San Diego Rental Research › Short-term rental licenses
On November 12, 2026, the City of San Diego listed 8,437 active short-term rental licenses, about 1.5 for every 100 homes in the city. Mission Beach had 1,324 of them, or 36.2 for every 100 homes there, and its whole-home tier is full: 1,094 active Tier 4 licenses against a cap of 1,099, with 113 applications on the waitlist.
Key numbers on short-term rental licenses
- 8,437active short-term rental licenses in the City of San DiegoCity of San Diego open data, file of November 12, 2026
- 36.2licenses per 100 homes in Mission Beach, against 1.5 citywideOur calculation: City license file and SANDAG housing estimates for 2025
- 1,094 of 1,099Mission Beach whole-home (Tier 4) licenses in use, with 113 applications on the waitlistCity license file; cap from SANDAG 2025; waitlist of September 15, 2026
- 86%of the whole-home cap outside Mission Beach in use: 4,878 Tier 3 licenses of 5,661City license file; cap from SANDAG 2025
- 47%of all licenses are in four communities: Mission Beach, Pacific Beach, La Jolla and UptownCity of San Diego open data, file of November 12, 2026
Active licenses in the City of San Diego open-data file of November 12, 2026, all four tiers, divided by SANDAG's 2025 housing-unit estimate for each area. The City of San Diego as a whole: 1.5 per 100 homes.
| Community planning area | Tier 1 | Tier 2 | Tier 3 | Tier 4 | All licenses | Homes (2025) | Licenses per 100 homes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mission Beach | 23 | 207 | 0 | 1,094 | 1,324 | 3,662 | 36.2 |
| Pacific Beach | 17 | 220 | 990 | 0 | 1,227 | 22,589 | 5.4 |
| La Jolla | 10 | 180 | 617 | 0 | 807 | 15,410 | 5.2 |
| Uptown | 5 | 162 | 415 | 0 | 582 | 25,365 | 2.3 |
| Ocean Beach | 2 | 88 | 434 | 0 | 524 | 7,999 | 6.6 |
| North Park | 4 | 162 | 320 | 0 | 486 | 27,931 | 1.7 |
| Clairemont Mesa | 8 | 202 | 256 | 0 | 466 | 33,401 | 1.4 |
| Downtown | 4 | 94 | 313 | 0 | 411 | 35,602 | 1.2 |
| Peninsula | 10 | 146 | 241 | 0 | 397 | 17,545 | 2.3 |
| Greater Golden Hill | 6 | 84 | 163 | 0 | 253 | 7,564 | 3.3 |
| Southeastern San Diego | 4 | 74 | 171 | 0 | 249 | 15,897 | 1.6 |
| Mid-City: City Heights | 1 | 68 | 115 | 0 | 184 | 24,243 | 0.8 |
| Mid-City: Normal Heights | 2 | 59 | 70 | 0 | 131 | 8,031 | 1.6 |
| Navajo | 6 | 37 | 78 | 0 | 121 | 23,234 | 0.5 |
| Mid-City: Eastern Area | 2 | 54 | 64 | 0 | 120 | 14,297 | 0.8 |
| Mira Mesa | 1 | 53 | 60 | 0 | 114 | 27,949 | 0.4 |
| Linda Vista | 1 | 36 | 74 | 0 | 111 | 12,878 | 0.9 |
| Serra Mesa | 2 | 47 | 53 | 0 | 102 | 8,632 | 1.2 |
| Encanto Neighborhoods | 2 | 51 | 46 | 0 | 99 | 13,929 | 0.7 |
| University | 6 | 41 | 50 | 0 | 97 | 27,670 | 0.4 |
| Torrey Pines | 3 | 28 | 39 | 0 | 70 | 3,079 | 2.3 |
| Mid-City: Kensington-Talmadge | 1 | 37 | 31 | 0 | 69 | 6,881 | 1.0 |
| College Area | 1 | 20 | 45 | 0 | 66 | 8,425 | 0.8 |
| Skyline-Paradise Hills | 1 | 32 | 30 | 0 | 63 | 19,266 | 0.3 |
| Rancho Peñasquitos | 2 | 29 | 24 | 0 | 55 | 16,197 | 0.3 |
