Ohio Rental Property Neighborhoods, Graded: Six Real Reports, Six Cities

How are these grades built, and what does "data-limited" mean?

Every neighborhood gets the same eleven segments, each weighted, each graded on a level from 1 to 5 and a trend of up, flat or down. Level plus trend, times the weight, summed, divided by the 552 points available, is the score. Below 50 is Phase 1, cheap and not improving. 50 to 69 is Phase 2, affordable and improving, which is where I buy. 70 and over is Phase 3, established and priced to match. The weights, the rules and three worked Kansas City reports are in the method article linked above, so I won't repeat them here. The reason I grade at tract and quarter-mile level rather than ZIP is two houses on one Kansas City street that scored 17 points apart.

Two rules matter more in Ohio than they did in Kansas City. The data-limited crime rule. Kansas City publishes every incident with a location, so I can count what happened within a quarter mile of the house. That's how the Kansas City neighborhood rankings are built. Columbus, Dayton and Akron don't. For those I grade crime on the city's own FBI counts, violent plus property, 2022 against this year's pace, and I say in print that the grade is city-wide. It's a weaker grade and I treat it that way: each of those blocks shows what the score becomes if the street turns out worse than the city. The hotspot rule. Eviction Lab publishes the hundred buildings with the most filings in each city. When one building accounts for a quarter or more of a tract's filings, I grade the tract without it. A 300-unit complex's filings tell you nothing about the single-family street across the road. Columbus is the case on this page. The rule came out of the eviction hotspot work I did on 43 cities.

Full report means the complete run: geocode and tract, crime, the Census tables, rents, evictions, sales, jobs, schools, vouchers, tenancy length, the red-flag check, a scorecard with sensitivities, and a list of questions for a local property manager. All six blocks on this page are full reports. Where a figure couldn't be measured, the block says which ruling is open and what it would do to the score. When a ruling lands, the block is regraded and the changelog says so.

Ohio at a glance: six neighborhoods on one table

The scores are rounded on this table and given to one decimal in each block. Phase 2 starts at 276 of 552 points, which is 50.0.

Is Old Brooklyn, Cleveland, a good neighborhood for a rental?

Score: 61.8 of 100, Phase 2. Full report, November 4, 2026. Crime graded on the quarter mile. The strongest tract on this page, and the one I'd buy in. Crime within a quarter mile is down 29% this year against a city that's flat. Evictions run at about a quarter of Cleveland's rate and at half the tract's own 2023 to 24 level. Vacancy fell from 11% to 4%, a quarter of the city's. Half the homes are owner-occupied, against four in ten citywide, and renters stay: only 1.5% of renter households moved in since 2021. Old Brooklyn sells at about 1.3 times the city median in under two weeks. Against it, the tract's income figure fell in real terms on a very wide margin, rent burden doubled, and a run of violent incidents on one street west in 2026 sits against a falling overall count.

Tract 1062 is in Old Brooklyn on Cleveland's southwest side, about 4.5 miles from downtown, with the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo a mile east. An October run of this tract scored 61.4; this is a fresh run on November data.

Key figures

Scorecard: 341 of 552 = 61.8

Sensitivity: crime trend flat at the next rerun, 59.1; crime Level 2 if the 2026 pace rises above 208, 59.1; demographics flat if the income fall is noise, 63.6; employment Level 3 on the size of the job base, 63.2; schools Level 2 on the district-wide rating, 60.3. Phase 2 holds under every change tested. No red flag is triggered. Cleveland's lead-safe certificate and rental registration apply to any pre-1978 rental.

What drives the grade

This is the only block on the page where crime is counted the way I count it in Kansas City: every incident the police published within 402 meters of the house, by distinct case number. Reports fell from 203 to 144 in the first ten months of 2026 against the same months a year earlier, a 29% fall, while Cleveland's located cases fell 1%. The city changed its records system in November 2025, and its citywide count barely moved across the change, so the local fall is real. On the 2022 base the level is flat at Level 3, because 189 reports then against a pace of 172 now is inside my 10% band. The violent incidents cluster on the Memphis Avenue and Fulton Road commercial corridors, and in 2026 on the 4400 block of W 53rd Street, one street west of the house I graded. That street is a question for the property manager, not a reason to downgrade a tract.

