Short-Term Rentals
Can You Rent It Nightly? Idaho's 2026 Law, and the Document That Overrides It
The rental question decides whether a resort condo is an investment or an expensive hobby, and the answer changed this summer. Most of what's published online is out of date.
What House Bill 583 Did
Idaho Code 67-6539 was amended in 2026 by House Bill 583, effective July 1, 2026. The statute now bars any county or city from enacting or enforcing an ordinance with "the express or practical effect of prohibiting any type of short-term rentals." It goes further than the 2017 original: cities can no longer require an STR licence, fee, permit, certification or registration, nor impose owner-occupancy rules, professional management, extra insurance, added parking, inspections, rental-day caps, neighbor notice, conditional use permits in residential zones, proximity restrictions or caps on how many rentals exist. What a city may still require is short: smoke alarms in sleeping areas, a working fire extinguisher and carbon monoxide detector on each floor, escape ladders for elevated sleeping areas with windows, occupancy limits matching building code, and emergency contact information given to guests. Noise, nuisance, parking and building code rules that apply to everyone still apply.
What It Did Not Do
Nothing in HB 583 touches private covenants. Your CC&Rs are a contract among the owners of the project, not a city ordinance, and they can ban nightly rental completely, cap how many units may be rented at once, set a 30-day or six-month minimum lease, or require board approval of every tenant. There is no registry of which North Idaho associations allow what. You read the recorded declaration and the current rules and regulations — both documents, because boards change rules without amending the declaration. In a condo, the HOA decides this, not the city.
City by City, as of August 2026
Sandpoint stopped requiring a local STR permit on July 1, 2026 and said so plainly, while keeping its 14% resort city short-term rental occupancy tax on stays of 30 days or fewer — up from 7% on January 1, 2023, with the extra 7% funding streets and sidewalks. You still register for a tax permit per location under City Code Title 3, Chapter 10, file a return, remit by the 20th, and keep records four years. Kellogg charges a 5.5% local option occupancy tax that names condominiums explicitly, raised from 3.5% effective June 1, 2023 by Ordinance 623, and issues a numbered permit that must be displayed — that's a tax permit, which the state law does not preempt. Coeur d'Alene's ordinance at Municipal Code 17.08 Article X predates the state change; its published FAQ still describes a $285 permit, a $180 renewal due March 1, and the rule that only one dwelling unit per multi-unit property may be a short-term rental at a time, condos included. The city has said only that a code rewrite is under discussion. Call Planning at 208-769-2229 before you rely on any of it.
Run the Tax Math
Idaho sales tax on lodging plus a statewide 2% Travel and Convention tax applies everywhere, and only to stays of 30 days or less. Kootenai County has no auditorium district, so a Coeur d'Alene or Post Falls nightly rental stops there. Sandpoint adds 14%. Kellogg adds 5.5%. That is off the top of gross rent, before cleaning, management, furnishings, and the assessment your association levies in a year you didn't plan for.
The Trap in Resort Condos
Morning Star Lodge at Silver Mountain sells turnkey furnished with an owner option to enter the resort's rental pool. White Pine Lodge and Selkirk Lodge units sit inside Schweitzer's lodging operation. Seasons at Sandpoint runs vacation rentals through a third-party program. That structure is the reason the income exists — and Fannie Mae's ineligible-projects rule specifically names hotel-type operation and mandatory rental pooling. Optional participation is usually workable. Mandatory is usually not. Get the answer in writing and give it to your lender before you order an appraisal.
Buying for rental income? Jeremy will pull the association's rental rules and the city's current position before you commit, so the math you run is the real one.
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