| Carmel Valley | 6 | 22 | 20 | 0 | 48 | 14,440 | 0.3 |
| Otay Mesa-Nestor | 0 | 18 | 17 | 0 | 35 | 17,768 | 0.2 |
| Kearny Mesa | 0 | 2 | 29 | 0 | 31 | 5,365 | 0.6 |
| Barrio Logan | 0 | 5 | 24 | 0 | 29 | 1,320 | 2.2 |
| Rancho Bernardo | 1 | 11 | 13 | 0 | 25 | 17,981 | 0.1 |
| Old Town San Diego | 0 | 3 | 21 | 0 | 24 | 499 | 4.8 |
| Mission Valley | 1 | 12 | 5 | 0 | 18 | 15,622 | 0.1 |
| Otay Mesa | 0 | 4 | 13 | 0 | 17 | 6,937 | 0.2 |
| Tierrasanta | 1 | 5 | 11 | 0 | 17 | 11,482 | 0.1 |
| Other communities (15, fewer than 10 licenses each) | 4 | 33 | 26 | 0 | 63 | ||
| No planning area in the file | 2 | ||||||
| City of San Diego | 137 | 2,328 | 4,878 | 1,094 | 8,437 | 569,754 | 1.5 |
Where San Diego's short-term rentals are
Short-term rental licenses are spread across 49 of the City's community planning areas, but most sit near the coast. Mission Beach, Pacific Beach, La Jolla and Uptown hold 3,940 of the 8,437 licenses. Pacific Beach has the second-largest number (1,227) and La Jolla the third (807), but both are large communities, so licenses there come to 5.4 and 5.2 for every 100 homes.
Mission Beach stands apart. With 1,324 licenses and 3,662 homes in SANDAG's 2025 estimate, it has 36.2 licenses for every 100 homes, about 24 times the rate for the city as a whole. Among the 25 communities with at least 50 licenses, the next highest rates are in Ocean Beach (6.6 per 100 homes), Pacific Beach (5.4) and La Jolla (5.2).
How close Mission Beach is to its cap
A whole home rented short term in Mission Beach needs a Tier 4 license, and the City caps Tier 4 at 30% of the community's homes, based on SANDAG's housing estimates. SANDAG's 2025 estimate of 3,662 homes gives a cap of 1,099 licenses, the same cap the City Treasurer reports: on November 6, 2026 the City listed 1,099 Tier 4 licenses issued and 0 remaining, and the Tier 4 application period is closed.
The City's open-data file of November 12, 2026 lists 1,094 active Tier 4 licenses, equal to 29.9% of Mission Beach homes. The City's waitlist for Tier 4 licenses, last published September 15, 2026, held 113 applications. Mission Beach also has Tier 1 and Tier 2 licenses (part-time rentals and home shares), which are not capped, so its total of 1,324 is higher than the Tier 4 count.
Whole-home licenses in the rest of the city
Outside Mission Beach, a whole home rented short term needs a Tier 3 license, capped at 1% of the City's homes outside Mission Beach. On SANDAG's 2025 figures that is 5,661 licenses, again matching the City's own cap. The file of November 12, 2026 lists 4,878 active Tier 3 licenses, 86% of the cap. On November 6, 2026 the City reported 798 Tier 3 licenses still available and Tier 3 applications open.
Licenses last two years. Of the 5,972 whole-home licenses (Tiers 3 and 4) in the file, 4,424 have an expiration date before November 12, 2027, one year after the file date, and would need renewing to stay in use.
