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Market Update, Ohio
Median price $269,226, Columbus rent $1,500, and mortgage rates at 7.40 percent. Here is what the latest Ohio housing market data means if you own a rental.
The Ohio housing market is doing something most of the country is not: prices are still rising at a healthy clip, and they are rising from a base that ordinary households can actually reach. Redfin put the statewide median sale price at $269,226 in September 2026, up 5.6 percent year over year, while homes for sale climbed 7.1 percent. More supply and faster price growth at the same time is an unusual combination, and it is the single most important fact about the housing market in Ohio right now.
The short version: Ohio home prices are up 5.6 percent year over year, inventory is up 7.1 percent but supply is still only three months, and almost a third of homes sell above asking. What changed this month is the mortgage rate. At 7.40 percent, principal and interest on the median Ohio home is $1,491, up from $1,329 at the rate a year ago. Ohio is cheap enough that the rent versus own answer now splits by metro: renting is still cheaper in Columbus, and owning is dramatically cheaper in Cleveland.
| Metric | Latest reading | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Homes sold | 10,895 (September 2026) | Down 2.7 percent year over year |
| Homes for sale | 44,257 (September 2026) | Up 7.1 percent year over year |
| Months of supply | 3 months (September 2026) | Unchanged year over year, still a seller's market |
| Homes sold above list price | 30.6 percent (September 2026) | Up 1.7 points year over year |
| Sale-to-list price ratio | 98.6 percent (September 2026) | Up 0.2 points year over year |
| Ohio REALTORS median sale price | $279,900 (August 2026) | Up 4.4 percent from $268,000 in August 2025 |
| 30-year fixed mortgage rate | 7.40 percent (Oct 15, 2026) | Up from 7.03 percent on Sept 24 and 6.27 percent a year ago |
Two separate panels track Ohio prices and they do not agree exactly. Redfin's September 2026 statewide median is $269,226, covering all home types. Ohio REALTORS, using RPR and MLS data, reports $279,900 for August 2026. Both are cited separately throughout this page and never averaged together. Ohio REALTORS had not published a September statewide report as of October 20, 2026, so the August report, released September 17, is the most recent association reading. Two corrections worth flagging: the narrative paragraph of that August release states a median of "$268,000, up 4.4 percent from $255,000", which does not reconcile, because $268,000 against $255,000 is a 5.1 percent gain. The data table in the same report shows $279,900 for August 2026 against $268,000 in August 2025, which does reconcile to the 4.4 percent the release headlines. We use the data table. Separately, last month this page carried a Redfin statewide median of $279,992 for July 2026; the September figure below it is a seasonal decline in the monthly series, not a revision, and the year over year change is still positive.
Redfin recorded an Ohio median sale price of $269,226 in September 2026, a 5.6 percent gain on September 2025. That is the fastest annual price growth this page has reported in 2026, and it came in a month when the number of homes sold actually fell 2.7 percent to 10,895. Prices rising while sales slow is a supply story, not a demand story. Ohio REALTORS, working from a different data panel, reported a statewide median of $279,900 for August 2026, up 4.4 percent from $268,000 a year earlier. The two panels disagree on the exact dollar figure and cover different months, but they agree on direction and roughly on pace, which is the more useful signal.
What makes Ohio unusual is that this price growth is happening while inventory expands. Redfin counted 44,257 homes for sale in September 2026, up 7.1 percent year over year, with 13,273 newly listed homes, up 2.1 percent. In most markets a supply increase of that size cools prices. In Ohio it has not, because the starting point was so tight. Even after the increase, months of supply is still three, and Ohio REALTORS labels 3.67 months a seller's market.
Competition confirms it. In September 2026, 30.6 percent of Ohio homes sold above list price, up 1.7 points year over year, and the statewide sale-to-list ratio was 98.6 percent, up 0.2 points. At the same time 19.6 percent of listings took a price cut, up 1.5 points. Read together, those two numbers describe a market that rewards correctly priced homes and punishes ambitious ones, with the median home going to contract in 44 days, one day slower than a year ago.
