Whole-house approvals on Bend's current licenses peaked at 115 in 2022, the year the City doubled its buffer between rentals to 500 feet. So far in 2026, through October, the count is 20.
Published November 5, 2026 by Cavmir Research · All research
The City reported on October 5, 2022 that Council voted 6-0 to raise the buffer between permitted short-term rentals from 250 feet to 500 feet in residential zones and parts of the Mixed Riverfront zone, effective November 18. Whole-house approvals on licenses still in the table ran 96 in 2021 and 115 in 2022, then 43 in 2023, 58 in 2024, 21 in 2025 and 20 from January through October 2026.
Timing is the only evidence here. The table can't show applications turned away, and it can't separate the rule from anything else that changed in those years. Older years also count only licenses that survived, as the method note explains.
| Year | Current licenses approved that year | Whole house | Vacation home rental | Other types |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 25 | 0 | 25 | 0 |
| 2013 | 62 | 0 | 62 | 0 |
| 2014 | 151 | 1 | 139 | 11 |
| 2015 | 154 | 7 | 140 | 7 |
| 2016 | 31 | 21 | 4 | 6 |
| 2017 | 40 | 28 | 0 | 12 |
| 2018 | 57 | 49 | 0 | 8 |
| 2019 | 47 | 42 | 0 | 5 |
| 2020 | 77 | 74 | 0 | 3 |
| 2021 | 104 | 96 | 0 | 8 |
| 2022 | 124 | 115 | 0 | 9 |
| 2023 | 58 | 43 | 0 | 15 |
| 2024 | 65 | 58 | 0 | 7 |
| 2025 | 27 | 21 | 0 | 6 |
| 2026 | 25 | 20 | 0 | 5 |
2026 runs through the latest date in the table, October 5.
411 licenses are vacation home rentals, 33% of the table. The City's rules page draws a line at April 15, 2015: vacation home rental permits from before that date may run with the land, while newer short-term rental permits are tied to the owner and void on sale. The table shows none approved after 2016.
575 are whole-house rentals, and 147 sit in three areas the City exempts from land use permits: Deschutes Landing, parts of The Courtyards at Broken Top, and Mt. Bachelor Village. Owner-occupied and infrequent types are few, 85 together, and the 500-foot rule does not apply to them.
River West has 361 licenses, and 213 of them are older vacation home rentals. Old Bend looks similar, with 104 of its 131. Century West's 181 are mostly the exempt resort areas (133). Whole-house licenses are more spread out, with the highest counts in River West (123), Orchard (61) and Larkspur (60).
As named in the City's Neighborhood column. We corrected one misspelling, Soutwest Bend.
| Neighborhood | Licenses | Whole house | Vacation home rental | Exempt areas | Approvals, Nov 2025 to Oct 2026 | Approvals, Nov 2024 to Oct 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| River West | 361 | 123 | 213 | 0 | 4 | 9 |
| Century West | 181 | 16 | 23 | 133 | 2 | 0 |
| Old Bend | 131 | 19 | 104 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| Southern Crossing | 110 | 57 | 32 | 11 | 5 | 4 |
| Larkspur | 79 | 60 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Orchard | 78 | 61 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Summit West | 63 | 48 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mountain View | 52 | 45 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
| Southwest Bend | 49 | 37 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Boyd Acres | 48 | 39 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Old Farm | 44 | 39 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Southeast Bend | 20 | 19 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Awbrey Butte | 7 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Approvals now run at a few a month: 31 during the latest year, 30 the year before.
| Month | Approvals | Whole house | Vacation home rental | Other types |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 2024 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 |
| Dec 2024 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Jan 2025 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Feb 2025 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2025 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Apr 2025 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| May 2025 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Jun 2025 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 |
| Jul 2025 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Aug 2025 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Sep 2025 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Oct 2025 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Nov 2025 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 |
| Dec 2025 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Jan 2026 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Feb 2026 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| Mar 2026 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Apr 2026 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| May 2026 | 7 | 4 | 0 | 3 |
| Jun 2026 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Jul 2026 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Aug 2026 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2026 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Oct 2026 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
The City describes the Short Term Rental Table as a list of approved short term rentals derived from its permitting software. It carries no status or end date. Licenses that end drop off: 19 license numbers in the copy of this table we first stored on June 15, 2026 are gone from it now. So the table is a picture of today, and counts for older years are only the licenses that lasted. Read 2014 as the approvals that survive to 2026, and not as every approval that year.
On November 5, 2026 we read license number, address, tax lot, neighborhood, type, occupancy, bedrooms and land use approval date, and left the contact name and contact address columns alone. The table has 1,456 rows but 1,234 license numbers, because 218 licenses sit on more than one row, 211 of them on identical rows. We counted licenses once, at the earliest date. 145 licenses have no land use date, nearly all in the exempt areas, so they are in the type and neighborhood counts and absent from the month table. 11 have no neighborhood.
The City's data server returned the same figures on 27 of 27 direct checks: row total, every type, every neighborhood, the distinct license count and five sample years. Its terms say the data is offered at your own risk and may not suit every purpose. They set no limit on reuse that we could find.
Plain counts. Republish them under CC BY 4.0, and credit Cavmir with a link.
Cavmir Research (November 2026), Bend Short-Term Rental Licenses. Based on the City of Bend Short Term Rental Table. https://cavmir.com/resources/research/bend-short-term-rental-licenses/
The City's table lists 1,234 license numbers across 1,456 rows on November 5, 2026. 575 are whole-house rentals and 411 are older vacation home rentals.
The City says there must be 500 feet of separation between whole-house short term rental properties in residential zones and parts of the Mixed Riverfront zone, measured radially from the property boundary. Council approved the move from 250 feet to 500 feet in October 2022, effective November 18, 2022.
River West, with 361 licenses, or 29% of the table. Century West has 181, and Old Bend has 131.
Whole-house approvals on current licenses fell from 115 in 2022 to 43 in 2023, with 20 so far in 2026. The timing lines up, though the table alone cannot prove the cause, and licenses later cancelled are missing from it.
Cavmir works with short-term rental owners on websites, search and direct bookings. See Cavmir in Bend or the Oregon permit data.
