Louisville, KY short-term rental market report (2026)
Jefferson County, Kentucky. Rules, revenue, home values, demand, climate, reach and risk, each figure with its source.
- RulesStrict (4/5)
- 4-BR typical value$407K
- FEMA riskRelatively High
- Demand drivers within 50 mi2
- People within 300 mi49.1 million
- ClimateFour-season
Everything STR HUB holds on Louisville, KY in one place, in the order an investor needs it: whether you can operate, what the numbers are, why and when people come, who can reach it, and what could go wrong.
Every figure comes from a named dataset listed under Sources and method, dated September 21, 2026. Where we do not hold a figure, that part of the report is left out rather than estimated. The Opportunity Score here is partial: it was calculated without revenue data, with the cash-flow component assumed to be below average, so it can understate the market.
Can you operate in Louisville?
| Rule | What we hold on file |
|---|---|
| Jurisdiction | Louisville/Jefferson County Metro Government (Office of Planning & Design Services); zoning applies metro-wide. |
| Permit or licence | Annual STR registration with the Office of Planning & Design Services, plus a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) for non-owner-occupied rentals and most rentals in residential districts (R-R, R-E, R-1 through R-8A, U-N, TNZD); a CUP requires a required neighborhood meeting and a Planning Commission hearing. |
| Permit fee | Reported (secondary sources) at roughly $250/year for registration, with CUP costs around $200 for a pre-application plus $560 (owner-occupied) to $1,260 (non-owner-occupied) for the formal application — these figures could not be independently confirmed against Louisville Metro's official fee-schedule PDF, which was inaccessible in a readable format during this research. |
| Cap on rentals | No citywide numeric cap, but a 600-foot buffer rule blocks a new CUP if an existing CUP'd STR is within 600 feet in a residentially zoned buffer; a 2023 update removed the waiver option when two or more CUP'd STRs already sit within that buffer. |
| Owner occupancy | Not required to operate an STR in general, but owner-occupied units are billed a lower CUP fee; non-owner-occupied (investor) rentals face the full CUP process and higher fee tier. |
| Lodging and sales taxes | Kentucky's 6% state sales tax plus the 1% state transient room tax, plus Louisville's local transient room tax administered by the Metro Revenue Commission (exact local rate not confirmed). |
| Permit transfers on sale | Not confirmed — it is unclear from available sources whether a Conditional Use Permit runs with the property or must be reapplied for by a new owner. |
Rules for Louisville last verified September 20, 2026. Rules change, and a city rating does not cover HOA or deed restrictions. Confirm current requirements with the jurisdiction before you buy or list.
Which way the rules are moving
Loosening. The rules we hold report a recent or pending change.
Kentucky SB 112, pending in the state Senate as of September 2026 (not yet law), would void Louisville's CUP and 600-foot spacing requirements if it passes
Classified from the regulation text we publish; a direction is only kept when the sentence it rests on appears word for word in that text.
The numbers
We have not verified revenue figures for this market yet.
Home values in Jefferson County
Zillow Home Value Index: county-wide typical values for Jefferson County, not list prices. A specific property can sit well above or below them.
What it costs to own
Screening figures, not a bill or a quote. The tax rate is a county-wide median for owner-occupied homes (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2018-2022); second homes and rentals are often taxed more heavily, and a purchase usually resets the assessed value. Expected annual loss is from the FEMA National Risk Index.
Housing market momentum
County-level, for-sale housing market: it says nothing directly about STR bookings. A relative ranking among tracked markets, not a forecast. Sources: Realtor.com Economic Research, U.S. Census Bureau, Zillow Home Value Index.
Why people come
2 demand drivers sit within 50 miles of Louisville. Ordered by published attendance. Attendance appears only where a source publishes it.
Events
- Kentucky Derby
- When
- First Saturday in May (Kentucky Oaks the preceding Friday)
- Attendance
- 158,070 (158,070 (2017, per Wikipedia, the 7th-largest crowd in track history).)
- STR angle
- Louisville's single largest annual lodging-demand event; the Oaks-Derby weekend is the highest STR rate weekend of the year across the metro.
Landmarks
- Kentucky Bourbon Trail (Bardstown hub)
- When
- Year-round; spring (Derby season) and September–October (bourbon festival and fall release season) peak.
- Attendance
- 2,700,000 (Kentucky Distillers' Association impact page: "2.7M Annual Tours" / "almost 3 million combined annual visits" to Kentucky Bourbon Trail experiences (year not stated on the page). It counts visits to distilleries, so one traveller is counted at each stop. The same page says over 74% of visitors come from out of state.)
- STR angle
- Bourbon tourists travel in groups of friends, stay two to four nights and need a base between distilleries, which is exactly the whole-house use case; most come from out of state. Bardstown, Frankfort and the Lawrenceburg–Versailles corridor have little hotel stock, so houses sleeping six to ten do well.
When they come
Four-season climate: comfortable months are spread across the year without one dominant season. 7 of 12 months have an average high between 60°F and 88°F. Warmest month: July (average high 88°F). Coldest: January (average low 29°F).
