A booming market in a tight housing market

Ann Arbor has 295 licensed short-term rental units as of mid-June, according to city records obtained by MLive/The Ann Arbor News through a Freedom of Information Act request. Those units are listed on platforms like Airbnb and VRBO at prices that range from under $100 to more than $3,000 per night. One listing topped them all at $9,999 per night.

"Her company has netted as much as $9,999 per night for a single house during the Michigan football season," said Heidi Poscher of Prentice Partners of Ann Arbor, an operator of several short-term rental properties, according to MLive.

Who is paying nearly $10,000 for one night?

The $9,999-per-night rate came during the University of Michigan football season, when demand for housing in Ann Arbor spikes dramatically. The city sits home to the university and draws visitors for games, commencement, and other campus events throughout the year.

Market data from AirROI shows that Ann Arbor short-term rental hosts average $40,397 in annual revenue, with a 40.7 percent occupancy rate and an average daily rate of $448 per night.

The housing question

The short-term rental boom sits against a backdrop of a tight housing market in Ann Arbor. The city has already taken steps to limit the impact of vacation rentals on long-term housing availability.

  • Ann Arbor currently restricts short-term rentals in residential zones to owner-occupied homes only
  • A short-term rental is legally defined in the city as any dwelling unit, or portion of one, rented to visitors for 30 consecutive days or less
  • The city is in the process of broadly rewriting its zoning code, and how to regulate short-term rentals in the future remains an open question

"How Ann Arbor might regulate short-term rentals in the future is a lingering question as the city embarks on broadly rewriting its zoning," according to MLive.

What residents see

For neighbors living next to short-term rental properties, the experience varies. Some welcome the tourism revenue. Others report noise, parking issues, and a sense that housing stock is being pulled off the long-term rental market.

A separate MLive report from May 2026 noted that short-term rental landscapes across Michigan are marked by "neighbor disputes, patchy rules and tourism boosts," with high-demand markets like Ann Arbor feeling the pressure most acutely.

What happens next

The city's ongoing zoning rewrite will likely address short-term rental rules. Council members have faced public comment on the issue, and the balance between tourism revenue and housing preservation remains a central debate in Ann Arbor.

The 295 licensed units represent only those that have registered with the city. Unlicensed operations may exist outside that count, though the city has enforcement mechanisms to identify and penalize unregistered short-term rentals.

Sources:

  • MLive/The Ann Arbor News, "Ann Arbor has nearly 300 short-term rental units. They fetch up to $9,999 per night," June 2026
  • AirROI 2026 Ann Arbor short-term rental market data
  • MLive, "Neighbor disputes, patchy rules and tourism boosts: Michigan's short-term rental landscape," May 2026