What this means for owners
- A license does not come with the house. The City says licenses are not transferable between owners or homes, and a host may hold only one. Anyone buying a home to rent short term applies for a license in their own name.
- Mission Beach whole-home licenses are full. With the Tier 4 cap reached and 113 applications on the waitlist, a buyer of a Mission Beach home cannot count on a whole-home short-term license. Only Tier 1 (rented 20 days a year or fewer) and Tier 2 (home sharing with the host living on site) are open there, so plan the numbers around stays of a month or longer. Our guide to long-term, mid-term or short-term renting in San Diego compares the options.
- Whole-home licenses must be used. Tier 3 and Tier 4 hosts must rent the home short term for at least 90 days a year to keep the license. The short-term rental license guide sets out the tiers, fees and taxes.
- These are City of San Diego rules only. Coronado, Chula Vista, Imperial Beach and the County set their own. Coronado does not allow short stays in its residential zones; see Coronado short-term rental rules.
This is general information, not legal or tax advice. Check the City Treasurer's STRO page for current license counts before you buy or apply.
Method and limits
- Licenses. We counted every row of the City of San Diego's open-data file of active Short-Term Residential Occupancy licenses (City Treasurer, file updated November 12, 2026). Each row is one license. We publish counts by community only, never addresses or host details, which the file includes.
- Communities. We used the community planning area given in the file. We merged names that differ only in capitalization and matched the City's spellings to SANDAG's (for example, North Park is SANDAG's Greater North Park). The file gives no recognized planning area for 2 licenses, which count only in the city total. The table groups 15 communities with fewer than 10 licenses each (63 licenses); the CSV lists every community.
- Homes. Housing units are SANDAG's Estimates (vintage 25.1) for 2025, all housing types, occupied and vacant. The City sets its caps from SANDAG's estimates, and the caps we calculate from these figures match the City's published caps exactly.
- A license is permission, not activity. The file does not show how many nights a home is rented, whether it is listed online, or whether it is anyone's primary home. Homes operating without a license are not in it.
- Dates differ slightly between City sources. The City's STRO page counted 8,428 licenses on November 6, 2026; the open-data file of November 12, 2026 lists 8,437. Counts change as licenses are issued, renewed and expire.
- City of San Diego only. The file does not cover Coronado, Chula Vista, Imperial Beach, National City or unincorporated San Diego County.
Every figure on this page was calculated by a script from the downloaded source files and checked against the City's STRO page, SANDAG's data service and the City's waitlist by a second script on November 12, 2026.
Sources
- City of San Diego open data, Active licenses for Short-Term Residential Occupancy (CSV), file updated November 12, 2026: data.sandiego.gov/datasets/stro-licenses/
- City of San Diego, Office of the City Treasurer, Short-Term Residential Occupancy (tier counts, caps and rules), updated November 6, 2026: www.sandiego.gov/treasurer/short-term-residential-occupancy
- City of San Diego, Tier 4 waitlist, updated September 15, 2026: www.sandiego.gov/sites/default/files/2026-09/tier-4-waitlist-master-website-09.15.2026.pdf
- SANDAG Estimates v25.1, Housing Units by Community Planning Area, 2025: opendata.sandag.org/d/9pdi-8xa3
- SANDAG Estimates v25.1, Housing Units by Jurisdiction, 2025: opendata.sandag.org/d/bxut-uz3j
- San Diego Municipal Code, Chapter 5, Article 10, Division 1 (Short-Term Residential Occupancy), current text: docs.sandiego.gov/municode/MuniCodeChapter05/Ch05Art10Division01.pdf
Cite this study
McKee Properties. (2026). San Diego's Licensed Short-Term Rentals: Where They Are. https://mckeecompany.com/research/san-diego-short-term-rental-licenses/
The data behind this study is free to reuse under CC BY 4.0: download the CSV. Please credit McKee Properties and link to this page.
Questions about the data, or press inquiries: call (619) 435-7780 or email info@mckeecompany.com.