- Jan44°29°Cold
- Feb48°30°Cool
- Mar58°38°Cool
- Apr66°45°Comfortable
- May75°56°ComfortableEvent
- Jun84°65°Comfortable
- Jul88°70°Comfortable
- Aug86°68°Comfortable
- Sep82°62°Comfortable
- Oct70°51°Comfortable
- Nov56°38°Cool
- Dec50°33°Cool
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average high (°F) | 44 | 48 | 58 | 66 | 75 | 84 | 88 | 86 | 82 | 70 | 56 | 50 |
| Average low (°F) | 29 | 30 | 38 | 45 | 56 | 65 | 70 | 68 | 62 | 51 | 38 | 33 |
| Precipitation (in) | 4.4 | 5.1 | 4.7 | 4.6 | 3.7 | 4.7 | 5.1 | 3.8 | 2.4 | 4.2 | 2.9 | 3.5 |
| Snowfall (in) | 3.0 | 2.9 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.6 | 0.9 |
| Sunshine (hours a day) | 5.5 | 6.1 | 8.0 | 9.1 | 9.9 | 11.3 | 11.9 | 11.1 | 10.6 | 8.1 | 7.3 | 5.7 |
| Event month | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Event months within 50 miles
- May: Kentucky Derby
This is climate and events, not booking data. Monthly normals are 2019-2023 averages from the Open-Meteo Historical Weather API (ERA5 reanalysis) at the market pin. Event months come from the demand drivers listed above. We do not hold monthly occupancy or rate data for this market.
Who can reach it
Largest counties within 150 miles
| County | Population |
|---|---|
| Marion County, IN | 971,737 |
| Hamilton County, OH | 827,671 |
| Jefferson County, KY | 779,232 |
County populations (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2018-2022) summed for every county whose centre lies within each straight-line radius. Straight lines are shorter than roads, so read these as generous upper bounds, not drive-time counts.
What could go wrong
| Hazard | FEMA rating | Score (0-100) |
|---|---|---|
| Tornado | Very High | 99.7 |
| River flooding | Relatively High | 99.1 |
| Earthquake | Relatively Moderate | 96.8 |
| Winter weather | Relatively High | 92.3 |
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | 89.7 |
| Wildfire | Very Low | 56.1 |
| Hurricane | Very Low | 35.8 |
This is a county-level index, not an insurance quote or a flood-zone determination. A coastal or wildfire-fringe rental can carry far more exposure than its county average suggests. FEMA does not model coastal flooding for this county, which is not the same as zero risk. Get property-level flood, wind and wildfire quotes before you buy.
Market context
Housing and jobs in Jefferson County
U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2018-2022. Vacation-home share is housing units held for seasonal, recreational or occasional use. All three describe the whole county, not one town or neighbourhood.
What is within 15 km of the Louisville pin
Counts of features mapped in OpenStreetMap within 15 km of the market pin. A fixed radius favours dense metros, and map coverage varies by area.
Similar markets
The 4 tracked markets whose numbers sit closest to Louisville's. Each links to its own report.
Closest by normalised distance across the figures both markets hold (typical 4BR value, revenue, occupancy, regulation rating, vacation-home share, tourism job share, 4+ bedroom share, amenity score, population within 300 miles, comfortable months and FEMA risk score). At most 2 of the 4 come from Kentucky, so the list is not just the neighbours. Similar numbers do not mean similar rules: check each market's regulation section.
See Louisville on the map
Open Louisville on the National STR Map to see it against its neighbours, switch overlays and run the deal calculator on your own assumptions.
Louisville STR questions, answered from the data
Is Airbnb legal in Louisville?
STR HUB rates Louisville's short-term rental rules 4/5 (Strict) on a scale from 1 (relaxed) to 5 (very strict). That rating was derived from the regulation text we hold and has not yet been reviewed by a person. Permit rule on file: Annual STR registration with the Office of Planning & Design Services, plus a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) for non-owner-occupied rentals and most rentals in residential districts (R-R, R-E, R-1 through R-8A, U-N, TNZD); a CUP… Cap on file: No citywide numeric cap, but a 600-foot buffer rule blocks a new CUP if an existing CUP'd STR is within 600 feet in a residentially zoned buffer; a 2023 update removed the waiver… Rules change, so confirm current requirements with the local jurisdiction before you buy or list.
How much does a 4-bedroom home cost in Louisville?
The typical 4-bedroom home in Jefferson County is valued at $406,516 (Zillow Home Value Index), and the typical home of any size at $265,923, with all-home values up 1.2% over the past year. These are county-wide typical values, not list prices.
What brings visitors to Louisville?
2 demand drivers sit within 50 miles of Louisville: Kentucky Bourbon Trail (Bardstown hub) (2,700,000 published attendance) and Kentucky Derby (158,070 published attendance). Attendance is shown only where a source publishes it, and each driver's source is linked in the report.
What natural hazards affect Louisville?
FEMA's National Risk Index rates Jefferson County "Relatively High" overall, with a score of 98.3 out of 100 (a national percentile). The highest-scoring hazards we track there are tornado and river flooding. It is a county-wide index, not an insurance quote or a flood-zone determination.
When is the weather best in Louisville?
7 of 12 months have an average high between 60°F and 88°F (April, May, June, July, August, September and October). Four-season climate: comfortable months are spread across the year without one dominant season. These are 2019-2023 climate normals, not booking data.
Sources and method
- Regulation summary and strictness rating: STR Agent HUB regulation research (official source: catalog.data.gov).
- Home values: Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI), county level. Data provided by Zillow Group.
- Housing, employment and population figures: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates, 2018-2022.
- Natural hazard risk: FEMA National Risk Index, county level.
- Amenity counts: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
- Climate normals: Open-Meteo Historical Weather API (CC BY 4.0), 2019-2023 averages.
- Demand drivers: each entry links its own published source in the list above.
Figures come from the STR HUB national dataset dated September 21, 2026 and this page is regenerated whenever that dataset is rebuilt. County-level figures describe Jefferson County as a whole, not one street or neighbourhood. The Opportunity Score (0-100) is a screening heuristic that weighs revenue (35%), regulatory climate (25%), tourism employment (15%), nearby amenities (15%) and large-home supply (10%) relative to the other tracked markets.
Confirm before you act. Short-term rental rules change. Confirm current requirements with the jurisdiction, and work with a licensed local agent who knows which properties can legally operate. This report is screening data, not investment, legal or tax advice.
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