How to live in a town overrun by tourists

Arlington, Texas

Event: World Series

Few cities can lay claim to hosting the NBA All-Star Game, the Super Bowl and back-to-back World Series in just 21 months. But that’s the story of Arlington, which recently hosted the Texas Rangers' home games against the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series.

"This town has totally changed in the past year and a half," says Robert Cluck, mayor of the Dallas suburban city of 370,000 people.

Because of sales-tax dollars that flow from the Rangers Ballpark and neighboring Cowboys Stadium, Arlington is one of the few cities in the nation with a financial surplus of $4 million.

Entire neighborhoods, such as the Woodbrook neighborhood near the stadium, have tried to organize homeowners to sell their stadium-area properties to developers. Some of those homeowners have set their home's price tag as high as $1.2 million. There haven’t been any takers — yet.

Close to the action: Just a few blocks from the stadiums, this two-bathroom home (bedroom count not available) in the Woodbrook neighborhood is marketed as a teardown. Based on the land's value, it's listed for $484,900.  

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New Orleans

Event: Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras boils down to location, location, location — and a bathroom.

More than 250,000 tourists come to New Orleans and watch about 50 parades for three weeks before Fat Tuesday in February. If you want to live close to the action year-round, however, be ready to pay more.

Homes in the Garden District or Canal Street are prime real estate for viewing the spectacle. They tend to be more expensive in the Garden District because most of them are mansions — some as big as 12,000 square feet and priced as high as $12.5 million. The median home price there is $565,013, according to NeighborhoodScout.com, compared with $200,069 for New Orleans overall in September.

Area homeowners, schools and churches often use Mardi Gras for fund-raisers, selling food and drinks to tourists and charging $5 for "potty passes" to use their bathrooms.

"That is a very important thing when you're at the parades," says Joyce Delery, a New Orleans real-estate agent and native. "People pick where (they're) going to live based on the parade route."

Close to the action: Three blocks from Canal Street, you'll find this two-bedroom, three-bath house for sale for $760,000.

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Louisville, Ky.

Event: Kentucky Derby

It's not just a horse race. For the two weeks leading up to the annual Kentucky Derby in May, an estimated 1.2 million people descend upon Louisville for parades, a huge fireworks show, a road race, hundreds of parties and fancy dinners at white-tablecloth restaurants.

"We call it the two-week party that leads to the two-minute race," says Stacey Yates, spokeswoman for the Louisville Convention & Visitors Bureau.

It's a boon for businesses: Bakeries sell out of traditional derby pies, liquor stores stock up on bourbon for traditional mint juleps and women's clothing stores bring in milliners to make custom hats for $500 a pop. Locals who live near the Churchill Downs racetrack also take advantage of their prime real estate by hawking bottled water and lemonade, offering $50 parking on their lawns and renting out their homes for $2,500 for a weekend.

Close to the action: A five-bedroom, two-bath home listed for $109,900 is just a block from Churchill Downs.   

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Gerlach, Nev.

Event: Burning Man

Each year, the week before Labor Day, private, empty land in Nevada's Black Rock Desert transforms into a temporary, bustling city of 53,000 people. The weeklong artsy festival called Burning Man takes place 10 miles from the tiny town of Gerlach, which has 300 residents.

"It's a tragic community," local real-estate agent Trudy Brussard says of the town, which has lost half of its population and its chief employer in the past 10 years. "I never get anybody saying they want to live in Gerlach."

She says most Burning Man visitors drive to Reno, Nev., to buy their food, ice and water — not to mention costumes and huge amounts of sparkly fabric for tents and flags. Thus, the event is not a huge distraction to Gerlach.

The income that does trickle into the town generally goes to Bruno Selmi, dubbed the "king" of Gerlach. The 88-year-old Italian immigrant owns the town's motel, casino, restaurant, gas station and most of its rental properties. The FBI even sets up camp in his motel.

"If you have thousands of people, and everyone just spends $1," Selmi says, "it helps."

Close to the action: This home, with three bedrooms and two baths — and 320 acres — is close to Gerlach and is listed for $199,500.

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Augusta, Ga.

Event: Masters Golf Tournament

Even Augusta's 74 hotels are not nearly enough to handle the masses that swamp the city each April for the annual Masters, one of four professional golf championships in the nation. That means big bucks for locals, who can rent out their homes out for $5,000 to $30,000 for the week.

Of course, buying a home near the Augusta National Golf Club can cost upwards of $1 million. But if you have one, big corporations rent blocks' worth of homes in the upscale neighborhoods of River Island, Jones Creek and West Lake, just a few miles from the golf club. Companies bring in their own drivers, chefs and maids.

