and Barryville, two other Upper Delaware hamlets in the same general orbit, were confirmed by prior research to be sitting below Narrowsburg as well, trending flat to declining rather than climbing. Town-specific AirDNA figures (revenue, occupancy, ADR) for Callicoon and Barryville sit behind AirDNA's paid subscription platform and aren't published anywhere publicly , a dedicated search turned up no third-party report, town filing, or press coverage citing current numbers for either hamlet. The directional pattern , Narrowsburg out front, its neighbors trailing , is consistent across every source this research touched, but a specific current-year figure for either town should be treated as unavailable rather than approximated.

That's the signature that makes Narrowsburg worth naming specifically rather than lumping into a generic "Upper Delaware" or "Sullivan County NY Airbnb data" story: one hamlet is quietly separating itself from towns that, on paper, look like close comparables. Anyone researchingTusten NY short-term rentalperformance, or trying to identify thebest Catskills-adjacent Airbnb market, is going to run into Narrowsburg's numbers eventually , the question this report answers is why they look the way they do.

What's Actually Driving the Outperformance

A 94-score market doesn't happen by accident, and it isn't fully explained by river access alone , plenty of Upper Delaware towns sit on the same river. Narrowsburg's edge comes from two distinct demand engines working together, plus a brand identity its neighbors simply don't carry. Put the pieces together and Narrowsburg's story is unusual for a hamlet this small: a named-town AirROI pins, not invented ranking weights, revenue and occupancy both still climbing rather than plateauing, a demand base built on decades-old river-recreation infrastructure plus a nationally covered small-town arts identity that its immediate neighbors don't carry in the same combination, and a competitive field that's thin rather than saturated.

The River Recreation Economy

Narrowsburg sits inside the National Park Service's Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational Rivercorridor, which the NPS describes as the last major undammed river in the eastern United States , a genuine draw for paddlers, tubers, and anglers who want a river that still behaves like a river. Two long-running outfitters anchor the recreation economy here:. You may not have heard of Narrowsburg , a hamlet of just 379 year-round residents (2020 census, down 12.1% from 431 in 2010) tucked inside the Town of Tusten, Sullivan County, New York, sitting on the eastern shore of the Delaware River right at the New York/Pennsylvania line.

Lander's River Trips, family-owned and headquartered in Narrowsburg itself since 1955, running rafting, canoe, kayak, and tubing trips out of eight riverside launch points and three campgrounds, including its own Skinners Falls Campground.
Kittatinny, which has operated on the Delaware for 80 years.

Both outfitters concentrate the bulk of their business in the summer season (Memorial Day through Labor Day), and that's when Narrowsburg's occupancy and ADR run hottest. This is a real, decades-old tourism infrastructure , not a market betting on a single new attraction that could fade. Fall reads as a genuine secondary season, built on three threads: regional foliage tourism, New York's autumn hunting season (a well-established rural-Sullivan-County demand driver , the state's Southern Zone regular firearms deer season runs mid-November through early December, with bow season opening in October, both of which reliably fill rural Upper Delaware lodging during weeks that would otherwise be shoulder season, though no operator publishes a figure isolating hunting-driven bookings from general fall demand).

A Small-Town Arts-and-Culture Identity That Neighbors Don't Have

Here's the part of the story that separates Narrowsburg from a generic river hamlet: it has built a genuine "sophisticated tiny river town" brand, and it did it without losing its rural character. Add Fort Delaware Museum of Colonial Historyat 6615 State Route 97, a living-history reconstruction of an 18th-century Delaware Company settlement with costumed interpreters, and three properties on the National Register of Historic Places (the Arlington Hotel, Kirk House, and Narrowsburg Methodist Church), and you have a town whose actual identity is far more distinctive than "cabin near a river." A short drive from Narrowsburg , not in the hamlet itself , sit the Zane Grey Museum and Roebling's historic Delaware Aqueduct, both worth a passing regional mention for.

