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CORNELIUS Rick Barton spent Friday morning showing a group of guys from Pittsburgh their new home for the weekend – the tree-lined pool, the family of geese and the boat dock at the edge of the backyard.
Next week they'll be gone, and Barton will show the house to the next group of renters.
Summer travel officially kicks off this Memorial Day weekend, and the economy is predicted to take a significant toll throughout the season. But one sliver of the tourism industry is still growing in the Charlotte area: vacation home rentals on Lake Norman.
With the housing market down, more property owners in northern Mecklenburg County are turning to weekly rentals to bring in money from homes they would have had to sell at a loss.
The renters, who come from throughout the East Coast, say they're looking for better values than what they find in hotels. Hotel occupancy in Lake Norman is down 18 percent, while the more than 70 rental home listings on VRBO.com, a vacation home rental Web site, reflect an growing – and controversial – market.
“It's a tough market, and this is a great thing to do,” Barton said. “You could live off what that house makes.”
But the practice has critics. In February, Cornelius established stringent regulations on vacation-home rentals following complaints that the vacationers were disrupting quiet neighborhood streets with their cars and parties.
“The neighbors were pretty much up in arms about the things happening at these homes,” commissioner James Bensman said. “The feeling we were getting from residents is that Cornelius is not a vacation town. It's not Myrtle Beach. They didn't want vacation rentals mucking up their life.”
The controversy stemmed from a few isolated incidents, Bensman said, noting that probably 90 percent of renters were operating properly.
Nationally, summer travel is projected to be down around the country. An Associated Press-GfK Roper poll in April found that 42 percent of Americans are planning a summer vacation, down from 49 percent in 2005.
But around Lake Norman, real-estate agents say they're seeing more people than ever interested in renting vacation homes. Across this narrowly defined market, the lake access and the rates – between $1,000 and $3,000 per week – have proven appealing for groups visiting the Charlotte area for business, graduations, NASCAR races or family events.
Barton's experience with his 3,000-square-foot home in the Island Forest neighborhood shows how the real-state slowdown is helping fuel an increase in rentals.
A former real-estate agent currently looking for work, Barton bought the three-bedroom, 3,000-square-foot home in February 2007 for $704,000, hoping to turn around and sell it for profit.
After failing to find a buyer at the price he wanted, he turned to weekly rentals, equipping the house with two 27-inch flat-screen televisions and wireless Internet access. Now, the money he gets from weekly rentals more meets he payments he owes.
He lists the property on VRBO at $3,000 a week, but Barton says he's open to bargaining.
But according to Cornelius police records, there were two reports of gatherings of more than nine people at Barton's rental home in 2008, and one report of a noise violation this year. Barton said the vast majority of his renters are easygoing people.
The men moving in Friday planned to spend the next few days on the lake and go to the Coca-Cola 600 race at Lowe's Motor Speedway on Sunday.
Jason Bonner, one of the men from Pittsburgh, said they had thought about staying in a hotel or condo, but the cheap rate and boat access swayed them to stay in a vacation home.
“There's just not places to rent with a boat dock,” he said. “Marinas don't want to rent for a week.”
The economy hasn't put a damper on other home renters in the area, either.
“The economy doesn't matter, they want to be there for their son's graduation,” said Alesia Preece, whose Harborside Vacations represents four properties around Lake Norman.
But Preece said people often ask for discounts, and she'll usually agree because she wants to keep up with competitors.
Mike Chatham, who is renting out a house near Troutman for the first time this summer, said he has experienced similar success.
“We've covered one-third of our costs and we've had the house three months,” he said. “It seems to be working out so far.””