Evictions, vacancy and ownership are what a Phase 2 tract looks like. Twelve eviction filings in a year across 828 renter households is 1.4%, a quarter of Cleveland's rate, in a city where filings rose 18.7% in the year to June 2026 and 26% in the first half of this year. The tract is at half its own 2023 to 24 level. Vacancy fell from 11% to 4%, a significant drop of 140 homes, against a city at 16%. Half the homes are owner-occupied against four in ten citywide. And renters stay put: two-thirds of renter households have been in place since before 2018, and almost none moved in since 2021.

The income figure is the weak call. The tract's median fell from $46,493 to $42,492, which is a 25% fall after inflation, and the fall is just larger than the combined margin, so the rule says down. The 2024 estimate carries a margin of 27%, though, and poverty and unemployment both sit below the city's. If the fall is noise the score is 63.6. Rent burden did double, from 29% to 59% of renters paying over 30% of income, because rents rose 31% in real terms while incomes didn't. That's a tenant pool being stretched, and it's the figure I'd watch here.

Prices run ahead of the city. Old Brooklyn's median sale was $186,300 in Redfin's last full month, 1.3 times Cleveland's, in 12 days at about 1% over list, and the tract's median value rose from $74,000 to $112,200 on a significant margin. The job base within five miles is flat in count, but finance jobs doubled and 63% of jobs now pay over $3,333 a month. The Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals sit just outside the five-mile buffer; MetroHealth is inside it.

Before buying here

1. A Cleveland Lead Safe Certificate in hand, or a priced path to one, on any pre-1978 house, and the rental registration confirmed. The city won't grant an eviction without the Certificate Approving Rental Occupancy.
2. A property manager's view of the 4400 block of W 53rd Street and the Memphis and Fulton corridors.
3. The renovation on any recent flip: permits, electrical, roof, basement water. The house I graded sold for $47,800 in 2024 and went through four list prices in 20 months.
4. A full-replacement insurance quote on a 1910s frame house.
5. The rent ledger. At $1,500 the house I graded sits between the Rent Zestimate and the larger comps, which is a full rent for 924 square feet with one bath and no central air.

The Old Brooklyn house is the Cleveland row of the seven-house table in the Ohio hub. Cleveland is the one Ohio market I work in. The Cleveland guide covers the west and east sides, the old systems and the city rules. Daniel, a client who bought here and in Kansas City, shows what owning from abroad looks like.

Cleveland sources:

• Census geocoder.
• Cleveland Division of Police incident data, both records systems, queried with a 402 m buffer to Nov 4, 2026.
• ACS 2015 to 2019 and 2020 to 2024, 2020 Census DHC.
• LEHD LODES 8.
• HUD Picture of Subsidized Households 2021 and 2025.
• Eviction Lab, Cleveland tract and monthly files, Jul 2025 to Jun 2026.
• Redfin 44144, Old Brooklyn and Cleveland.
• HUD Small Area FMRs.
• GreatSchools via Zillow.
• FEMA.

Is Mid East, Columbus, a good neighborhood for a rental?

Score: 59.8 of 100, Phase 2. Full report, November 4, 2026. Crime graded on city-wide data. A good neighborhood on the numbers I can see. Real incomes are up by half, and the rise is statistically significant. Poverty is down from 26% to 20%. Owners are above the city average, and there are 75,000 more jobs within ten miles than a decade ago. The grade would survive every single change I tested. The house I ran it for doesn't work at its asking price, which is a different question and lives in the hub.

Tract 93.11 is in the city's Mid East community, 7.2 miles east of downtown, so the jobs buffer is ten miles. The listing called the area Willis Park; the city's layers don't use that name.

Key figures

Scorecard: 330 of 552 = 59.8

Sensitivity: crime at Level 3 instead of the city trajectory, 54.3; evictions on the raw rate with the red flag, 57.1; both together, 51.6; evictions Level 5, 60.7. Phase 2 holds under every change tested.

