Upstate NY Hotspot Among 'Best Cities to Own a Vacation Home'

Owning a vacation rental home can be an incredibly profitable investment.

Yes, you have to trust that your tenants will treat your house with respect, and every now and again, you may be forced into clean-up duty after an especially rough stay. That said, depending on the location and the season, you can recoup the money you paid quickly, and pocket the remaining cash as profit.

If you've ever considered doing this, a recently-released study showed us that one Upstate New York city may be the perfect place for your first, or next, vacation rental home investment.

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Study Finds Upstate NY City as One of America's Best Spots to Buy Rental Home

A study done by the folks at LawnStarter ranked the ten best locations in America in which you can buy a vacation rental home. The study compared over 180 of the biggest U.S. cities based on six categories, including legal restrictions on short-term rentals, occupancy rates, revenue potential and more.

From there, a "final score" was calculated for every city, and rankings were established. Based on LawnStarter's rankings, Rochester, NY is the seventh-best location in America in which you can purchase a vacation rental home in 2023.

Unsplash / Yassine Khalfalli

Here is how Rochester performed in each of the six categories through which each city was evaluated:

Legality Rank: 1st (tie)
Revenue Potential Rank: 104th
Initial Investment Rank: 9th
Operating Expenses Rank: 92nd
Entertainment Options Rank: 62nd
Guest Safety Rank: 27th

Rochester was one of five New York cities included in this study. The other four were Syracuse (12th), Buffalo (23rd), Yonkers (53rd) and New York City (118th).

Unsplash / Yassine Khalfalli

Here is the entire top-ten list of the perfect locations in which you can buy a vacation rental home: