Best Places to Buy Rental Property in Ohio (2026)

Ohio has the lowest entry prices of any high volume housing market in the country, and the gap between its cheapest cities and its statewide median of $262,500 is enormous. The 15 cities below all closed at least 100 sales in the last six months, which means they are liquid enough to actually transact in, and all of them close under $167,000. Read this first. This ranking is built on two things only: entry price and transaction volume. We do not publish rent estimates, rent-to-price ratios, cap rates, or cash-on-cash returns for these cities, and you should be skeptical of any article that does at the city level. Rent varies more by street, condition, and unit type than it does by city, and the only rent number worth underwriting is the one you verify for the specific address. Model that yourself with the rental property calculator and the deal analyzer. What follows tells you where capital gets you in the door and where you can reasonably expect to sell later.

Ohio's most affordable markets with real transaction volume

1. East Liverpool, $83,675 median, 105 closings

The cheapest tracked market in Ohio, and by a wide margin: the median closing here is 68% below the statewide $262,500. At this price point a purchase is realistically an all cash or private money transaction, since most conventional lenders have loan minimums that a sub-$100,000 house struggles to clear. The 105 closings over six months work out to roughly 17 a month, which is thin. Your exit is a small buyer pool, and rehab costs do not scale down with the purchase price, so a $30,000 renovation is a third of the asset value.

2. Portsmouth, $118,000 median, 102 closings

Portsmouth prices just above East Liverpool at $118,000 with a nearly identical closing count, about 17 a month. Same structural profile: low entry, low liquidity, financing friction. The tenant pool at this price point is workforce housing, not professional, and the practical risk is not the purchase price but turnover cost and the condition of aging stock. Verify both per property.

3. Maple Heights, $130,000 median, 152 closings

The first of the Cleveland inner-ring suburbs on this list, and the profile changes. Maple Heights closes 152 homes in six months, about 25 a month, and it sits directly against Cleveland, which closed 2,150 in the same period. That adjacency means comparable sales are plentiful and your exit is not a single small buyer pool but part of a much larger regional market. Entry cost is half the state median.

4. Toledo, $135,000 median, 1,511 closings

The standout combination on this list: a $135,000 median with 1,511 closings, roughly 252 a month. That is one of the highest transaction counts in Ohio at one of the lowest price points in the country. Deep volume means real comps, faster resale, and a market where mispriced listings are easier to identify because there is so much recent evidence to price against. Toledo's housing stock is old, so condition dispersion at this median is very wide.

5. Garfield Heights, $137,000 median, 191 closings

Another Cleveland inner-ring market, $137,000 median across 191 closings, about 32 a month. Entry cost sits just under half the state median. As with Maple Heights, the liquidity argument is regional rather than local: you are buying into the Cleveland trade area, which does the volume.

6. Marion, $148,000 median, 303 closings

Marion is a freestanding city, not a suburb, closing 303 homes in six months at $148,000, roughly 50 a month. Solid volume for a market its size. Standalone cities carry more concentration risk than suburbs because local employment drives both the tenant pool and the resale pool, so verify the specific employment base before you scale a position here.

7. Steubenville, $150,000 median, 132 closings

$150,000 median on 132 closings, about 22 a month. Thin but functioning. Same eastern Ohio river valley profile as East Liverpool and Portsmouth, priced a bit higher.

8. Euclid, $154,000 median, 284 closings

Euclid closes 284 homes in six months, about 47 a month, at $154,000. It is one of the better liquidity-to-price tradeoffs among the Cleveland suburbs on this list: meaningfully more volume than Maple Heights or Garfield Heights, at a modest premium.

9. Youngstown, $154,500 median, 693 closings

Youngstown pairs a $154,500 median with 693 closings, roughly 115 a month. That is genuine depth, second only to Toledo, Akron, and Cleveland among affordable Ohio markets. Deep transaction volume at a low entry price is the profile most investors are actually looking for when they search for cheap markets, since it means you can both buy and sell without waiting for the one buyer who wants your house.

10. Cleveland, $159,900 median, 2,150 closings

The highest volume affordable market in the state: 2,150 closings, about 358 a month, at a $159,900 median that runs 39% below the statewide figure. Cleveland has the deepest comp set of any low-price Ohio market, which makes valuation and exit both easier. It is also a market where neighborhood boundaries move value dramatically, so a citywide median is close to useless for a specific address.

11. Lorain, $160,000 median, 312 closings

$160,000 across 312 closings, about 52 a month. A lakefront city west of Cleveland with respectable volume for its size and pricing essentially at the Cleveland median.

12. Van Wert, $160,000 median, 126 closings

Same $160,000 median as Lorain, but on 126 closings, about 21 a month, in a much smaller western Ohio market. The price is identical and the liquidity is roughly a quarter of Lorain's. When two markets price the same, volume is the tiebreaker.

13. Ashtabula, $164,000 median, 169 closings

$164,000 on 169 closings, about 28 a month. Northeast lakeshore market, moderate depth, entry cost still well below the state median.

14. Akron, $165,000 median, 1,411 closings

Akron is the second deepest market on this list at 1,411 closings, roughly 235 a month, with a $165,000 median. Like Toledo and Cleveland, it offers metro-scale liquidity at a price point most metros cannot match. It is also one of the state's 12 highest volume cities overall.

15. Warren, $166,450 median, 401 closings

The top of this affordable tier at $166,450, with 401 closings, about 67 a month. Northeast Ohio, adjacent to the Youngstown trade area, and reasonable depth for its size.

How to actually underwrite one of these

Entry price and closing volume narrow the field. They do not tell you whether a specific house is a deal. Pull a valuation with visible, adjustable comps so you can see exactly which sales are driving the number, and remove the ones that do not belong. Condition is estimated from listing photos, which matters enormously in these markets, because at a $135,000 median the difference between a renovated house and a gut job is a large fraction of the purchase price. Our estimates are frozen at listing and then graded against the actual closing price, and that scoring is published on our accuracy dashboard. Then run your own numbers. Use the ARV calculator for renovation exits, and check the local data on our market pages rather than relying on a state or city median. Everything is on the free tools page, and the calculators need no signup. Live valuations cover 31 states, Ohio included.