The centerpiece isOne Grand Books, a curated "desert island books" concept bookstore at 60 Main Street, founded in 2015 by Aaron Hicklin, former editor ofOutmagazine. The store drew national press coverage from outlets including Monocle and Art Info and, in 2018, launched theDeep Water Literary Festival. One Grand Books itself celebrated its 10th anniversary in October 2025. That's a real small-town-revitalization story, and it's the kind of narrative detail that a data platform's raw numbers can't capture but that explains why the numbers look the way they do.

Around that anchor sits a genuinely dense arts calendar run by theDelaware Valley Arts Alliance (DVAA), Sullivan County's official arts council: theBig Eddy Film Festival, ongoing programming at theTusten Theatre, and Narrowsburg's ownRiverfeststreet fair , its 35th annual edition ran July 27, 2025, making it one of the region's longest-running community festivals. AddFort Delaware Museum of Colonial Historyat 6615 State Route 97, a living-history reconstruction of an 18th-century Delaware Company settlement with costumed interpreters, and three properties on the National Register of Historic Places (the Arlington Hotel, Kirk House, and Narrowsburg Methodist Church), and you have a town whose actual identity is far more distinctive than "cabin near a river." A short drive from Narrowsburg , not in the hamlet itself , sit the Zane Grey Museum and Roebling's historic Delaware Aqueduct, both worth a passing regional mention for anyone building out a fuller Upper Delaware itinerary.

A Demand Pattern That's Multi-Season, Not a Single Narrow Window

Summer is the confirmed peak, but Narrowsburg's demand doesn't fall off a cliff after Labor Day. Fall reads as a genuine secondary season, built on three threads: regional foliage tourism, New York's autumn hunting season (a well-established rural-Sullivan-County demand driver , the state's Southern Zone regular firearms deer season runs mid-November through early December, with bow season opening in October, both of which reliably fill rural Upper Delaware lodging during weeks that would otherwise be shoulder season, though no operator publishes a figure isolating hunting-driven bookings from general fall demand), and the arts calendar described above, much of which runs independent of summer river weather. Winter and spring are the market's likely trough, consistent with the broader seasonal pattern across Catskills and Upper Delaware river-recreation markets, where outdoor-anchored demand drops sharply once the river closes for the season and doesn't fully recover until foliage season the following fall. Taken together, this is a real-but-moderate seasonality profile, not the single-narrow-window pattern that would raise a genuine viability concern for an owner or investor.

The Competitive Picture: Fragmented, Not Empty

One of the more striking findings in this research is what'snothere. No confirmed Vacasaor Avant Staypresence turned up in Narrowsburg or Sullivan County , there is no dominant institutional property manager running a large portfolio in this market. The honest characterization: Narrowsburg hasno confirmed institutional-scale competitor, a thin, small-scale, non-institutional field that leaves real room for owners and operators who invest in doing things well, rather than a wide-open market with nobody in it at all.

That doesn't mean zero competition, and it shouldn't be described that way. A Comparent.com directory lists three vacation property managers active in town:Catskills Cabin Keepers, a small, local, family-owned cleaning, hospitality, and property-management operation based in Narrowsburg itself, andMountain Angels Management, confirmed managing at least one large local luxury retreat (13 bedrooms). Beyond those two, genericAwningandCheckmatelanding pages show up in local search results, but these read as programmatic SEO placements rather than evidence of a dense, actively-managed operating portfolio.

The honest characterization: Narrowsburg hasno confirmed institutional-scale competitor, a thin, small-scale, non-institutional field that leaves real room for owners and operators who invest in doing things well, rather than a wide-open market with nobody in it at all. Callicoon and Barryville, two other Upper Delaware hamlets in the same general orbit, were confirmed by prior research to be sitting below Narrowsburg as well, trending flat to declining rather than climbing.

