New York

Why physicians are looking at the Catskills

The Catskills sit two hours from the largest metro demand pool in the country, and the current travel wave — farm-to-table dining, outdoor wellness, weekend escapes — has turned that proximity into a durable booking engine. Metro-escape markets have a structural advantage over fly-to destinations: guests come year-round, on short notice, without airfare as a filter. For physician investors, this is proximity STR economics — a demand base that refreshes every Friday.

The numbers, interpreted

The metrics: $215/night ADR, 60% occupancy, $129 RevPAR, roughly $3,870/mo gross revenue on a $385,000 basis. Underwrite as a hospitality business — net after management, cleaning, and furnishing is what matters — and note the honest gap in this pro-forma: the Catskills carry the same $385,000 basis as Lake George but produce $215/night against its $285/night. What you are buying instead is demand breadth: year-round weekender flow rather than one make-or-break summer. Choosing the property is a referral decision — you would not send a family-medicine doc to do brain surgery, and you should not trust a generalist agent to pick between a photogenic creekside cabin and a dark parcel off a county road; the difference is the whole return.

Costs and rules to underwrite

New York's 1.65% property tax rate puts a $385,000 property at roughly $6,400/yr — a substantial fixed line against $3,870/mo gross. Regulation demands doubled diligence: the state's STR posture is strict and local rules are moderate and vary town by town across the region, so verify short-term-rental permitting, zoning, and caps in the specific township before closing. Rural properties add septic, well, and winter-access items to the inspection list.

Building your local team in the Catskills

The right team will make or break a Catskills STR, because this is a market of scattered townships rather than one walkable resort strip. You want STR management that genuinely covers your township (coverage maps here are patchy), an investor-focused realtor who knows which hamlets book strongly, and real furnishing capital — the wellness-weekend guest books an aesthetic, not a bed. Themed properties and standout amenities decide bookings when guests compare listings side by side: the memorable cabin out-earns the commodity one all year. Dr Home Investor introduces you to vetted local team members — including a Realtor match with boots on the ground — instead of the blind Google search across a hundred small-town vendor sites.

Bottom line

The Catskills are the metro-proximity play in New York's STR set: $385,000 in, roughly $3,870/mo gross, and a two-hour drive from millions of potential weekend guests riding a wellness-travel wave. It suits physicians who want year-round demand breadth over peak-season intensity — and who verify township rules before wiring a deposit. Explore other New York markets to compare the state's resort and event-driven STR alternatives. STR revenue is lumpy, and the write-offs matter — our tax strategies for physician investors covers the short-term-rental loophole physicians ask about most.