A rental calendar full of summer bookings and a five-star review count tell you what a Boyne City house earned last year. They tell you nothing about whether the next owner gets to rent it at all.
That gap matters more in Boyne City than in most of Northern Michigan right now, because the city counted its short-term rentals and set a cap on licenses in the traditional residential district. If you're shopping for a Boyne City property with rental income in the pro forma, the house is not the scarce thing anymore. The license is.
The Ordinance That Turned a Boom Into a Ceiling
Boyne City's City Commission adopted a dedicated short-term rental ordinance on December 13, 2022, after roughly a year and a half of study sessions and public meetings that started in mid-2021, according to reporting at the time in the Petoskey News-Review. The commission passed the ordinance itself without agreeing on a hard number.
Data from spring and summer of 2022 showed a 39 percent jump in short-term rentals across the city, concentrated in the traditional residential district that makes up 54 percent of Boyne City's total housing stock. By November 2023, the commission acted on that data and capped licenses in that district at 130 units, about 10 percent of the homes there, a move the News-Review covered as the city drawing a hard line between tourism revenue and year-round housing supply.
That 10 percent figure is worth sitting with. It is not a soft target or a planning goal. It is a ceiling written into the city's licensing structure,
What the Cap Actually Locks In
Here is where the mechanism gets interesting for a buyer. Boyne City's short-term rental ordinance sets license terms that run through December 31 each year, with renewal required before that date to keep the license active. The ordinance also builds in a waitlist. Its enforcement section spells out that if a licensed rental is revoked, the owner doesn't just lose their spot. They go to the bottom of any existing waiting list for a new one.
That single clause establishes one practical point: a waitlist for Boyne City short-term rental licenses is part of this program.
What the ordinance doesn't spell out in plain language, at least not in the text available through the city's own planning and zoning documents, is exactly what happens to a license the moment a licensed rental changes hands. That is the single most important thing to confirm before you write an offer on a Boyne City property marketed with rental income attached, and it's a question for the city's Planning & Zoning Department at 319 N. Lake St., not for the listing sheet.
Until the city confirms the transfer rules, don't assume the seller's license passes automatically with the deed.
The dollar figures make clear why that distinction is worth fighting for. Analysis compiled alongside the November 2023 cap data found licensed Boyne City hosts earning a median of $36,457 a year, with a $339 average daily rate and 46 percent occupancy, and top performers clearing $54,428. That is real income sitting inside a license that may or may not follow the house.
A Mailing Address Isn't a Rulebook
The towns around Boyne City each solved the same problem differently. If you're comparing Boyne City to a property a few miles away, the rules don't travel with the zip code.
| Municipality | How residential short-term rentals are handled |
|---|---|
| Boyne City | Licensed and capped at 130 units in the traditional residential district, roughly 10 percent of homes there, cap reached and enforced since November 2023 |
| Charlevoix | Northern Michigan Escapes reports a separate cap of 80 units on "Business Rentals" in residential zones, with an annual registration fee for a secured spot and a non-refundable waitlist fee once the cap is full |
| Petoskey | A 2014 ordinance restricts new short-term rentals to business districts, effectively closing most residential streets to new licenses |
| Boyne Falls | A more open posture toward vacation rental use, reflecting its proximity to Boyne Mountain Resort |
The pattern is a patchwork, not a regional standard. A house inside Boyne City's limits and a house a few minutes away in one of the surrounding townships could be governed by entirely different licensing bodies, cap structures, or no cap at all. The only way to know which rulebook applies to a specific parcel is to ask the municipality that actually has jurisdiction over it, not to assume based on the town name on the listing.
What to Verify Before You Write an Offer
If a Boyne City property is marketed with an active short-term rental license or a rental income history, treat the following as due diligence, not optional extras:
- Ask Boyne City Planning & Zoning directly whether the property's existing license transfers to a new owner or requires a fresh application, and get the answer in writing.
- Confirm the current status of the 130-unit cap. If it's full, ask how long the waitlist currently is and how licenses have historically opened up, through non-renewal, revocation, or otherwise.
- Request the seller's actual license history, not just a booking calendar. A revoked license drops to the bottom of any waitlist under the ordinance's own terms, so a property with a clean five-star review record could still be sitting behind others in the queue.
- If you're comparing this property to one in Charlevoix, Petoskey, or Boyne Falls, don't assume the rules are interchangeable. Confirm the specific municipality and its current cap status for each address separately.
- Build your financial plan around the median host earnings figures as historical context, not as a guarantee tied to this specific license or this specific year.
A Few Questions Worth Asking Directly
Does a Boyne City short-term rental license automatically pass to a new owner at closing? The ordinance doesn't answer this plainly in the public documents available, and it's the single question worth getting in writing from Planning & Zoning before you commit to a purchase price that assumes rental income continues uninterrupted.
What happens if the cap is full when I close? The city can confirm how a full cap affects a new application and where an applicant stands on the waitlist.
Does the cap apply if I only rent occasionally, not year-round? The ordinance's cap governs licensed units in the traditional residential district generally. Confirm with the city whether frequency of use changes which category a property falls into before assuming a lighter rental schedule sidesteps the cap.
If you're weighing a Boyne City purchase against comparable listings in Charlevoix or East Jordan, or trying to figure out which side of a township line actually governs a specific parcel, that's exactly the kind of parcel-by-parcel homework our team at Pat O'Brien does before a client ever writes an offer. We keep an office two blocks from City Hall. Contact us and we'll help you get the actual answer in writing before you're under contract, not after.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
