Rental homes at U.S. Open could go for up to $60,000

Merion Golf Club is the site of this year's U.S. Open. (GettyImages)

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The U.S. Open is still five months away, but homeowners in Merion, Pa., are already bracing for its reverberations.

Jessica Parks of the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote an interesting article Monday about how much Merion residents are trying to rent their houses for:

Lured by rumors of $20,000 to $60,000 potential windfalls, hundreds of homeowners near the Merion Golf Club are listing their homes for rent during the U.S. Open.

Is that realistic, though? It might be, according to the laws of supply and demand implied by one Merion resident in the article:

I have no idea where all these people are going to stay.

According to the article the closest hotels are 5-10 miles away from the course. This isn't a big problem except that in a tiny town like Merion (6,000 people) traffic is going to be a nightmare.

So visitors, players, and officials alike might choose private dwelling in lieu of the hotels. Good news for residents, right?

Maybe, one local noted:

I have mixed emotions because on the one hand, it is such an inconvenience and it is risky renting it out to people you don't know. On the other hand, boy, it would be nice to pay for my daughter's college tuition.

Yes, it would.

One Realtor noted that the big money might come from corporations and not players:

Players max out at around $10,000 for the week. They do this every week. This isn't a vacation for them.

You should check out the full article on Philly.com. There are a few more goodies in there.

I'm also interested to see where this goes. A game of cat-and-mouse between small-town Pennsylvanians and big-time corporations and PGA professionals should make for some great stories.

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