Home rental is so prevalent that the city's chamber of commerce even runs a housing-rental website that lists homes available just for the Masters.

Close to the action: A four-bedroom, four-bath home next to the golf course is listed for $309,999.

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Park City, Utah

Event: Sundance Film Festival

There's a love-hate relationship between the Sundance Film Festival and the 7,371 citizens of the ski town of Park City. Each January, about 45,000 people arrive for the independent film festival, the largest of its kind in the country. They pour $58 million into local restaurants, hotels and transportation companies.

"You have a couple hundred different companies that come here and rent a building for two weeks for an exorbitant amount of money — thousands of dollars a day," Park City Mayor Dana Williams says. A proposed city ordinance would keep those rentals around Main Street and out of residential areas because neighbors complained about all-night parties, Williams says. "It got too crazy," he says.

Despite the thousands descending on the town, traffic isn't a big problem because the town quadruples its free bus routes for the festival. As for the area's ski resorts?

"It's a quiet time," says Julie Olsen, a local real-estate agent. Why? Everyone is in the theater.

Close to the action: A three-bedroom, four-bath home just a block off historic Main Street is listed for $1.64 million.

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Milwaukee 

Event: Summerfest

Entrepreneurship spikes each summer when Milwaukee hosts Summerfest, billed as the world's largest music festival. The event attracts more than 700 live bands over 11 days and more than 1 million music fans in late June and early July. Downtown streets are lined with hundreds of vendors hawking everything from sunglasses and bottles of water to on-the-spot tattoos.

"It's anything you would see at the flea market," says Mike Zimmer, a Milwaukee native who owns Zim's Bar downtown.

For locals who count down the days until the festival, it means an annual reunion with friends who meet in the same place, the same time each year. It also means added congestion near the 75-acre Henry Maier Festival Park.

Parking is a nightmare during the festival, frustrating people who own nearby downtown condos, and most restaurants and bars shut down or cut staff because everyone is at the park.

"By the time they get out of the festival at midnight," Zimmer says, "you don't want them in your bar anyway."

Close to the action: A three-bedroom, four-bath riverside condo in downtown Milwaukee, steps from Summerfest grounds, is available for $1.25 million.

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Indianapolis

Event: Super Bowl XLVI

On Feb. 5, the NFL's Super Bowl will put the spotlight on Indianapolis and draw 150,000 football fans to the city. But the big game could have a larger impact on the city and its homeowners afterward.

The city's host committee is drumming up grants and donations for $100 million in improvements to a low-income neighborhood in Indianapolis' Near Eastside area. Renovations are set for 200 run-down homes, and an effort has started to bring new stores to the neighborhood. Construction also is under way on a 27,000-square-foot community center. All could boost home values in the area and its surroundings.

Residents got a taste of what big sports mean when Indianapolis hosted the women's NCAA basketball championship in 2010 and the men's Final Four earlier this year. Visitors spent $59 million during those two weekend events.

Close to the action: This four-bedroom, three-bath house is near the three-block revitalization area and is for sale at $120,000.

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Sturgis and Spearfish, S.D.

Event: Sturgis Motorcycle Rally

Sure, there is an occasional stabbing or a few motorcycle accidents each August when a half-million bikers invade tiny Sturgis and nearby Spearfish, population 10,000, for the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Emergency-room doctors grumble about the lack of a motorcycle-helmet law, and the police department beefs up its staff for the week. But the rally also attracts plenty of polite bikers — some of whom rent from homeowners in the area.

Spearfish resident Lisa Langer is one of hundreds of people who rent out their homes to visiting riders. She says she gets $4,000 a week for her four-bedroom house.

"They do my linens," she says. "One guy even mowed my lawn." 

Close to the action: A four-bedroom, two-bath home just off Main Street in Spearfish is listed for $169,900.

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Scottsdale, Ariz. 

Event: Major League Baseball spring training

When 15 professional baseball teams head down to metropolitan Phoenix for spring training each February and March, their fans inevitably follow to watch, dumping $348 million into the state’s economy. Eight stadiums have been built in the area in the past 20 years, and they have changed otherwise-quiet communities for homeowners.

An estimated 1.59 million tourists rolled through the area in 2011, according to the Arizona Republic — 22% of whom visited the new Salt River Fields at Talking Stick complex in the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, just outside Scottsdale.

The 12,500-seat baseball park opened in February as the training space for the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks. Community and stadium officials hope to add hotels, a casino and more developer interest on the 52,600-acre reservation — which could mean more amenities and traffic for residents in coming years.

Close to the action: A three-bedroom, two-bath home across the street from Salt River Fields is for sale for $239,900.

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• Video:  Most hospitable cities