This small Kentucky town was named a top US spot to invest in vacation rental property
A small town in northern Kentucky — known for a life-size Noah’s Ark that draws thousands of Evangelical Christian tourists each year — has ranked among the top 25 best places to invest in U.S. vacation rentals.
That’s according to analytics firm AirDNA, which ranked Williamstown 21st on its list. The company scraped data from short-term rental platforms like Airbnb and Vrbo to create what it called its “updated index of the best markets for investment” in 2021 and 2022.
AirDNA factored in local rental demand, year-over-year revenue growth and investment cost versus yield in its analysis.
While Williamstown got middling scores for revenue growth and rental demand, it earned a high score for “investability.”
“The attraction brings in nearly 1 million visitors each year to an unsuspecting and otherwise small town in rural Kentucky,” the company’s website said.
“A typical home value of $128,000 makes Williamstown the most affordable market on the Best Places to Invest on Airbnb list. With average earnings at $37K per year, the town earns a prodigious Investability score of 95,” AirDNA said.
The town, with a population of around 4,000 people, got an overall investor score of 73 out of 100 from AirDNA.
Town expected flood of business after Noah’s Ark opened. So far, it’s a trickle.
The Ark Encounter attraction is a large model Noah’s Ark. During their visit, guests enter the lowest of three decks and move between levels. The bays on the first deck feature models of some animals believed to have been housed on the ark, though there are no live animals within the exhibit.
Opening in July 2016, with construction having begun two years earlier, Ark Encounter representatives negotiated a series of incentives with state and local government officials. That included a controversial sales tax rebate under a state program for tourism development to return up to $18 million over 10 years to the Ark Encounter, according to a previous Lexington Herald-Leader article.
The state pledged to chip in about $2.4 million for improvements to the Interstate 75 interchange near the attraction.
In recent years, Ark Encounter representatives have feuded with local officials, with some worried the attraction was preparing to declare itself tax exempt, including from local property taxes that would help fund Grant County Schools. The attraction has a long history of being a for-profit entity.
AirDNA’s top 10 places to invest in vacation rentals include:
Maui, Hawaii
Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
Chattanooga, Tenn.
Gulfport/Biloxi, Miss.
Slidell, La.
Crystal River, Fla.
Joshua Tree, Calif.
Charleston, S.C.
Galena, Ill.
Southwest Harbor, Maine
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