Redfin, all home types. Statewide is the September 2026 month; the two cities are the three months ending September 2026. Arrow shows change year over year. The cheapest metro is appreciating the fastest.
Rent: Zillow Rental Manager, Columbus updated Oct 17 and Cleveland Oct 15, 2026. Owning: principal and interest on each city's Redfin median sale price for the three months ending September 2026, Columbus $298,858 and Cleveland $149,929, at 20% down, 7.40% for 30 years. Taxes, insurance and maintenance are not included.
There is no fresh statewide Zillow rent figure for Ohio this month. Zillow's statewide Ohio market trends page is currently serving a cache last updated August 27, 2025, so we will not present it as current. The KPI box above has been relabelled to Columbus, our Ohio office metro, where Zillow's figure is current to October 17, 2026. For a statewide reading, RentCafe puts the Ohio average apartment rent at $1,362 as of October 1, 2026, up 2.21 percent from $1,332 a year earlier. That figure measures apartments in buildings of 50 or more units only, so it excludes single family rentals, duplexes and small buildings, which is most of what we manage in Ohio. It is not interchangeable with the Zillow city figures below and the two should never be blended.
What the fresh city data shows is that Ohio rents have stopped moving. Zillow reports no year over year change at all in Columbus, Cincinnati or Cleveland, the state's three biggest rental markets. Flat is not the same as weak. Ohio rents never ran up the way coastal rents did, so there was no correction to absorb, and the state's owner-occupancy rate of 67.2 percent means the rental pool is smaller and steadier than in high-churn markets. The growth that does exist is in the smaller markets: Toledo is up $100 and Youngstown is up $65 over the year.
The statewide picture also hides an enormous spread. Youngstown averages $995 while Columbus and Cincinnati both average $1,500, and those markets behave nothing alike. Northeast Ohio is a cash-flow story where the purchase price is low and the rent-to-price ratio is strong. Central Ohio is a growth story where you pay more going in and rely on appreciation and tenant quality. Pricing an Ohio rental off a statewide average is the fastest way to sit vacant or leave money on the table.
| Market | Average rent | Year over year | What owners should note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Columbus | $1,500 | No change | Tied for the highest rents in the state; new supply has taken the edge off growth |
| Cincinnati | $1,500 | No change | Caught Columbus this month after a $100 move in four weeks |
| Cleveland | $1,200 | No change | Down $49 from the $1,249 we reported in early September; condition and screening drive returns |
| Akron | $1,095 | Up $21 | Tracks Cleveland closely, reliable blue collar demand |
| Toledo | $1,075 | Up $100 | The strongest rent growth on this list in dollar terms |
| Dayton | $1,000 | Up $25 | Low entry prices, rents grinding upward |
| Youngstown | $995 | Up $65 | Lowest rents, highest yields, but only 103 listings, so treat the change as noisy |
Zillow Rental Manager, average asking rent across all bedroom counts and property types. Each city page carries its own last-updated date; these range from October 2 to October 19, 2026. Zillow shows a $2,000 national average on all seven city pages.
Ohio is not one market, it is three big ones plus a long tail. Columbus is the state's growth engine and its most expensive major metro. Northeast Ohio is the value end of the state, and it is currently posting much the fastest price growth. Cincinnati sits between them and is the slowest moving of the three.
Redfin put the Columbus median home price at $298,858 for the three months ending September 2026, up 2.2 percent year over year, with homes going to contract in 46 days, three days slower than a year earlier. Columbus has run above the statewide median for years and still does, by about $30,000. Sales were up 5.8 percent to 2,791, and 32.4 percent of homes sold above list, up 3.9 points, so demand is intact even as the market takes longer to clear.
On the rental side Columbus has stopped growing. Average rent is $1,500 as of October 17, 2026, unchanged year over year, which is what happens when a metro builds enough apartments to matter. Our Ohio office serving this market is in Dublin, just northwest of the city.