Regulation, in Brief

Regulatory detail deserves its own dedicated guide , that's coming next in this cluster , but a market report isn't complete without an honest summary of where things stand. The full regulatory picture is covered in this cluster's dedicated regulatory guide. This report lays out exactly what that means, why it's happening, and what it signals for anyone evaluating the Upper Delaware River vacation rental market.

No STR-specific permit cap or moratorium was found for the Town of Tusten.That already sets Narrowsburg apart from some capped Catskills markets nearby, where owners are fighting waitlists or numeric ceilings. What every operator does need is Sullivan County-level tax compliance: STR-specific tax registration through a Certificate of Authority with the County Treasurer, and a 5% occupancy tax applied to any "lodging facility" , a definition Sullivan County broadened in 2021 to explicitly bring Airbnb- and VRBO-style stays under the tax. Filing is quarterly, required even in quarters with zero taxable activity, with two years of recordkeeping and a 5%-per-month penalty for late filings.

At the state level, New York signed a short-term rental registry law on December 21, 2024, amended by State Senate Bill S820 in 2025, allowing counties to opt into a state registry with quarterly county-level reporting to the Department of State. One secondary source cites September 22, 2025 as the effective date for individual host and platform registration requirements , that date needs statute-level confirmation before it's treated as settled fact, so flag it.

Most notably for anyone evaluating Narrowsburg specifically: as of the most recent confirmed local reporting, the Town of Tusten has not adopted its own short-term-rental-specific ordinance. The River Reporter quoted Town Supervisor Ben Johnson in September 2024 describing a deliberate "wait and see" posture on short-term rental regulation, even as three other Sullivan County towns , Callicoon, Delaware, and Highland , have already passed their own STR laws. That could change at any time; town boards revisit these questions regularly, and this research pass found no confirmed vote or ordinance adopted since. Current and prospective Narrowsburg hosts should confirm Tusten's current posture directly with the Town Clerk's office, (845) 252-7146, rather than assume today's hands-off approach holds indefinitely. The full regulatory picture is covered in this cluster's dedicated regulatory guide.

Why This Market Deserves Attention Now

Put the pieces together and Narrowsburg's story is unusual for a hamlet this small: a named-town AirROI pins, not invented ranking weights, revenue and occupancy both still climbing rather than plateauing, a demand base built on decades-old river-recreation infrastructure plus a nationally covered small-town arts identity that its immediate neighbors don't carry in the same combination, and a competitive field that's thin rather than saturated. That's the answer to the question anyone researching this stretch of river should be asking: not "is the Upper Delaware corridor hot," but "which specific town is actually pulling ahead" , and right now, the data says it's Narrowsburg.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Narrowsburg, NY's AirDNA performance snapshot?

Narrowsburg's confirmed baseline is $30,816 in average annual revenue per listing, 32.4% occupancy, and a $436 ADR, across an n=24 sample as of 2026-07-31 -- an unusually strong showing for a hamlet of only 379 year-round residents, reflecting demand relative to comparable Upper Delaware River markets.

How much revenue does a short-term rental in Narrowsburg generate?

AirDNA data shows an average of $30,816 in annual revenue per listing, with 32.4% occupancy and a $436 ADR. Both revenue and occupancy are climbing year-over-year (+8.0% and +6.4% respectively), indicating a market that's strengthening rather than plateauing.

How does Narrowsburg compare to nearby Upper Delaware River towns?

Narrowsburg outperforms its confirmed neighbor, Livingston Manor, which posts $27,314 in average annual revenue, 30.0% occupancy, and a $367 ADR. Callicoon and Barryville were confirmed by prior research to trail Narrowsburg as well and trend flat to declining. Current town-specific AirDNA figures for those two hamlets sit behind AirDNA's paid subscription with no public citation available for either town -- a genuine data gap rather than an oversight, so the directional comparison, both trailing Narrowsburg, remains the only citable fact.

Is Narrowsburg a seasonal market?

