FY 2026 Housing Needs Assessment Sections:

Jump to: Executive Summary | Table of Contents | Homeownership | Rental Housing | Home Energy & Utilities | Housing Instability & Homelessness | Housing Stock | Health | Income & Labor | Demographics | How Ohio Compares

Rental Housing

This section focuses on how Ohio's renters are able to balance housing costs compared to income. When renters spend 30% or more of their incomes on housing, they risk being unable to afford other necessities, such as food and healthcare. When they spend 50% or more of their incomes on rent and other housing costs, they find themselves at risk of eviction and homelessness. Rent burden places householders in a precarious position, in which any unexpected cost, such as a car repair, can make their housing situation unstable.

Section Highlights

  • Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, rents in Ohio have been rapidly increasing. Adjusted for inflation, the median rental price for a two-bedroom apartment in Ohio increased by 22% from December 2019 ($963 per month in 2024 dollars) to December 2024 ($1,174 per month). At the end of 2024, rent was higher than any month on record.
  • Rent increases are also outpacing income growth for most Ohioans regardless of where they fall in the income distribution. From 2006 to 2023, median gross rent increased 1.2 times faster than incomes for the wealthiest 20% of Ohio households and 1.6 times faster than incomes for the bottom 20%. As such, Ohio renters are spending more relative to income. The median share of income spent on rent (29%) has been steadily increasing since before the pandemic after a decade of decline.
  • There has been a net loss of affordable rental housing for very low-income (VLI) Ohioans. There are more than 706,000 renters in Ohio with incomes at or below 50% of area median income (AMI), but only about 503,000 rental homes are affordable and available to them — leaving a shortage of over 202,000 units.
  • The number of Ohio renters experiencing severe housing cost burden is on the rise. In 2023, over 397,000 Ohio renters (26%) spent at least half their incomes on housing — up from a record low of 23% in 2019 — putting them at risk of eviction and homelessness.

Jump to: Rent | Rental Affordability | Severe Rent Burden | Downloadable Tables | Notes

Please be advised that the following maps and data visualizations are provided for informational purposes only. Load times will vary depending on your internet connection speed. To download the data for a specific map or data visualization, first click in the white space of the graphic, click the "Download" button below and then click "Data" in the menu that pops up. You may also access most of the data through the downloadable tables in Excel posted lower down on the page.

Rent


Median Monthly Rent, Two-Bedroom Apartment

Source: RentalTrends, Cotality

Median Monthly Rent by Number of Bedrooms

Source: RentalTrends, Cotality


Median Monthly Rent, Two-Bedroom Apartment

Source: RentalTrends, Cotality

Change in Median Rent, 2-Bedroom, 2019 to 2024

Source: RentalTrends, Cotality


Rental Affordability


Change in Median Rent & Selected Income Levels

Source: American Community Survey (ACS) One-Year Estimates, Tables B19080 & B25064

Rent Share of Income for the U.S. & Ohio

Source: American Community Survey (ACS) One-Year Estimates, Table B25071

Shortage of Affordable & Available Units by Income

Source: The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Homes, March 2025, National Low Income Housing Coalition (based on the American Community Survey Public Use Microdata Sample)

Affordable & Available Ratio, U.S & Ohio, by Income

Source: The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Homes, March 2025, National Low Income Housing Coalition (based on the American Community Survey Public Use Microdata Sample)


Rent Share of Income

Source: RentalTrends, Cotality; Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE), U.S. Census Bureau

Affordable & Available Ratio by Income & Region

Source: National Low Income Housing Coalition (public data request) (based on the American Community Survey Public Use Microdata Sample)


Severe Rent Burden


Severe Rent Burden in the U.S. & Ohio

Source: American Community Survey (ACS) One-Year Estimates, Tables B25070 & B25106

Severe Rent Burden by Age

Source: IPUMS USA, University of Minnesota (based on the American Community Survey Public Use Microdata Sample)

Severe Rent Burden by Race/Ethnicity

Source: IPUMS USA, University of Minnesota (based on the American Community Survey Public Use Microdata Sample)


Severe Rent Burden

Source: American Community Survey (ACS) Five-Year Estimates, ACS One-Year Estimates, Tables B25070 & B25106

Severe Rent Burden Gap, Black & White, by Region

Source: IPUMS USA, University of Minnesota (based on the American Community Survey Public Use Microdata Sample)

Downloadable Tables

  • Rental Housing Tables – Coming Soon

Notes

Gross rent includes average monthly cost of utilities (i.e., electricity, natural gas, water, sewer, and heating fuels).

Extremely low-income (ELI) is defined as those with incomes at or below the federal poverty level or 30% of area median income, whichever is greater. Very low-income (VLI) is defined as those with incomes at or below 50% of area median income, including ELI households. Affordability is based on the common standard that households should not spend more than 30% of their income on housing. Rental units are both "affordable and available" to renters in a specific income group if the gross rent meets the 30% affordability threshold and they are either available for rent or occupied by households with incomes at or below the defined income level. Regional estimates are calculated using a geographic correspondence file from the Missouri Census Data Center at the University of Missouri to "crosswalk" the data from Public Use Microdata Areas (PUMAs) to counties.

Severe rent burden is defined as a renter household spending at least 50 percent of household income on gross rent or having no income.

For time series based on American Community Survey (ACS) or the ACS Public Use Microdata Sample, a gap is shown for the year 2020. Due to the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic in the data collection process, the level of nonresponse bias did not meet the Census Bureau's quality standards for a reliable release of standard one-year estimates for 2020. While experimental one-year estimates were released for that year using weighting methods to address the nonresponse bias, the Census Bureau has advised against comparing these to one-year estimates from other years.

Inflationary adjustments are based on the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, for "all items less shelter."

Ohio Regions are defined at the county level by TourismOhio, part of the Ohio Department of Development. Regional estimates of IPUMS USA data are calculated using a geographic correspondence file from the Missouri Census Data Center at the University of Missouri to "crosswalk" the data from Public Use Microdata Areas (PUMAs) to counties.

Data Sources