Private home rentals allow fellow North Carolinians, Americans, and visitors from across the globe to experience our cities and towns like we do: by staying in the heart of our friendly neighborhoods and being welcomed by our unsurpassed southern hospitality. Visitors have used private home rentals throughout North Carolina history. Private home rentals also serve as homes for local families during remodels, between leases, and during emergencies. They serve as guest bedrooms to welcome grandparents visiting grandchildren, and for parents and siblings visiting college students. They provide new North Carolina families a clean, comfortable home to start a new chapter of their lives. Visiting professors, nurses, artists, musicians, actors, and others involved in film and digital media production all depend on short-term rentals.
Private home rentals contribute significant revenues to the state of North Carolina through income tax, and they contribute to local governments through property taxes. Short-term rental owners contribute additional significant revenues to the North Carolina sales tax and local room occupancy taxes. They also create millions of dollars per year in economic impact for the community and contribute to the incomes of hundreds of local families through hiring local landscapers, accountants, housekeepers, managers, contractors, and more.
A recent analysis in nearby Myrtle Beach found that in 2013, short-term rentals generated $200.7 million in total economic activity, with $168.6 million directly attributable to visitor spending on short-term rentals and related food, retail, recreation, transportation and other expenses. For every $100 a traveler spent on lodging, they spent an additional $69 on food, $24 on local transportation, $48 on arts, entertainment, and recreation activities, and $59 on retail shopping.
The study also found short-term rental activity created 2,587 local jobs, primarily in restaurants and bars and in the arts, entertainment, retail and recreation sectors throughout the county. Beyond the $56.3 million in direct spending on short-term rentals, visitors spend money elsewhere in the local economy, which in turn has a ripple, or multiplier, effect.
North Carolina Alliance for Neighborhood Prosperity 