The Long Beach Peninsula's 1.8× STR Advantage

In 2026, the Long Beach Peninsula is generating roughly 1.8× as much short-term-rental revenue per dollar of typical home value as Washington state overall.

That's the number that caught my attention.

STR Foundry's 2026 AirDNA analysis puts average annual short-term-rental revenue on the Long Beach Peninsula at approximately $46,250, about 9% higher than the Washington average of roughly $42,350.

But Peninsula homes cost substantially less.

Zillow puts the typical Washington home value at approximately $592,000. Long Beach, Ocean Park and Ilwaco are all substantially below that figure. Using those three communities as a representative Peninsula proxy produces a typical home value of roughly $363,000, about 39% below the statewide figure.

Put the two sides together:

Washington: about $42,350 in annual STR revenue against $592,000 in typical home value, roughly 7.2 cents of annual gross STR revenue per dollar of home value.

Long Beach Peninsula: about $46,250 against $363,000, roughly 12.7 cents per dollar.

That means the Peninsula is currently producing approximately 78% more gross STR revenue relative to representative home value.

That isn't ROI. It isn't a cap rate. And it certainly doesn't mean every house on the Peninsula is a good vacation-rental investment.

But it does mean the Long Beach Peninsula deserves a closer look.

And the deeper you go into the numbers, the more interesting the market gets.

Lower home values. Higher vacation-rental revenue.

Usually, attractive vacation markets come with an obvious tradeoff: everybody knows they're attractive vacation markets.

That demand gets reflected in real estate prices.

The Peninsula currently presents a different equation.

Representative home values are roughly 39% below the Washington figure, while average STR revenue in our AirDNA dataset is actually about 9% higher than the statewide average.

The important finding isn't either statistic independently.

It's the combination.

For a buyer interested in combining personal use with vacation-rental income, or simply looking for an STR investment, the relationship between acquisition price and revenue potential matters more than either number alone.

A cheap house with little guest demand isn't necessarily an opportunity.

Neither is an expensive house with impressive gross revenue but poor economics after the mortgage and operating expenses arrive.

What you're looking for is the intersection between acquisition cost and realistic revenue potential.

On a market-wide basis, the Peninsula currently stands out.

And the Peninsula isn't simply a collection of vacation rentals

Here's another number worth considering.

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates approximately 9,761 housing units in the Long Beach–North Beach Peninsula Census County Division, a useful geographic proxy for the broader Peninsula.

Our 2026 AirDNA analysis identifies approximately 363 active STRs on the Peninsula.

That's only about 3.7% of the area's total housing stock.

At the same time, those 363 properties represent approximately 4.8% of the active Washington STRs in our statewide AirDNA dataset.

That's an interesting combination.

The Peninsula is important enough as a vacation market to account for nearly one out of every 20 Washington STRs in the dataset, but STRs themselves account for fewer than one out of every 25 Peninsula housing units.

That helps explain something that becomes obvious once you spend time here.

The Long Beach Peninsula is a vacation destination, but it's also a real community.

People live here year-round. Others retire here. Some own second homes. Some operate vacation rentals. Visitors and residents share the same towns, stores, restaurants, beaches and infrastructure.

For a buyer, that's materially different from purchasing in a development built primarily around vacation homes.

Not every Peninsula house can become an STR

This is also where looking at market averages can become dangerous.

Seeing attractive Peninsula-wide economics doesn't mean you can buy any house and reproduce them.

Vacation-rental regulations vary depending on exactly where a property sits.

Within the City of Long Beach, for example, vacation rentals are subject to zoning, licensing and operating requirements. In certain residential districts, new vacation rentals are also subject to separation requirements from other permitted vacation rentals.

Elsewhere on the Peninsula, different municipal or Pacific County rules may apply.

That makes STR eligibility something worth investigating during the property search, not after closing.

Two similar houses at similar prices can therefore represent very different opportunities.

One may have a straightforward path to STR operation.

Another may have regulatory, property, infrastructure or operating constraints that fundamentally change the deal.

The Peninsula itself also creates a supply constraint

Then there's the geography.

The Long Beach Peninsula is exactly what its name suggests: a long, narrow strip of land between the Pacific Ocean and Willapa Bay.

You can't create more coastline.

And you can't simply extend development outward indefinitely the way you can in many inland markets.

Layer that physical geography together with established communities, protected land, zoning and STR regulation, and the supply side of the vacation-rental market becomes more constrained.

That doesn't guarantee higher revenue.

It doesn't guarantee appreciation.

And it doesn't guarantee investment returns.

But it matters.

When visitor demand increases in a market where competing accommodation can expand almost without limit, supply can eventually absorb that demand.

Markets with structural constraints behave differently.

The 1.8× number tells you where to look, not what to buy

This is the most important distinction.

Market data can tell us that the Long Beach Peninsula currently deserves attention.

It cannot tell us whether the house you're looking at is a good STR.

A $350,000 house with the right permit path, bedroom count, parking, layout, outdoor space and guest appeal could be an entirely different business proposition from another $350,000 house a few blocks away.

The second property might need $75,000 in work.

It might have a difficult permit path.

It might have an awkward layout, insufficient parking or an amenity profile that makes the market-average revenue assumption unrealistic.

Or it might simply be priced too high relative to what it can reasonably earn.

That's why I don't think STR buyers should stop at:

"Is the Long Beach Peninsula a good market?"

The data suggests it's certainly a market worth investigating.

The better question is:

"Does this particular Peninsula property work?"

That's a much more useful question to answer before you own it.

Looking at the Peninsula?

If you're still exploring the Long Beach Peninsula, start with a local real estate professional who knows the market.

Local knowledge matters here. Location, jurisdiction, property condition and STR eligibility can change the economics of two otherwise similar homes.

Your realtor helps you evaluate and acquire the home.

STR Foundry helps you evaluate the vacation-rental business attached to it.

If you already have a specific property in mind, a $100 Property Run is designed to answer the first question: does this address appear promising enough as an STR to investigate further?

It looks at a specific property against current market and STR data before you commit significant time, or money, to the opportunity.

If the property survives that first screen, a $500 Deal Thesis goes deeper, overlaying its vacation-rental potential with the mechanics of buying and operating the home.

The goal isn't to make every property work.

Sometimes the useful answer is that it doesn't.

Still looking? Talk to a Long Beach Peninsula realtor.

Already found a property? Run the numbers before you buy it.