Ohio saw the biggest decline in homeownership affordability, new report shows

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% down payment fell nearly 41% across Ohio’s metropolitan areas from 2020 to 2025, according to the second annual Priced Out: When a Good Job Isn’t Enough report.

“This report shows that home ownership is becoming a luxury in Ohio, and that jobs that used to be considered solidly middle class — like being a firefighter or mail carrier — are getting shut out of the American dream,” said Marcus Roth, spokesperson for the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio. 

Mansfield, Cleveland, Springfield, Toledo and Akron ranked among the 25 largest affordability declines in the country, according to the report. 

“Ohio’s numbers show just how quickly the path to homeownership can disappear for working families,” National Housing Conference President and CEO David M. Dworkin said in a statement. 

In Ohio, 67% of occupations could purchase a home with 10% down in 2020, but that dropped down to 26% in 2025, according to the report. 

When it came to renting a two-bedroom apartment, 77% of occupations in Ohio could afford to do so in 2020. That number dropped to 69% in 2025, according to the report. 

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.

In 2025, a typically priced home in Mansfield rose to $188,863, which requires an income of $62,931 — a 121% increase, according to the report. 

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. 

“In Mansfield, more than four out of five occupations could afford a typical home just five years ago,” Dworkin said. 

“Today, 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—it is a workforce and economic problem.”

The average annual salary among occupations that lost the ability to purchase a home with a 10% downpayment between 2020 and 2025 was $70,283. 

“Ohio needs more homes at prices its workforce can afford,” Dworkin said. 

“That 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.”

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

“There’s 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,” Roth said. 

“That increased demand has driven up the cost of rents, so we’re seeing the impact in the rental market too.” 

A full-time Ohio worker needs to be making at least $23.82 an hour to be able to afford a “modest” two-bedroom apartment, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition and COHHIO’s annual Out of Reach report.

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. 

Follow Ohio Capital Journal Reporter Megan Henry on X or on Bluesky.