What drives the grade

Income is the story. The tract's median household income went from $32,250 to $60,862 in five years. That's a 54% rise after inflation, with a margin of about $13,700, so the rise is real and not sampling noise. It's now 92% of the city's. Poverty fell by a quarter and rent burden fell from 71% of renters paying over 30% of income to 48%. That's the Phase 2 pattern. The people who live there are doing better, and the housing stock hasn't caught up with them yet. It's why the tract's homes are still valued at about half the city median.

The crime grade carries 75 of the 330 points and rests on city-wide data. Columbus's FBI counts are down a third since 2022, which is Level 5 on my rule. But the east side runs from stable 1950s owner streets to troubled apartment pockets, and the FBI file can't tell you which this is. If the quarter mile looks worse than the city on the police department's public map, the grade is Level 3 and the score is 54.3, still Phase 2.

Evictions are the trap for anyone reading the tract file cold. The raw rate is 2.2 times the county, which would be a red flag. Eighty-three percent of the filings come from one apartment complex about 0.4 miles from the house, the fourth most-filing building in Columbus. Take it out and the streets around the house file at about half the county rate. I grade on the adjusted rate and say so. The corridor has several high-filing complexes, and the single-family streets are a different market from them. That's the hotspot rule doing its job.

Renters stay: 70% of renter households have been in place since before 2018. Vouchers are thin here, 5.6% of renters, but the voucher rents rose 10% a year from 2021 to 2025 and the average voucher tenancy is 15 years. That's the kind of tenant pool I mean when I say Section 8 is neither guaranteed nor passive, but it can be long. Schools are weak, as they are in every urban Ohio district I've graded.

Before buying here

1. The quarter-mile crime view on the Columbus police public map. It decides whether crime is Level 5 or Level 3.
2. The unit count at the hotspot complex, and whether it's visible from the street you're buying on.
3. The assigned schools, confirmed with Columbus City Schools.
4. The Franklin County Auditor's current value and any pending update, because a reset to the purchase price moves the tax bill well past my 15% allowance.
5. A quote on any 1950s house's systems; the one I priced had dead central air.

Sources for this block:

• Census geocoder.
• City of Columbus GIS neighborhood layers.
• FBI Crime Data Explorer, Columbus PD.
• ACS 2015 to 2019 and 2020 to 2024, 2020 Census DHC.
• LEHD LODES 8.
• HUD Picture of Subsidized Households 2021 and 2025.
• Eviction Lab Columbus tract file and hotspots, Oct 2025 to Sep 2026.
• Redfin 43227.
• HUD Small Area FMRs.
• FEMA.

Is Norwood, Cincinnati, a good neighborhood for a rental?

Score: 55.1 of 100, Phase 2. Full report, November 4, 2026. Crime graded on city-wide data, under a ruling on one month. The best location on this page on four of the eleven segments. The sales market is up 12.7% in a year. The schools are the strongest of any Ohio report. Evictions run at 0.6 times the county and are falling faster than the county. And a $250 million mixed-use district is under way nearby. Poverty halved from 30% to 17%, and that fall is significant. The grade rests on one ruling: Norwood's police counts show 130 property offenses in May 2026 against 21 to 64 in every other month of 2025 and 2026, and I've treated that month as a batch of older reports. Graded as filed, the tract is 49.6 and Phase 1. Norwood PD's confirmation is a condition of buying here.

Tract 255 is in the City of Norwood, an independent city inside Cincinnati with its own police, schools and municipal income tax, 4.7 miles northeast of downtown Cincinnati.

Key figures

Scorecard: 304 of 552 = 55.1

Sensitivity: crime as filed, Level 2 flat, 49.6 and Phase 1; crime Level 3 flat with no trend credit, 52.4; housing flat instead of worsening, 56.5; demographics improving (the poverty fall is significant), 56.9; investment Level 3, 54.0. Phase 2 holds under every change except grading May 2026 as filed.

What drives the grade

Norwood has the best fundamentals on this page outside Cleveland. The sales market is the strongest of the six. The ZIP's median sale price is up 12.7% in a year, and homes sell in 42 days at 99.5% of list. The tract's own median value doubled from $105,800 to $219,400 between the two Census windows, which is a significant rise. Poverty halved, and that's significant too. The eviction rate is 0.6 times the county and fell faster than the county did. That matters in a state where the eviction process runs five to eight weeks on paper and longer in practice. Norwood runs its own schools and they rate 5 to 6 out of 10, which no Cleveland, Toledo, Dayton or Columbus assignment on this page gets near. And Factory 52, a $250 million district with 300 apartments, a food hall and retail, is being built a short distance away.

