{"id":211335,"date":"2026-10-18T20:55:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T01:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=211335"},"modified":"2026-10-18T20:57:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T01:57:20","slug":"report-home-ownership-affordability-drops-in-ohio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2026\/10\/18\/report-home-ownership-affordability-drops-in-ohio\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: home ownership affordability drops in Ohio"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Megan Henry\/<\/strong>Ohio Capital Journal<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ohio had the steepest decline in homeownership affordability between 2020 to 2025, according to new reporting from the National Housing Conference. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The number of occupations able to afford a typically priced home with a 10 percent down payment fell nearly 41 percent across Ohio\u2019s metropolitan areas from 2020 to 2025, according to the second annual “Priced Out: When a Good Job Isn\u2019t Enough” report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe report shows that home ownership is becoming a luxury in Ohio, and that jobs that used to be considered solidly middle class, like a firefighter or mail carrier, are getting shut out of the American dream,\u201d said Marcus Roth, spokesperson for the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mansfield, Cleveland, Springfield, Toledo and Akron ranked among the 25 largest affordability declines in the country, according to the report. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOhio\u2019s numbers show just how quickly the path to homeownership can disappear for working families,\u201d National Housing Conference President\/CEO David M. Dworkin said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

In Ohio, 67 percent of occupations could purchase a home with 10 percent down in 2020, but that dropped down to just 26 percent in 2025, according to the report. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it came to renting a two-bedroom apartment, 77 percent of occupations in Ohio could afford to do so in 2020. That number dropped to 69 percent in 2025, according to the report. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mansfield experienced the biggest loss in homeownership affordability in Ohio. A typically priced home was $115,041 and the annual income needed to qualify for that home was $28,483 in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2025, a typically priced home in Mansfield rose to $188,863, which requires an income of $62,931 \u2014 a 121 percent increase, according to the report. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elementary and special education teachers, emergency medical technicians and paramedics, firefighters, and postal service mail carriers could afford a typical Mansfield home in 2020. But by 2025, firefighters, postal service mail carriers, executive secretaries, and loan officers could no longer afford a typically priced Mansfield home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn Mansfield, more than four out of five occupations could afford a typical home just five years ago,\u201d Dworkin said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToday, fewer than one in three can. When teachers, firefighters, EMTs, postal workers and other essential workers are increasingly priced out of the communities they serve, it is not just a housing problem\u2014it is a workforce and economic problem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The average annual salary among occupations that lost the ability to purchase a home with a 10 percent downpayment between 2020 and 2025 was $70,283. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOhio needs more homes at prices its workforce can afford,\u201d Dworkin said. \u201cThat means building and preserving housing near jobs, reducing unnecessary costs and delays, and aligning federal, state and local policies around increasing supply. A good job should still provide a realistic path to a stable, affordable home.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People remain renters longer when they are unable to afford to buy a home, so that means more demand for rental housing, Roth said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a huge (rental housing) shortage, so with so many more people that used to be in that category of homeowners or future homeowners now are solidly renters,\u201d Roth said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat increased demand has driven up the cost of rents, so we\u2019re seeing the impact in the rental market too.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A full-time Ohio worker needs to be making at least $23.82 an hour to be able to afford a \u201cmodest\u201d two-bedroom apartment, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition and COHHIO\u2019s annual Out of Reach report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ohio also has a shortage of 266,000 affordable and available rental units, according to to the 2026 Gap Report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition and COHHIO. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Megan Henry\/Ohio Capital Journal Ohio had the steepest decline in homeownership affordability between 2020 to 2025, according to new reporting from the National Housing Conference.  The number of occupations able to afford a typically priced home with a 10 percent down payment fell nearly 41 percent across Ohio\u2019s metropolitan areas from 2020 to 2025, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-211335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-topstory"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-10-26 00:13:40","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211335"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211342,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211335\/revisions\/211342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}