Napa Valley, CA short-term rental market report (2026)
Napa County, California. Rules, revenue, home values, demand, climate, reach and risk, each figure with its source.
- RulesStrict (4/5)
- Average revenue$90K a year
- 4-BR typical value$1M
- Gross yield8.9%
- FEMA riskRelatively High
- Demand drivers within 50 mi7
Everything STR HUB holds on Napa Valley, CA 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.
Can you operate in Napa Valley?
What the rating rests on: Properties in unincorporated Napa County on agriculturally zoned land (which is the majority of the valley floor) are generally prohibited from operating as STRs.
Rules change, and a city rating does not cover HOA or deed restrictions. Confirm current requirements with the jurisdiction before you buy or list.
The numbers
Revenue
Gross market averages from STR HUB market analytics, the same figures shown on the market page. They are before cleaning, management, utilities, taxes and financing, and an individual property can earn more or less.
Home values in Napa County
Zillow Home Value Index: county-wide typical values for Napa County, not list prices. A specific property can sit well above or below them.
Gross yield
Gross yield is before every operating cost and before financing. It is a screening ratio, not a cash-on-cash return.
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
7 demand drivers sit within 50 miles of Napa Valley. Ordered by published attendance. Attendance appears only where a source publishes it.
Events
- Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival
- When
- August, 3 days (Golden Gate Park)
- Attendance
- 225,000 (225,000 attendees over 3 days (2023, per Wikipedia).)
- STR angle
- San Francisco's largest recurring music festival draws a citywide hotel/STR spike each August, one of the city's few reliably strong summer weekends.
- BottleRock Napa Valley
- When
- Memorial Day weekend (late May), 3 days
- STR angle
- A wine-country food-and-music festival that fills Napa Valley lodging on a holiday weekend that would otherwise be a secondary wine-tourism weekend.
Attractions
- Sonoma County wine country
- When
- Year-round; harvest (August to October) and summer on the Russian River are peaks.
- Attendance
- 8,400,000 (Wikipedia (Sonoma County, California): "More than 8.4 million tourists visit each year, spending more than $1 billion in 2016.")
- STR angle
- Larger and more varied than Napa — wine valleys, the Russian River and a Pacific coast — with many more rental houses. Sonoma County uses exclusion zones and neighbourhood caps on vacation rentals, and Healdsburg largely prohibits them, so location inside an allowed zone is decisive.
- Napa Valley
- When
- Year-round; harvest (August to October) is the peak, with BottleRock in May.
- Attendance
- 4,500,000 (Wikipedia (Napa Valley AVA): "More than 4.5 million people visit Napa Valley each year" — the citation is weak (a local theatre's website) and gives no year.)
- STR angle
- America's best-known wine region, with high-spending couples and corporate groups. Unincorporated Napa County bans rentals under 30 days and the City of Napa caps its permits, so legal whole-home STRs are rare and priced accordingly.
Parks and public lands
- Golden Gate National Recreation Area
- When
- Year-round; peaks June, July, August (by recreation-visit volume, 2025).
- Attendance
- 15,748,676 (NPS recreation visits, full calendar year 2025)
- STR angle
- Mostly urban/day-trip visitation (Muir Woods, Presidio, beaches); drives hotel/STR demand in San Francisco and Marin County rather than a rural cabin market.
- Point Reyes National Seashore
- When
- Year-round; peaks July, September, October (by recreation-visit volume, 2025).
- Attendance
- 2,429,601 (NPS recreation visits, full calendar year 2025)
- STR angle
- Drives a high-ADR Marin County farmhouse/cottage-rental market for San Francisco weekend visitors.
Landmarks
- Alcatraz Island
- When
- Year-round; summer sells out weeks ahead.
- Attendance
- 1,700,000 (Wikipedia: "drew some 1.7 million visitors annually according to a 2018 report"; the article lead says nearly 1.4 million annually. Alcatraz is administered within Golden Gate National Recreation Area (already in the dataset), whose NPS total includes it.)