The crime grade is a ruling, and I want to be plain about it. Norwood publishes no incident data, so the grade uses the FBI counts for Norwood's own police department. As filed, they put 2026 on pace for 10.7% more offenses than 2022, which is Level 2 and a Phase 1 score of 49.6. But May 2026 shows 130 property offenses when every other month of 2025 and 2026 shows 21 to 64. That pattern usually means a batch of older reports was entered in one month, and on November 4 I ruled it one. With May set to the previous May's 51, the pace is 9.6% below 2022, Level 3, and this year's fall of 17% beats Cincinnati's flat count, so the trend is up. That's 30 points and the phase. Confirming it with Norwood PD is the first condition on any purchase here, and if they say the May count is real, this block goes back to 49.6.

Two things cut the other way. Vacancy rose from 12% to 20%, and the rise is just significant. The tract added about 176 units in the period, though, and some of the empty homes may be new apartments still leasing up. And only 40% of homes are owner-occupied, against 45% in Norwood as a whole, with half the stock in buildings of three units or more. Real income is up 21% but inside a wide margin, so it stays flat.

Before buying here

1. Norwood PD: was May 2026 a batch of older reports? The grade rests on it; as filed the tract is 49.6 and Phase 1.
2. The Hamilton County Auditor's 2026 update value and projected bill; the house I priced faces a tax reset of about $1,600 a year.
3. Norwood's municipal income tax on net rental profit, and whether Norwood has a rental registration.
4. A contractor walk-through on any pre-1940 building: roof, both furnaces, water heaters, panel, and lead-paint compliance. Maintenance, repairs and capital are three different costs, and a 1913 duplex carries all three.
5. Whether the vacancy rise is lease-up or something else; a drive down the block answers it.

Where the Norwood figures come from:

• Census geocoder.
• FBI Crime Data Explorer, Norwood PD and Cincinnati PD.
• ACS 2015 to 2019 and 2020 to 2024, 2020 Census DHC.
• LEHD LODES 8.
• HUD Picture of Subsidized Households.
• Eviction Lab Cincinnati tract file and hotspots.
• Zillow and Redfin 45212.
• HUD Small Area FMRs.
• Local 12 on Factory 52.
• FEMA.

Is South Akron a good neighborhood for a rental?

Score: 50.5 of 100, Phase 2 by three points, fragile. Full report, November 4, 2026. Crime graded on city-wide data; evictions pending. A near-average Akron tract: income at 96% of the city's, poverty at 20% against the city's 23%, owners at 49% against 50%. The three points above the line come from two segments, Akron's city-wide crime fall and the deepest voucher market I've measured. Against them: 21% of homes empty, three-quarters of the stock built before 1940, and a job base that shrank 3% in ten years. And an eviction count I haven't run yet, in a city reported to have Ohio's highest eviction rate. Treat it as Phase 1 until that count is in.

Tract 5045 is in South Akron, 2.1 miles south of downtown.

Key figures

Scorecard: 279 of 552 = 50.5

Sensitivity: evictions Level 2, 49.6 and Phase 1; vouchers Level 3, 49.6; crime Level 4, 47.8; crime Level 3, 45.1; employment flat instead of falling, 52.0. Phase 2 holds only if crime stays Level 5 and evictions come in at Level 3 or better.

What drives the grade

Akron's city-wide crime count is down a third since 2022 on the FBI file, and that one segment is 75 of the tract's 279 points. February and March 2026 look under-reported (235 and 208 offenses against 356 and 442 a year earlier). So I re-ran the pace on June to August alone. It's still a 29% fall, still Level 5. But it's a city grade, not a street grade, and Akron publishes no incident map I can count from. If the quarter mile is worse than the city, the tract is 47.8 or 45.1 and Phase 1.

The second prop is vouchers. Ninety of the tract's 334 renter households hold a voucher, 27%, and the average voucher tenancy is over nine years on HUD's numbers. That's a deep, stable tenant pool for a 3 or 4-bed house, and it's why I grade voucher tenancy Level 4. The flip side is that voucher rents here rose less than 1% a year from 2021 to 2025, so the market isn't pulling the payment standard up.

