Neskowin & Pacific City STR Market Report 2026: The Dory Fleet, the Ghost Forest, and a County Cap That Locked Out National PMs

Thomas Garner
Jul 18
13 min read

Updated: Jul 18

Most Oregon coast market reports treat the entire coastline as one interchangeable product: sand, surf, and a listing photo of a deck with an ocean view. Neskowin and Pacific City don't fit that mold, and treating them like they do is a marketing mistake. These two paired communities, tucked along the Tillamook County coastline between Lincoln City and Cannon Beach, sell on two things almost no other Oregon coast market can claim: a set of physical landmarks found in vanishingly few other places on the West Coast, and a regulatory structure that has quietly reshaped who actually owns short-term rental inventory here. If you're a host, an investor, or an agency trying to understand why this market behaves differently from the rest of the coast, both stories matter — and they're connected.

A County Cap That Changed Who Owns the Inventory

The single most important fact about the Neskowin and Pacific City short-term rental market isn't a landmark — it's a licensing ordinance. Tillamook County has spent several years tightening the rules governing short-term rentals in its unincorporated areas, and Neskowin and the Pacific City/Woods subarea have been at the center of that process.

The county's Board of Commissioners approved a significant update to its STR ordinance (Ordinance 84) in July 2023, following more than a year of work by a dedicated STR advisory committee formed to address livability concerns raised by full-time residents in communities that had seen rapid growth in short-term rental conversions. That update did two things that matter enormously for anyone evaluating this market today.

First, it imposed a growth cap on new license issuance. Rather than letting the number of licensed short-term rentals expand indefinitely, the county moved to a structure that allows only limited annual growth — reporting at the time pointed to roughly a 1% increase in licenses once a temporary pause on new issuance lifted, applied per unincorporated community: Pacific City, Neskowin, and Netarts were each identified as gaining roughly 11 additional licenses under that formula, not 11 combined across all three. That 1% formula was the one-time method the county used in 2023 to calculate the original numeric caps; it isn't a formula that keeps recalculating every year. Second, the ordinance added a "use-it-or-lose-it" provision requiring licensed properties to actually operate as short-term rentals at least 30 nights per year, plus a one-license-per-licensee limit designed explicitly to prevent any single owner or company from accumulating a large share of the available licenses.

That combination — a hard numeric ceiling on new licenses, a minimum-use requirement that keeps dormant licenses from being hoarded, and a rule that blocks any one operator from stacking multiple licenses — is a structurally different situation than almost anywhere else on the Oregon coast. Tillamook County has since refined this framework further: Board Order #25-002, "Establishing Limits on STRs," took effect in January 2025 and repealed and replaced the prior Board Order 23-054, formally fixing the license caps as set numbers rather than a recalculating percentage. As of July 2026, the caps and waitlists break down as follows. Neskowin has no cap-exemption zone at all — the entire subarea is capped at 191 licenses, with a current waitlist of 6.

Pacific City/Woods is more complex: Board Order #25-002 carved out a cap-exemption zone called the "West Division," running west of the Nestucca River between Alder Street and Bob Straub State Park, where STR licensing is fully uncapped, and there is no waitlist. Outside that West Division, the rest of Pacific City/Woods remains capped at 95 licenses, with a current waitlist of 13. When the West Division exemption was created in January 2025, 236 of Pacific City/Woods' 326 then-existing licenses fell inside the newly exempt zone, and 18 of the 28 properties then on the waitlist became immediately licensable as a result — useful historical context for how the zone reshaped the market, but the July 2026 cap and waitlist figures above are the current operative numbers.

What this means practically: a licensed short-term rental in the capped portions of Neskowin or Pacific City/Woods is not a commodity that a national property management company can simply manufacture more of by signing up new inventory — that pool is fixed and grows only in small, deliberately controlled increments (or, in Neskowin's case, is entirely closed until the waitlist clears). The West Division of Pacific City is the exception: it's genuinely open to new licensing with no cap and no waitlist, so that specific corridor doesn't carry the same scarcity dynamic as the rest of the market. That distinction — capped everywhere in Neskowin, capped everywhere in Pacific City/Woods except the uncapped West Division — is precisely why this market has stayed fragmented in the hands of independent owners and boutique local managers in its capped zones, while still leaving room for growth in the West Division corridor.

Vacasa's Residual Footprint

Vacasa, the Portland-based vacation rental management giant, is headquartered less than two hours from Pacific City and has an obvious logistical reason to operate here. And it does —, but its footprint in Pacific City specifically appears to be a fraction of the total market rather than a dominant position. Public listings show Vacasa managing roughly 15 properties in Pacific City, against a total vacation rental inventory in the community that runs into the hundreds of homes across multiple booking platforms. That puts Vacasa's share in the low single digits as a percentage of total inventory — a genuinely residual position for a company that manages tens of thousands of homes nationally and is headquartered in-state.

