I get some version of this question every summer from buyers scrolling listings from New York or New Jersey: "I found a great place in Bushkill. Can I rent it out on Airbnb?"
The honest answer is: it depends on which side of a line you're standing on, and that line rarely shows up on the listing sheet.
Here's what most buyers don't realize until they're deep into a search. Bushkill, PA 18324 is a mailing address. It's not a town, a borough, or a taxing municipality. The zip code is served by Lehman Township in Pike County. But sellers, agents, and portals also use "Bushkill" loosely to describe homes near Bushkill Falls, Shawnee Ski Resort, and the Delaware Water Gap, many of which actually sit across the county line in Middle Smithfield Township, Monroe County. Two homes with "Bushkill" in the listing title can be governed by two completely different sets of rental rules, and one of those townships closed the door on new short-term rentals eighteen months ago.
The Rule That Changed in January 2025
If a listing you're looking at falls inside Lehman Township, here's the rule as it stands today: new short-term rentals are not permitted in any residential zone, effective January 31, 2025. That's not a soft guideline. It's the township's own posted policy.
What this means in practice: if the home you're buying doesn't already have an active STR license, you cannot get one, no matter how strong the rental comps look. The township has roughly 200 existing licenses that were grandfathered in before the cutoff, and those can still operate, but they don't transfer automatically with the deed. The seller has to obtain a Certificate of Non-Conformity from the township before closing, and the buyer then applies to have that license reissued in their own name. Skip that step and you can end up owning a house that looks identical to the rental next door but can't legally be rented the same way.
Lehman Township includes communities that were built specifically as vacation destinations, Saw Creek Estates among them, which is part of why the STR conversation there is louder than in a lot of neighboring townships. It's also why the license freeze landed hard. If you're touring anything in this footprint and the listing mentions rental income, ask directly whether that license is grandfathered and whether the seller has already secured a transfer document. Don't assume.
The Other Side of the Line
Cross into Middle Smithfield Township and the rules flip. STRs are still permitted there by annual permit, and the township has continued to amend its ordinance rather than freeze it, most recently under Ordinance 221. Middle Smithfield also caps occupancy at 14 guests per property, which matters if you're running the numbers on a larger lake house expecting to sleep more people than that.
Here's the catch buyers miss on this side of the line too: a township permit doesn't override a private community's rules. Some HOAs and POAs inside Middle Smithfield, the Country Club of the Poconos among them, prohibit short-term rentals even in a township that otherwise allows them. If the property you're considering sits inside a gated or amenity community, the community's governing documents are the actual authority, not the zoning map.
| Lehman Township (Pike County) | Middle Smithfield Township (Monroe County) | |
|---|---|---|
| New STR licenses | Closed since January 31, 2025 | Open, permit required and renewed annually |
| Existing license transfer | Requires seller to obtain a Certificate of Non-Conformity before closing | Not applicable, new permits are available directly |
| Occupancy limit | Governed by existing license terms | Capped at 14 guests |
| Private community override | Some communities restrict rentals independent of township rules | Some HOAs/POAs, including Country Club of the Poconos, prohibit STR outright |
Why "Bushkill's Median Price" Doesn't Mean What You Think
This split explains something that trips up a lot of buyers doing their own research before calling an agent: the price data for "Bushkill" is all over the map, literally.
Pull up one listings tracker and you'll see a median list price around $825,000, but that number is built from just six active listings, ranging from roughly $568,000 to $886,000. Pull up a broader aggregator covering a couple hundred listings in the same zip code and the average price drops to somewhere in the low $230,000s to mid $240,000s. A third source puts the median home value closer to $264,000.
None of those numbers are wrong. They're sampling different inventory. The small, high-end sample is likely weighted toward larger lakefront or resort-adjacent homes, many of which sit in the STR-permitted side of the map. The larger, lower-average sample includes the broader mix of year-round residential housing stock across both townships, where rental potential isn't the driver of value. If you're comparing "Bushkill" to another Poconos town using a single median price pulled off a portal, you're not comparing like to like. You're comparing two different regulatory zones that happen to share a mailing address.
For context on the wider county, the Pocono Mountains Association of Realtors reported an average sale price of $324,766 across Monroe County in 2024. That figure is specific to Monroe County, so it includes Middle Smithfield but says nothing about Lehman Township, which is across the line in Pike County. Any single number you see attached to "Bushkill" should raise the question of which townships, and which slice of inventory, it's actually describing.
What to Actually Check Before You Write an Offer
I tell buyers considering anything with rental potential in this area to do the following before they get emotionally attached to a listing:
- Pull the parcel's tax identification number and confirm the taxing municipality with the county, not the mailing address on the listing.
- Call the township zoning office directly and ask specifically whether that parcel has an active STR permit or license, and whether new ones are being issued.
- If the property sits inside a gated community or association, request the governing documents and ask in writing whether short-term rentals are restricted.
- If you're buying a home with an existing STR license in Lehman Township, make the Certificate of Non-Conformity a condition of your agreement of sale, not an assumption.
- If STR income is part of your offer price, get the permit status confirmed before your inspection contingency expires, not after closing.
None of this shows up cleanly on a listing sheet. It takes a phone call, sometimes two.
A Few Questions I Hear Often
If I buy a home in Lehman Township with an active STR license, does it just come with the house? Not automatically. The seller needs to secure a Certificate of Non-Conformity from the township before closing, and the license is then reissued to you as the new owner. Build that into your purchase agreement rather than assuming it transfers with the deed.
Does a Middle Smithfield STR permit mean I'm clear to rent short-term? Only if the property isn't inside a community that says otherwise. Some HOAs and POAs, including Country Club of the Poconos, override the township's permit system entirely. Always check the community documents separately from the zoning rules.
How do I actually find out which township a "Bushkill" listing is in? The county parcel search is more reliable than the mailing address. I run this check for every buyer I work with in this area before we schedule a showing, because it changes how we evaluate the property from the start.
If you're weighing a Bushkill-area purchase for lifestyle, investment, or both, the township line matters more than almost anything else on the listing sheet. I've walked enough buyers through this exact split to know where the traps sit and how to verify a property's real rental status before you're committed to it. Schedule a free consultation with me and we'll pull the parcel record together before you write an offer.