Northeast Ohio is the mirror image of Columbus, and this month it is the most interesting part of the state. The Cleveland median sale price was $149,929 for the three months ending September 2026, half the Columbus figure, yet it grew 10.6 percent year over year, by far the strongest of the major metros. Cleveland homes go to contract in 32 days, two weeks faster than Columbus, and average rent is $1,200. Akron is similar at $154,348, up 1.5 percent, with a 28 day median and $1,095 rent. Youngstown, where our Boardman office sits, has the lowest rents in the state at $995 and the highest yields.
That combination of a low purchase price, quick absorption and rent at or above $1,000 is why Northeast Ohio keeps attracting out of state investors, and this month the arithmetic is striking. Principal and interest on the Cleveland median at 20 percent down and 7.40 percent is about $830 a month against $1,200 of rent. Even after property taxes, insurance and maintenance, owning in Cleveland is cheaper than renting, which is the opposite of what the same calculation says in Columbus. It is also why condition and screening matter more here than anywhere else in Ohio: the margin per unit is generous on paper and disappears fast with one bad tenancy or one deferred roof. Our Beachwood office covers the Cleveland side of this market.
Redfin has not yet rolled its Cincinnati page forward to the September window, so the most recent figure there covers the three months ending August 2026: a median sale price of $287,000, up 0.9 percent year over year, with a 49 day median time to contract, the slowest of the major Ohio metros. Because that is a different reference month, Cincinnati is not plotted alongside Columbus and Cleveland in the chart above. Its rent, $1,500 as of October 14, 2026, has caught Columbus after a $100 move in a single month, and is unchanged year over year. Cincinnati is the least dramatic of the three markets, which for a long term owner is usually a compliment.
Ohio is genuinely affordable, and the gap is measurable. Using Redfin's own numbers for the same month, the Ohio median sale price of $269,226 in September 2026 is about 32 percent below the United States median of $393,895. Against the National Association of REALTORS national median existing-home price of $417,500 for September 2026 the gap is wider still, though that series is built differently and should not be mixed with the Redfin figures.
Income is the other half of affordability, and this is where the picture has turned. The Census Bureau puts Ohio median household income at $71,389 and the median value of an owner-occupied home at $214,800 in its 2020 to 2024 American Community Survey. NAR's national Housing Affordability Index was 105.4 in September 2026, down from 106.7 a year earlier, and affordability in the Midwest worsened 3.1 percent year over year. That is a reversal: in July this page reported Midwest affordability improving 4.0 percent. Rates moved enough over the last two months to undo it.
For first-time buyers this is still the most workable large market in the region, but the constraint has moved. The problem in Ohio is not the price of the house, it is the down payment and the monthly cost of the loan at 7.40 percent. That is exactly why so many households that could afford an Ohio mortgage on paper are still renting, and why owner demand for well kept single family rentals has stayed firm through a year of flat rents.
Freddie Mac reported the 30-year fixed mortgage rate at 7.40 percent on October 15, 2026, unchanged from the week before but up sharply from 7.03 percent on September 24 and from 6.27 percent a year earlier. A 113 basis point rise in twelve months is the largest single change on this page, and in the cheapest state we operate in it does more work than anywhere else.
Here is the arithmetic. Principal and interest on the median Ohio home at 20 percent down and 7.40 percent works out to about $1,491 a month. At the 6.27 percent rate of a year ago, the same house cost $1,329, so the rate move alone added $162 a month to the cost of buying the median Ohio home. Last month, at 7.28 percent, it was $1,474.
What that does to the rent versus own question depends entirely on which part of Ohio you are in, and this is the one state where the answer genuinely splits. In Columbus, average rent is $1,500 and principal and interest on the local median is $1,655, so owning costs $155 a month more before a dollar of taxes, insurance or maintenance. Renting wins, and it wins by more than it did at 7.28 percent. In Cleveland the same calculation runs the other way: $1,200 of rent against $830 of principal and interest, a $370 monthly advantage to owning that is wide enough to survive Cuyahoga County property taxes. Statewide, using the Redfin median, principal and interest of $1,491 sits above the $1,362 RentCafe apartment average, though those two figures measure different housing stock and the comparison is indicative only.