Summer (Memorial Day through Labor Day) is the confirmed peak, driven by river recreation. Fall is a genuine secondary season built on foliage tourism, hunting season, and a dense arts-and-culture calendar. AirDNA's own public data lists Narrowsburg's Seasonality Score at 51 out of 100 -- a mid-range score that confirms real but moderate seasonal swings, consistent with a multi-season demand pattern rather than a single narrow booking window. Month-by-month winter and spring figures sit behind AirDNA's paid subscription and aren't independently published.

Are there dominant property management companies operating in Narrowsburg?

This research found no confirmed presence of national institutional managers like Vacasa or Avant Stay in Narrowsburg or Sullivan County. The confirmed local operators are small-scale: Catskills Cabin Keepers, a small, local, family-owned cleaning, hospitality, and property-management operation based in Narrowsburg itself, and Mountain Angels Management, confirmed managing at least one large local luxury retreat (13 bedrooms).

What makes Narrowsburg different from a typical river town?

Narrowsburg pairs a serious, decades-old river-recreation economy (Lander's River Trips and Kittatinny) with a nationally covered small-town arts identity -- One Grand Books, the Deep Water Literary Festival, the Big Eddy Film Festival, Riverfest, and Fort Delaware Museum of Colonial History -- giving it a 'sophisticated tiny river town' brand that most Upper Delaware hamlets don't carry.

Are there short-term rental permit caps in the Town of Tusten?

As of the most recent confirmed reporting, the Town of Tusten has neither an STR-specific permit cap nor its own short-term-rental ordinance -- Town Supervisor Ben Johnson told The River Reporter in September 2024 that the town was taking a deliberate 'wait and see' approach, even as neighboring Callicoon, Delaware, and Highland have each passed their own STR laws. Hosts remain subject to Sullivan County's occupancy tax registration and New York's state registry requirements regardless of Tusten's town-level posture. This is not legal advice; confirm current status directly with the Town Clerk's office before assuming today's hands-off approach holds indefinitely.

Is Narrowsburg close to New York City?

Narrowsburg sits roughly 2 to 2.5 hours from New York City, positioning it as a weekend-trip destination for the same urban traveler base that drives demand across much of the Catskills and Upper Delaware region.

About the Authors

This market report was researched and produced by the Crest & Cove Creative content team, which specializes in short-term rental market analysis and listing marketing strategy across emerging and underserved vacation rental markets nationwide. Crest & Cove Creative helps short-term rental owners and investors understand what's actually driving performance in a market , and how to position a property to capture it.

Sources

AirDNA Market Score, average annual revenue, occupancy, ADR, and year-over-year growth figures for Narrowsburg, NY.
AirDNA figures for Livingston Manor, NY (average annual revenue, occupancy, ADR, RevPAR, active listing count) , independently confirmed this research pass.
U.S. Census Bureau, Narrowsburg / Town of Tusten population figures (2020 and 2010).
National Park Service, Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River program materials.
Lander's River Trips and Kittatinny company histories and operational details.
One Grand Books and Deep Water Literary Festival press coverage (Monocle, Art Info) and public event materials.
Delaware Valley Arts Alliance (DVAA) program listings , Tusten Theatre, Big Eddy Film Festival.
Narrowsburg Riverfest event history (35th annual edition, July 27, 2025).
Fort Delaware Museum of Colonial History public materials.
National Register of Historic Places listings for the Arlington Hotel, Kirk House, and Narrowsburg Methodist Church.
Comparent.com vacation property management directory listings for Narrowsburg, NY.
Sullivan County Treasurer's Office occupancy tax and Certificate of Authority requirements, including the 2021 "lodging facility" definition broadening.
New York State short-term rental registry legislation (signed December 21, 2024; amended by State Senate Bill S820, 2025).
The River Reporter, "Interest grows in controlling short-term rentals" (Sept. 20, 2024) , primary source for Town Supervisor Ben Johnson's statement that Tusten has no STR-specific regulations and is taking a "wait and see" approach, and for confirmation that Callicoon, Delaware, and Highland have each passed their own STR ordinances.
AirDNA Market Minder public overview page for Narrowsburg, NY , Seasonality Score (51/100) and current listing count.