Everything else is flat or soft. Jobs within five miles fell 3.1% in ten years, the only falling count among the Ohio tracts on this page, with manufacturing, retail and education all down. A fifth of the homes are empty, more than twice the city's rate, and three-quarters were built before 1940. Rents in the ZIP are $100 a month lower than a year ago and houses take 49 days to let, which is longer than a vacancy should take in a market that's working. And the eviction count, which is the open ruling, is likely to come in at Level 2 given what's been reported about Akron's filing rate. That alone takes the score to 49.6.

Before buying here

1. Akron Municipal Court filings for the block, divided by the tract's 334 renter households. This decides the phase.
2. The quarter-mile view on the Akron police map, and a street walk; 21% vacancy shows up on a walk.
3. Summit County Fiscal Office: owner, acquisition and the 2026 reappraisal. The actual 2025 bill on the house I priced was $2,083, not the seller's $1,898.
4. AMHA's 4-bed payment standard against any projected rent, remembering that fair market rent is not your rent; a signed lease or voucher approval before closing.
5. An insurance quote on a wood-sided 1920s house. The house I priced came with a turnkey seller's sheet, and the ten checks I run on a seller's numbers apply to it.

Akron sources:

• Census geocoder.
• FBI Crime Data Explorer, Akron PD.
• ACS 2015 to 2019 and 2020 to 2024, 2020 Census DHC.
• LEHD LODES 8.
• HUD Picture of Subsidized Households.
• LSC Civil Court Data Initiative, Summit County.
• Community Legal Aid's 2024 count, reported by WYSU.
• Zillow and Trulia 44301.
• HUD Small Area FMRs.
• Redfin.
• FEMA.

Is Bancroft Hills, Toledo, a good neighborhood for a rental?

Score: 49.3 of 100, Phase 1. Full report, October 2, 2026, crime re-pulled October 7, voucher and flood data added November 4. This is the duplex we passed on, and the neighborhood is why. The strengths are real. Rents of $2,200 across two units were in line with the market. Eviction filings run at three-quarters of the Toledo rate. Jobs within five miles grew, and the tract's rent rise since 2019 is significant. But real incomes are flat and poverty is 43%. Six in ten homes are rented and tenancies run two to four years. The schools are weak and slipping. Shootings within a quarter mile rose from 4 to 12 between 2023 and 2025 before easing this year. Steady demand from a university and a hospital holds a weak neighborhood steady. It doesn't make it better.

Tract 24.01 is Bancroft Hills on the city's own layers, on the edge of Ottawa, with the University of Toledo 0.6 miles away and ProMedica Toledo Hospital a mile.

Key figures

Scorecard: 272 of 552 = 49.3

One conditional red flag: a vacant lot next door to the house I graded. Flood cleared, no mapped zone within 250 m. Toledo's lead-safe rule applies to any pre-1978 rental of one to four units.

What drives the grade

Toledo's crime map tracks six categories and nothing before 2023, so I can't run my trajectory rule here. The level is a documented judgment. The area runs about the Toledo average, and Toledo runs about three times the national violent rate. Within the quarter mile, property crime fell sharply while shootings rose from 4 to 12 across 2023 to 2025. Two homicides inside the quarter mile, in October 2024 and April 2026. Level 3, flat.

The people figures are the Phase 1 signature. Nominal income rose 23%, but after inflation it's down about 4% and the change isn't significant. Poverty is 43% against the city's 24%, part of it students from the university up the road. Six in ten homes are rented and tenancies are short, with 57% of renter households moved in since 2020. Short tenancies mean turnover, which is the largest running cost on a rental. Toledo Public Schools dropped to two stars on the state report card, and the assigned high school rates 1 of 10 with a 74% graduation rate.

What's good is also real, which is why this is 49 and not 40. The tract's median rent rose 30% from 2019 to 2024, a significant rise that beat inflation. Evictions run at 0.77 times the Toledo rate. The job base grew 4.5%, with health care as the anchor and the Jeep plant five miles away. Prices are rising from a low base. The vacancy rate fell from 19% to 12%. None of it adds up to a neighborhood that's improving in the way the people who live there would feel. Demand that holds a weak area steady is not the same as a neighborhood getting better.