For an owner the practical reading is this. In Columbus the rate rise is working in your favour, because it is pushing the buy option further out of reach for your tenants and strengthening rental demand. In Northeast Ohio it is not, because buying is already cheaper than renting there and a motivated tenant with a down payment can do the sums. That is a real retention risk in Cleveland, Akron and Youngstown, not a hypothetical.
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Get Your Free Rental Analysis →Ohio home prices are still rising. Redfin reported a statewide median sale price of $269,226 in September 2026, up 5.6 percent year over year, with 10,895 homes sold and a median of 44 days on market. Inventory rose 7.1 percent to 44,257 homes for sale, yet supply is still only about three months and 30.6 percent of homes sold above list price. It is a seller's market that has loosened slightly, not one that has turned.
Two panels track it. Redfin put the Ohio median sale price at $269,226 in September 2026, up 5.6 percent year over year, covering all home types. Ohio REALTORS reported $279,900 for August 2026, up 4.4 percent from $268,000 in August 2025, and had not published a September report as of October 20, 2026. Both are cited separately here because they use different data panels and different months, and they should not be averaged together.
There is no current statewide Zillow figure, because Zillow's Ohio market trends page is serving a cache last updated August 27, 2025, so we do not quote it. RentCafe puts the Ohio average apartment rent at $1,362 as of October 1, 2026, up 2.21 percent year over year, measuring apartments in buildings of 50 or more units only. For all property types, Zillow's fresh city readings in October 2026 run from $995 in Youngstown to $1,500 in Columbus and Cincinnati, with Cleveland at $1,200.
It depends which metro you are in, and Ohio is the one state where the answer genuinely splits. At the Freddie Mac rate of 7.40 percent on October 15, 2026, with 20 percent down over 30 years, principal and interest on the Columbus median of $298,858 is about $1,655 a month against $1,500 of average rent, so owning costs $155 more. On the Cleveland median of $149,929 it is about $830 against $1,200 of rent, so owning costs $370 less. Those figures exclude property taxes, insurance and maintenance.
No institution we consider reliable publishes an Ohio specific price forecast, so we will not invent one. What Ohio's own current data shows is 5.6 percent annual price growth in September 2026, about three months of supply, and rents that Zillow reports as unchanged year over year in the three largest metros. That is a slow growth picture on the sales side and a flat one on the rental side, rather than a boom or a correction.
Freddie Mac reported the 30-year fixed rate at 7.40 percent on October 15, 2026, unchanged from the prior week, up from 7.03 percent on September 24 and 6.27 percent a year earlier. Those are national averages rather than Ohio specific quotes. The Ohio specific part is the effect: principal and interest on the median Ohio home at 20 percent down works out to about $1,491 a month, against $1,329 at last year's rate, so the rate move alone added $162 a month to the cost of buying the median Ohio home.
Sources: Redfin Ohio housing market data, September 2026; Redfin Columbus housing market data, three months ending September 2026; Redfin Cleveland housing market data, three months ending September 2026; Redfin Akron housing market data, three months ending August 2026; Redfin Cincinnati housing market data, three months ending August 2026; Redfin United States housing market data, September 2026; Ohio REALTORS, August 2026 housing report, released September 17, 2026; Zillow Rental Manager, Ohio city rental market trends, October 2026; RentCafe, Ohio average apartment rent, October 1, 2026; National Association of REALTORS, Existing-Home Sales and Housing Affordability Index, September 2026; United States Census Bureau QuickFacts, Ohio, American Community Survey 2020 to 2024; Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, October 15, 2026. Figures are the most recent published readings at the time of writing and are provided for general information, not investment advice.
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