- STR angle
- The former prison is San Francisco's hardest ticket and is capped by ferry capacity, so it signals city-wide demand rather than creating neighbourhood demand. San Francisco limits un-hosted rentals to 90 nights a year for registered residents, leaving investors to look at Marin and East Bay rules instead.
When they come
Four-season climate: comfortable months are spread across the year without one dominant season. 8 of 12 months have an average high between 60°F and 88°F. Warmest month: August (average high 88°F). Coldest: February (average low 37°F).
- Jan55°38°Cool
- Feb57°37°Cool
- Mar58°38°Cool
- Apr67°43°Comfortable
- May73°47°ComfortableEvent
- Jun82°52°Comfortable
- Jul86°52°Comfortable
- Aug88°55°ComfortableEvent
- Sep83°54°Comfortable
- Oct75°49°Comfortable
- Nov62°41°Comfortable
- Dec53°38°Cool
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average high (°F) | 55 | 57 | 58 | 67 | 73 | 82 | 86 | 88 | 83 | 75 | 62 | 53 |
| Average low (°F) | 38 | 37 | 38 | 43 | 47 | 52 | 52 | 55 | 54 | 49 | 41 | 38 |
| Precipitation (in) | 6.0 | 4.5 | 4.3 | 1.0 | 1.1 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.4 | 2.1 | 1.7 | 6.7 |
| Snowfall (in) | 0.1 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Sunshine (hours a day) | 6.6 | 8.7 | 8.9 | 11.3 | 12.6 | 13.6 | 13.7 | 12.8 | 11.6 | 9.9 | 8.6 | 6.0 |
| Event month | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Event months within 50 miles
- May: BottleRock Napa Valley
- August: Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival
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 |
|---|---|
| Santa Clara County, CA | 1,916,831 |
| Alameda County, CA | 1,663,823 |
| Sacramento County, CA | 1,579,211 |
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) |
|---|---|---|
| Earthquake | Relatively High | 98.4 |
| Wildfire | Relatively Moderate | 96.0 |
| River flooding | Relatively High | 95.8 |
| Coastal flooding | Relatively Moderate | 68.2 |
| Tornado | Very Low | 18.3 |
| Hail | Very Low | 8.5 |
| Winter weather | Very Low | 4.2 |
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 hurricane 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 Napa 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 Napa Valley 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 Napa Valley'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 California, so the list is not just the neighbours. Similar numbers do not mean similar rules: check each market's regulation section.
See Napa Valley on the map
Open Napa Valley on the National STR Map to see it against its neighbours, switch overlays and run the deal calculator on your own assumptions.
Napa Valley STR questions, answered from the data
Is Airbnb legal in Napa Valley?
STR HUB rates Napa Valley'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. Rules change, so confirm current requirements with the local jurisdiction before you buy or list.
How much does an Airbnb make in Napa Valley?
The average short-term rental in Napa Valley, CA grosses $90,000 a year, on a $375 average nightly rate and 66% occupancy. That ranks #8 of the 88 tracked markets with revenue data. It is a gross market average before cleaning, management, taxes and financing, and an individual property can earn more or less.
How much does a 4-bedroom home cost in Napa Valley?
The typical 4-bedroom home in Napa County is valued at $1,010,815 (Zillow Home Value Index), and the typical home of any size at $871,204, with all-home values down 1.7% over the past year. These are county-wide typical values, not list prices.
What is the gross rental yield in Napa Valley?
8.9%: average annual short-term rental revenue of $90,000 divided by the county's typical 4-bedroom home value of $1,010,815. It is before every operating cost and before financing, so treat it as a screening ratio, not a cash-on-cash return.
What brings visitors to Napa Valley?
7 demand drivers sit within 50 miles of Napa Valley, including Golden Gate National Recreation Area (15,748,676 published attendance), Sonoma County wine country (8,400,000 published attendance) and Napa Valley (4,500,000 published attendance). Attendance is shown only where a source publishes it, and each driver's source is linked in the report.
Sources and method
- Regulation summary and strictness rating: STR Agent HUB regulation research.
- Revenue, nightly rate and occupancy: STR Agent HUB market analytics.
- 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.
- Park visitation: National Park Service, NPS Visitor Use Statistics.
- 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 Napa 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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