This should be read directionally rather than as a precise, audited market-share figure — total inventory counts vary by platform and by season, and Vacasa's listing count fluctuates. But the qualitative picture is consistent with what the county's licensing structure would predict: a capped, waitlisted license pool doesn't offer the kind of expansion runway that a national manager typically needs to build meaningful local scale, so the market has stayed largely in the hands of individual owners, families, and small local management companies instead.

The Dory Fleet at Cape Kiwanda

Pacific City's most singular physical asset is not a beach — it's what happens on the beach. Cape Kiwanda, the sandstone headland that shelters Pacific City's shoreline, is home to a dory fishing fleet with a documented history of more than a century. The Pacific City Dorymen's Association, a nonprofit founded in 1996 to preserve the tradition, counts roughly 250 flat-bottomed, open-hulled dories that launch directly through the surf — a maneuver that involves a tow vehicle backing the boat into the waves before a two-person crew powers it out through the breakers by hand and outboard.

This is not a generic "boats on the water" scene. Cape Kiwanda is widely described as the only place on the West Coast where a fleet of this size launches through open surf in this manner, and the community celebrates it every July with Dory Days, a parade and festival built around the fleet's working history. For listing marketing purposes, this is about as rare and photogenic a local hook as exists anywhere on the Oregon coast, and it is one that most generic "Oregon coast cottage" listings in this market are almost certainly underusing.

The Ghost Forest Near Proposal Rock

A few miles north, Neskowin offers a different kind of rare sight: the Neskowin Ghost Forest, a stand of ancient Sitka spruce stumps that appears on the beach near Proposal Rock at low tide, most visible in winter and spring, when storms strip away the covering sand. Carbon dating of the wood and the buried soil at their roots places the age of these stumps at roughly 2,000 years old. Geologists believe the forest was abruptly lowered and buried by a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake, with the trees — some once 150 to 200 feet tall — entombed by landslide mud or tsunami debris rather than dying gradually. The stumps were dramatically re-exposed during the severe storms of the 1997–98 winter and have periodically resurfaced since.

This is a legitimately unusual, highly shareable natural feature — the kind of hook that photographs well, has a documented scientific backstory, and gives a listing something to say that no beach-cottage template copy ever will. Because visibility depends on tide and season, it also rewards a host or manager who plans photography intentionally around low-tide windows rather than treating it as an afterthought.

What the ADR Comparison Actually Shows — and Doesn't

It's common in market narratives about scarcity-driven inventory to assume that a capped license pool automatically translates into premium pricing. That logic is intuitive — restricted supply against steady or growing demand should, in theory, support stronger average daily rates than an uncapped market experiencing continuous new supply. Some regional reporting and host anecdotes suggest that Neskowin and Pacific City post ADR figures that outpace typical central Oregon coast peers.

That comparison should be treated as directional only. No verified, sourced ADR or occupancy dataset comparing Neskowin/Pacific City against specific central Oregon coast markets was confirmed in the course of preparing this report. Anyone using this claim in a sales conversation, an investment thesis, or a client-facing document should pull current figures from a market data provider (AirDNA, Key Data, or a similar platform) before citing a specific rate premium — the scarcity mechanism is well documented; the pricing outcome it's presumed to produce is not yet independently verified here.

What This Means for Owners and Investors

Put together, the regulatory and physical pictures point to the same conclusion from two different directions. Structurally, a Neskowin or Pacific City STR license is a scarce asset that cannot simply be replicated by a competitor with more capital — the county's cap, waitlist, and one-license-per-owner rule see to that. Physically, the market has two of the most singular, non-generic visual hooks on the entire Oregon coast: the dory fleet and the Ghost Forest, assets that reward specific, intentional marketing far more than they do a generic "cozy coastal getaway" listing description.

That combination changes the calculus for how seriously an owner should take their listing's positioning. In an uncapped market, an underperforming listing is one competitor among an ever-growing pool, and mediocre marketing results in diluted losses. In a capped market like this one, every licensed owner is competing within a fixed, and only slowly growing, set of rivals — which means the marginal value of doing the marketing well, rather than adequately, is higher than in most coastal markets. A scarce license, paired with generic photography and copy, still leaves real revenue on the table; scarcity itself doesn't do the selling.

For investors, the honest version of this story includes real friction: entering this market isn't as simple as buying a house and applying for a license. As of July 2026, Neskowin's cap is entirely closed with a 6-property waitlist, and the capped portion of Pacific City/Woods has a 13-property waitlist — a buyer targeting either of those zones needs to plan for an indefinite wait, or purchase a property that already carries an active license, which itself commands a premium in the resale market precisely because it can't be recreated. The one meaningful exception is Pacific City's West Division, the cap-exempt zone west of the Nestucca River between Alder Street and Bob Straub State Park, where new STR licenses are currently available with no waitlist. Anyone evaluating a purchase here should confirm a property's specific zone before assuming a license path does or doesn't exist — the difference between a capped lot and a West Division lot changes the entire investment timeline.

