Broward County vs New York City Airbnb: which market earns more

NYC doubles Broward's median revenue and holds 60% occupancy year-round. This piece works through why, where regulation bites, and the one profile that might still pick Florida.

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The headline number is blunt: New York City listings earn a median $21.6K a year versus Broward County's $10.8K. That's not a rounding difference. That's the mortgage. If you're allocating fresh capital and picking one of these two markets, the conversation is nearly over before it starts.

Nearly. Broward has jumped 16.8 occupancy points year-on-year, which is the kind of movement that makes a contrarian case worth at least one honest look. This piece will work through what's actually driving each market, what the regulatory picture means for a buyer sitting outside the US, and whether the Florida story has any legs — or whether NYC is just the obvious answer and we should all stop pretending otherwise.

Where the money actually is

NYC's $148 nightly rate beats Broward's $129 by $19. That sounds modest until you stack it against the occupancy gap: 60% versus 36%. A $19 rate advantage compounding across 24 more occupied nights per month is what produces a revenue multiple of exactly two. Broward isn't a discount version of New York; it's a different product category.

The listing count tells you something else. Broward has 11,860 active listings to NYC's 10,918 — more supply, less demand, lower prices. The 16.8-point occupancy jump is real, but it's landed Broward at 36%, which is where markets go when a wave of new hosts piles in ahead of the bookings. A rising number from a low base still leaves you at a low base.

The entire-home share sharpens the picture. At 88%, Broward is almost entirely entire-home listings — holiday apartments and houses. NYC sits at 55%, meaning nearly half its active listings are private rooms or shared spaces operating under whatever is still legally permissible post-Local Law 18. Those private-room listings drag on NYC's median figure. If you're buying an entire home in NYC and running it as such, the $21.6K median is a floor, not a ceiling.

How the year actually shapes up

Broward's occupancy runs from a trough of 27% in November to a peak of 40% in September — a 13-point swing that is both narrow and counterintuitive. September peak suggests demand is driven by domestic travellers avoiding peak summer pricing elsewhere rather than a coherent tourist season. For cashflow purposes, this flat-ish curve means you never have a catastrophic month, but you also never have a genuinely strong one. Thirty-six percent averaged across twelve months leaves very little room for voids, maintenance weeks, or a slow re-listing after a bad guest.

NYC's curve is the inverse in shape and better in every position. It troughs at 47% in January — a figure Broward would celebrate as a peak — and hits 67% in November, timed exactly to Thanksgiving travel and early holiday visits. The 20-point seasonal range is wide enough to matter for cashflow planning, but the floor is so high that even a January in New York comfortably outperforms Broward's best month. A year-round operator should be in New York without much debate. The only genuine case for Broward is an owner who wants to block several winter weeks for personal use without haemorrhaging revenue — the trough is shallow enough that the lost bookings sting less.

Where the rules actually bite

Neither market has a night cap, which matters more for NYC than Broward. New York's Local Law 18, which came into force in September 2023, effectively banned unhosted entire-home short-term lets by requiring the host to be present during any stay of fewer than 30 days. The listings that survived are either hosted shared-space arrangements or entire homes let on 30-plus-day terms — which takes them outside Airbnb's core product. The 10,918 active listings you see in the snapshot are the survivors of that cull; the pre-regulation number was multiples higher. This is the single most important regulatory fact in this comparison: NYC's strong metrics reflect a market that has already been filtered hard. The weak operators and the legally marginal listings are gone. What remains earns well because supply contracted sharply while demand held.

Broward has no equivalent restriction at county level, though individual municipalities within it vary. Fort Lauderdale has its own registration requirements; other cities have HOA restrictions that effectively override any permissive county-level position. For a UK-based buyer purchasing remotely, the practical risk in Broward is buying a unit only to discover the building's HOA prohibits short-term lets entirely — something no amount of county-level regulation research will catch. That due diligence step is non-negotiable and easy to miss from three thousand miles away. NYC's regulatory picture is harder, but it's at least legible from a distance.

The call, with the honest caveat

New York City wins this comparison. Double the median revenue, 24 more occupied nights per month, a regulatory environment that has already shaken out the marginal supply, and a demand floor that makes January look acceptable. The data doesn't support a close contest.

The one profile that might still choose Broward is the buyer who already owns Florida property and is asking whether to convert it rather than where to deploy new capital. If the purchase price is sunk, even $10.8K median revenue may beat a long-term tenant after management fees and voids — and the operational simplicity of a Florida beach market versus NYC's compliance requirements is real. Purchase prices, which this data can't capture, may also shift the yield calculation materially; NYC entry costs are among the highest in the world, and if Broward acquisition costs are low enough, the revenue gap might not survive a cap-rate comparison. But if you're writing a cheque specifically to buy into one of these two short-term-let markets from scratch, Broward doesn't have a compelling answer.

Frequently asked questions

Methodology. Figures are medians across active listings from Inside Airbnb's 2025-09-26 snapshot, refreshed automatically as new snapshots land. The table and chart above always show the latest data; the commentary is re-written when the numbers move materially.