A buyer walks through a single-family home a few blocks off Lake Street. The listing sheet mentions a strong rental history, a link to a booking calendar, maybe a screenshot of last summer's occupancy. The number looks good. What the sheet does not mention is whether that income comes with the house.
In Boyne City, it might not.
The city licenses short-term rentals under an ordinance adopted by the City Commission on December 13, 2022, and the ordinance caps the number of licenses available. Most buyers read that as a simple supply constraint, the kind of scarcity that shows up in every hot vacation market. It is not that simple. The cap does not apply to short-term rentals citywide. It applies to one zoning district, and one district only. That distinction is the reason a condo in a named waterfront community can carry a price tag that matches or beats a single-family house nearby, even when the house has more square footage, more land, and a better street.
What the ordinance actually caps
The ordinance defines the cap in a single sentence, and the wording matters more than anything else in this post:
"Cap: Maximum number of Short-term Rental Units, excluding Short-term Rental Personal Units, that may be licensed in the single-family district as determined by the City Commission."
Read that again. The cap governs the single-family district. It says nothing about condominium developments, planned unit developments, or multi-family zoning. Boyne City set the ceiling at 130 licensed units in November 2023, a direct response to a 39 percent jump in short-term rentals the city tracked over the spring and summer of 2022. The traditional single-family residential district makes up roughly 54 percent of the city's total housing stock, so 130 licenses works out to about 10 percent of the homes sitting in that zone. Ten percent of a majority zone is a real bottleneck, and it is the zone where most buyers start their search, because it is where most of the city's houses are.
Condo communities built as planned developments sit outside that specific cap. The Landings, Harborage Condominiums, Sommerset Pointe, and Wildwood on Walloon are governed by their own homeowners association documents, not by the single-family district's 130-license ceiling. I found direct evidence of this in the wild: a unit at The Landings operates under a city-issued license number, STR2023-129-I, which confirms these communities are licensed through the same city process but are not competing against single-family homeowners for the same scarce pool.
Why this shows up in the price, not just the paperwork
Northern Michigan Multiple Listing Service data compiled across recent years puts the average sales price for a Boyne City single-family home at $337,824. The average sales price for a Boyne City condominium comes in higher, at $373,315. On paper that looks backward. Condos are usually the entry point in a resort market, the smaller and more affordable option next to the estate homes on the water. In Boyne City, the math flips, and the zoning line explains why.
A single-family home in the capped district is a coin flip on rental income. It might carry a license from a previous owner, the cap might have room, or a buyer might be looking at a property that can never generate nightly income no matter how good the location is, because the 130 slots are already spoken for. A condo in one of the named communities is a known quantity. The HOA sets the rules, the building was often developed with rental income in mind from the start, and the buyer is not gambling against a citywide ceiling. Buyers who want a property that can pay for itself part of the year will pay a premium for that certainty, and the sales data shows they do.
How Boyne City compares to its neighbors
The patchwork does not stop at the city line. Charlevoix caps its residential "Business Rentals" at 80 units and runs a waitlist with a $50 non-refundable fee once that cap fills. Petoskey took a different approach entirely: a 2014 ordinance restricts new short-term rentals to business districts, which effectively closes most residential neighborhoods to new licenses regardless of demand. None of these three towns regulate the same way, and none of them use the same cap size, which means a buyer comparing Boyne City to Charlevoix or Petoskey on rental potential is comparing three different rulebooks, not one regional standard.
| City | Rental limit mechanism | Where it applies |
|---|---|---|
| Boyne City | Cap of 130 licensed units | Single-family district only; named condo/PUD communities fall outside this specific cap |
| Charlevoix | Cap of 80 "Business Rental" units, waitlist with $50 fee once full | Residential zones |
| Petoskey | New licenses restricted to business districts under a 2014 ordinance | Most residential neighborhoods closed to new licenses |
This is exactly the kind of detail a median price will never show. Two towns twenty minutes apart can have wildly different odds of a single-family home ever becoming a legal rental, and that difference belongs in the conversation before an offer goes in, not after closing.
What a buyer should ask before assuming the income transfers
The ordinance is thorough on penalties and renewals. It is quiet on what happens to a license when a property changes hands. That silence is the single most important question a buyer chasing rental income should put in writing before assuming a seller's occupancy numbers will be theirs too.
A short list worth working through with your agent or attorney before writing an offer:
- Confirm which zoning district the parcel sits in. A house two streets apart can land in a different district with different rules.
- If it is in the single-family district, ask the city's Planning and Zoning Department whether the 130-license cap is currently full and whether a waiting list exists.
- If it is a condo in a named community, request the HOA's short-term rental policy in writing. The HOA's rules, not the city cap, are the real ceiling for that property.
- Ask directly whether an existing license transfers to a new owner or whether a sale triggers a fresh application under whatever cap conditions apply that day.
- If the plan involves an accessory dwelling with the owner living on site, note that the ordinance excludes these "Personal Units" from the 130-unit cap entirely, which can be a path to income that does not compete for a scarce slot.
None of this is a reason to avoid Boyne City. It is a reason to walk in with the right question ready, because the listing sheet will not ask it for you.
A quick answer to the question buyers ask most
Does buying a house with an existing Airbnb guarantee I can keep renting it? No. The ordinance does not state that a license automatically follows the deed. Treat any existing rental income as the seller's history, not a guarantee, until the city confirms in writing what happens at transfer.
Are all condos in Boyne City exempt from the city's rental cap? Not automatically. The exemption follows from zoning, specifically whether a property sits in the single-family district or in a separately zoned planned development. Confirm the parcel's zoning and the HOA's own rules rather than assuming based on the word "condo" alone.
Is the 130-license cap the final word, or could it change? City commissions can revisit ordinances. Verify the current cap status and any pending discussion directly with Boyne City's Planning and Zoning Department before making a rental income projection part of your offer.
Zoning maps rarely make it into a buyer's first conversation about a lake town, but in Boyne City the map is doing more work than the median price ever will. If you are weighing a single-family home against a condo in one of the city's waterfront communities and want the rental math worked out before you write an offer, Davis Labelle can walk through the zoning, the HOA documents, and the current license status with you. Schedule a free consultation and get the answer in writing before it becomes a surprise at closing.