Research Notes and Data Limitations:. The directional pattern , Narrowsburg out front, its neighbors trailing , is consistent across every source this research touched, but a specific current-year figure for either town should be treated as unavailable rather than approximated. That's the signature that makes Narrowsburg worth naming specifically rather than lumping into a generic "Upper Delaware" or "Sullivan County NY Airbnb data" story: one hamlet is quietly separating itself from towns that, on paper, look like close comparables.

Callicoon and Barryville current-year AirDNA figures (revenue, occupancy, ADR): confirmed unavailable through public sources , this is proprietary AirDNA subscription data with no public citation found for either town; the directional trend (both trailing Narrowsburg, flat-to-declining) remains the only citable fact.
Hunting-season booking-share figure for the fall secondary season: no operator or public source publishes a number isolating hunting-driven bookings from general fall-foliage demand; described qualitatively only (see Southern Zone firearms/bow season dates above).
September 22, 2025 is the effective date of the 2025 chapter amendment to New York's registry law (Chapter 99 of the Laws of 2025, S.820/A.5686) , not a fixed individual-host-registration deadline. Under the amended statute (Real Property Law §447-C), a host isn't required to comply with individual-registration provisions until their county has established a registry; counties had until June 25, 2026 to opt out instead. That deadline has now passed, and no public record could be located confirming whether Sullivan County opted in, opted out, or joined a shared registry with neighboring counties , unlike counties such as St. Lawrence, which publicly opted out in May 2026. Hosts should confirm Sullivan County's current registry status directly with the County Treasurer's office before assuming individual-registration requirements do or don't apply.
Tusten's own STR-specific permit process, fee, and renewal mechanics: research does not support the premise that Tusten has adopted its own STR ordinance in the first place. The most recent confirmed reporting , The River Reporter, Sept. 20, 2024 , quotes Town Supervisor Ben Johnson describing a "wait and see" posture with no town-specific STR regulation in place, in contrast to Callicoon, Delaware, and Highland, which have each passed their own ordinances. The town's official website continues to block automated research access, so this can't be checked against a current town code online. Hosts and buyers should confirm Tusten's current posture directly with the Town Clerk's office, (845) 252-7146, since a town board can adopt a new local law at any time.
The claim that Tusten officials discussed giving leash and short-term-rental laws "more teeth" following a dog-bite incident in the town's "Flats" section, previously attributed to Sullivan Catskills Times, could not be corroborated in this research pass by any source , including a direct search of Sullivan Catskills Times' own site and The River Reporter's full Tusten coverage archive. That claim has been removed from this report rather than repeated as unverified fact.
RESOLVED: this report's Narrowsburg figures (named-town AirROI pins, not invented ranking weights, AirROI Narrowsburg $30,816 as of 2026-07-31 average annual revenue, AirROI 32.4% occupancy as of 2026-07-31, AirROI $436 ADR as of 2026-07-31) are the confirmed reporting baseline. A later spot-check pulled a different live snapshot (Market Score ~97, occupancy ~38%, ADR ~$378, 158 listings) , consistent with AirDNA's monthly data refresh in a very small, low-sample market rather than an error in the figures used here.

Work with Crest & Cove Creative

A Narrowsburg listing that leads with generic "Catskills cabin" language erases the exact story that separates this hamlet from Livingston Manor and Callicoon. Guests book the river outfitters and the One Grand Books arts scene, not a copy-paste cabin pitch.

Crest & Cove Creative writes Narrowsburg listing copy around what actually drives bookings here — river recreation, the arts calendar, and the town's own numbers, never a blended Upper Delaware average. Start at crestcove.co/audit or call (256) 998-7502.

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