On the deal itself, which is priced in the hub. On a Toledo duplex the landlord usually pays water, sewer, storm water and refuse, which I estimated at about $1,600 a year. With Toledo's eviction rate I budget a 15% reserve for vacancy and unpaid rent, not 10%. Those two lines, plus a $2,661 full-replacement insurance quote, took 39% of the rent before management or repairs, and that's why we passed. The Toledo row is also on the national cash flow markets page.

Before buying here

1. The Lead-Safe Certificate: Toledo requires one on pre-1978 rentals of one to four units before a new tenant moves in. Inspection about $400 plus repairs.
2. The vacant parcels within a quarter mile, 41 at the last count, and who owns the one next door.
3. School assignment confirmed with Toledo Public Schools; the report inferred it from neighboring listings.
4. LMH's current payment standard against the unit rents; voucher tenancies here run seven years against two to four for private renters.
5. The Lucas County AREIS record for year built, value and sale history; it was down when the report was run.

Where the Toledo figures come from:

• Census geocoder.
• City of Toledo neighborhoods and police beat layers.
• Toledo Police public crime map, shootings and homicides layers (2023 to Oct 1, 2026).
• AreaVibes, Ottawa.
• Lucas County Auditor vacant parcels.
• ACS 2013 to 2017 and 2020 to 2024.
• Census LEHD OnTheMap.
• GreatSchools.
• Zillow and Zumper 43607.
• HUD FMR history.
• LMH payment standards.
• Eviction Lab, Toledo.
• Redfin 43607 and Ottawa.
• Toledo Lead Safe.
• University of Toledo master plan.

Is Burkhardt, Dayton, a good neighborhood for a rental?

Score: 42.6 of 100, Phase 1. Full report, November 4, 2026. Crime graded on city-wide data; evictions pending. The weakest neighborhood on this page, and no single change I tested gets it to Phase 2; it would take about 41 points. More than a quarter of the homes are empty and poverty is 38%. The job base within five miles is flat. Dayton's crime rate is the highest of the four Ohio cities I've run on FBI data. The metro is growing from a low base. This tract isn't.

Tract 23 is Burkhardt, 2.0 miles east of downtown Dayton.

Key figures

Scorecard: 235 of 552 = 42.6

No single sensitivity change reaches Phase 2.

What drives the grade

The housing stock grades Level 1, the only Level 1 on this page. Three hundred and sixty-four of the tract's 1,281 homes are empty, 28% against the city's 17%, and 15 homes have been built since 2000. That's not a neighborhood where owners are reinvesting. Poverty is 38%, against 27% for a city that is itself one of Ohio's poorer ones, and fewer than four in ten homes are owner-occupied.

The one segment pulling up is sales. The ZIP's median sale price rose 20% in a year to about $140,000, homes sell in three weeks, and Burkhardt itself recorded 46 sales at a $140,000 median. Part of that is investors buying cheap houses, which is what a 20% rise on a $116,000 base looks like, and part is a Dayton market that's growing again. Cheap is also where a loan under $100,000 gets harder to find. It's worth a level and a trend, not more.

Crime is graded on Dayton's FBI counts, which are down 3.6% since 2022, Level 3 and flat. Dayton's rate, 52 offenses per 1,000 residents, is the highest of the four Ohio cities I've run this way, and the tract has no address-level map to check against it. Income rose 28% after inflation but inside a margin of $11,000, so it stays flat. Jobs within five miles are flat over ten years, with manufacturing and retail down and professional services up. The schools are 3 and 2 out of 10; the magnet school that rates 6 isn't the default assignment.

Before buying here

1. The quarter-mile view on the Dayton police map and a street walk. Twenty-eight percent vacancy is visible from the car.
2. Dayton Municipal Court filings for the block; the eviction grade is pending.
3. The Montgomery County Auditor's 2026 reappraisal and projected bill; the seller's figure on the house I priced was five times the current bill.
4. Dayton's rental registration status for the property.
5. Lease, ledger and the tenant's renewal intention; the house I priced was let $200 under market to January 2027.