Regulatory Context Beyond This Report

Neskowin and Pacific City sit in unincorporated Tillamook County, which places them under the county's STR licensing structure described above rather than a city-level ordinance. For the fuller state-level regulatory picture — including how Tillamook County's rules compare to neighboring Clatsop County (home to Astoria and Cannon Beach) and other Oregon coast jurisdictions — see Crest & Cove Creative's companion guide, "Oregon Coast & High Desert STR Rules in 2026: A Town-by-Town Guide."

Work with Crest & Cove Creative

Ready to put this strategy to work in North Oregon Coast?

Crest & Cove Creative partners with a select group of independent hosts in the Pacific Northwest each quarter — focused on listing quality, organic search visibility, and direct booking growth. If your property isn't reaching the guests it should be, that's exactly the kind of problem we solve. Reach out directly at crestcove.co or call (256) 998-7502 — we'll take an honest look at where your listing stands and tell you plainly whether we can help.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Tillamook County cap short-term rental licenses specifically in Neskowin and Pacific City? Yes, though the two communities aren't identical. Neskowin is capped in full — there is no exemption zone anywhere in the subarea, and the current cap sits at 191 licenses. Pacific City/Woods is capped at 95 licenses outside of its "West Division," a cap-exemption zone west of the Nestucca River (between Alder Street and Bob Straub State Park) that Tillamook County established in January 2025 via Board Order #25-002. Inside the West Division, STR licensing is currently uncapped.

How many new STR licenses were made available in Pacific City, Neskowin, and Netarts under the 2023 update? The 2023 ordinance's roughly 1% annual growth formula applied per community, not as a shared pool — Pacific City, Neskowin, and Netarts were each identified as gaining approximately 11 additional licenses under that formula, not roughly 11 combined across all three. That 1% formula was the one-time method the county used to calculate the original numeric caps in 2023; those caps were later fixed as flat numbers under Board Order #25-002 rather than continuing to recalculate on a percentage basis.

Is there a waitlist for an STR license in Neskowin or Pacific City right now? Yes, in the capped zones. As of July 2026, Neskowin's waitlist stands at 6 properties, and the capped portion of Pacific City/Woods (outside the West Division) has a waitlist of 13 properties. The West Division of Pacific City is the exception: it's fully uncapped, so there's no waitlist there, and new licenses are currently obtainable. These figures move as the county processes the waitlist, so the current status should still be verified against Tillamook County's STR Waitlists page for time-sensitive decisions.

Does the Tillamook County ordinance prevent property management companies from consolidating licenses? The 2023 update added a one-license-per-licensee limit specifically to prevent any single owner or operator from accumulating multiple STR licenses, along with a use-it-or-lose-it provision requiring licensed properties to operate at least 30 nights per year. Together these provisions make it structurally difficult for any single company to build a large concentrated share of licensed inventory in these subareas.

How much of the Pacific City vacation rental market does Vacasa manage? Public listings show Vacasa managing roughly 15 properties in Pacific City against a total inventory of several hundred vacation homes across multiple booking platforms in the community — a low single-digit share. This should be treated as directional rather than a precise, audited market-share figure, since total inventory counts vary by source and season.

What is the dory fleet at Cape Kiwanda, and why does it matter for Pacific City listings? The Pacific City dory fleet is a working fishing fleet of roughly 250 flat-bottomed boats that launch directly through the surf at Cape Kiwanda, a tradition documented for more than a century and preserved by the nonprofit Pacific City Dorymen's Association. It's widely described as the only place on the West Coast where a fleet of this size launches through open surf, making it one of the most distinctive, marketable visual hooks available to any Pacific City listing.

What is the Neskowin Ghost Forest, and how old are the stumps? The Ghost Forest is a group of ancient Sitka spruce stumps that appears on the beach near Proposal Rock in Neskowin, most visible at low tide, particularly in winter and spring. Carbon dating places the stumps at roughly 2,000 years old; geologists believe a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake abruptly buried the forest, and severe storms in the winter of 1997–98 re-exposed it.

Do Neskowin and Pacific City short-term rentals command higher ADR than other central Oregon coast markets? Some regional reporting and host anecdotes suggest they do, consistent with the logic that a capped, waitlisted license pool should support stronger pricing than an uncapped market. However, no independently verified ADR or occupancy dataset comparing these markets to specific central Oregon coast peers was confirmed for this report, so this claim should be treated as directional only until confirmed against current market data.

About the Authors

Crest & Cove Creative is a short-term rental marketing agency founded by Thomas Garner and Jacob Mishalanie. We build direct-booking brands, listing-optimization systems, and market-specific content strategies for independent STR operators nationwide, including emerging corridors such as the North Oregon Coast.