Vacation rentals making Dare County Outer Banks look bad on 2020 census, officials say
By the way the state tallies it, Dare County is pretty bad when it comes to the 2020 census. The county ranks 96th out of 100 counties, with a state website showing only 34.5% of county residents having responded to questionnaires.
By Dare county’s count, it’s actually 80.6 percent.
“It’s a lot better than it looks,” said Dare County spokeswoman Dorothy Hester.
The discrepancy, according to the county, stems from the number of beach houses used as second homes or vacation rentals where the owners rarely live. Dare County has 19,949 vacation homes out of a total of 35,012 homes, according to a chart provided by James Cofield, a Duck resident who is on the North Carolina Complete Count Commission.