Dayton sources:

• Census geocoder.
• FBI Crime Data Explorer, Dayton PD.
• ACS 2015 to 2019 and 2020 to 2024, 2020 Census DHC.
• LEHD LODES 8.
• HUD Picture of Subsidized Households.
• Dayton Daily News on county eviction rates.
• Zillow 45403 and Zillow Rental Manager.
• HUD Small Area FMRs.
• Redfin 45403, Burkhardt and Dayton.
• FEMA.

What do the six grades say side by side?

Three things show up across the columns that no single report shows.

Crime is doing most of the sorting, and it's the least certain segment. Mid East and South Akron each take 75 of their points from a Level 5 crime grade that rests on a city-wide FBI count. Norwood's 60 points rest on a ruling about one month. Only Old Brooklyn and Bancroft Hills are graded on what happened within a quarter mile of the house, and Old Brooklyn, the one tract with full incident data, grades crime at Level 3 with a falling trend, not Level 5. If I could count incidents that way in all six cities, I'd expect the Columbus and Akron scores to come down a little. The ranking might change. That's the biggest caveat on this page and I'd rather say it than bury it.

Schools are weak everywhere except Norwood and, on the nearby choice schools, Old Brooklyn. Every other urban district assignment on this page rates 2 to 4 out of 10, and Toledo's is falling. Norwood runs its own district and rates 5 to 6. For a family tenant with a choice, that's a reason to pick Norwood over a Cincinnati city tract at the same rent. It's one reason Norwood's houses sell at 99.5% of list in six weeks.

The Phase 2 neighborhoods aren't where the cash flow is. Mid East at 60 loses $254 a month on real reserves at its asking price. Burkhardt at 43 has the cheapest houses and the highest paper yield. That's not a contradiction; it's the rule. Price follows the neighborhood with a lag, and the point of grading on trajectory is to find the tracts where the price hasn't caught up yet. On this page, that's Old Brooklyn, where the house I graded makes money at its price, and Norwood, where the building doesn't until both leases reset. The deals themselves, priced the seller's way and mine, are in the Ohio hub. The general case for why a 60 can be a worse deal than a 50 is in the truth about rental property cash flow. To run a house in any of these tracts yourself, use the free rental property cash flow calculator. It takes the rent, the tax bill and the insurance and gives you both columns.

If you'd like a neighborhood on this page graded in full before you buy there, or a tract that isn't here yet, this is how I source and verify a property for a client. The report is the first thing I run. The checklist I use before any US rental is in the foreign investor starter kit.

Dataset, changelog and sources

Dataset. The six scorecards and the key figures behind them are published as one file, ohio-rental-property-neighborhoods-2026-11.csv. It has one row per neighborhood: city, ZIP, tract, status, data date, the eleven levels and trends, the points, the score and phase, and the key-figure values as printed above. It's anonymized the same way this page is, to neighborhood, ZIP and tract. Cite it as Cashflow Rentals, Ohio rental property neighborhoods, graded, November 2026.

Changelog.

• November 4, 2026: page created with six neighborhoods, all from full technical reports. Old Brooklyn re-run on November data (61.4 in October, 61.8 now). Norwood graded 55.1 under the ruling that its May 2026 police count is a reporting batch (49.6 as filed). Toledo's voucher count and flood check added.

Open rulings, in the order they'd change a grade:

• Norwood PD on May 2026 (55.1 as ruled; 49.6 if the count stands).
• Akron Municipal Court filings for tract 5045 (50.5 to about 49.6).
• Dayton Municipal Court filings for tract 23 (42.6 to 41.7 at Level 2).
• a quarter-mile crime check in Columbus, Akron and Dayton, from each city's police map and a property manager.
• the Old Brooklyn income figure at the next ACS release (61.8 to 63.6 if the fall is noise).

Sources common to every block:

• US Census Bureau ACS five-year estimates and the 2020 Census.
• Census LEHD LODES.
• FBI Crime Data Explorer.
• HUD Picture of Subsidized Households.
• HUD Small Area Fair Market Rents.
• Eviction Lab.
• Zillow, Redfin and Trulia listings.
• GreatSchools.
• FEMA flood maps. Block-level sources are listed under each block.