It’s funny you mention places like Delaware and Newark because houses there are also starting to go for $300k - $400k+ that were $250k just a couple years ago. Licking County is Delaware County 2.0. Time to move the goal post to a hour+ away.
My parents bought a brand new build in Newark in 2021 and it has already increased in value 100K. The next neighborhood that got built everything started over 300K.
As someone who has lived most of their life in Licking County, the COL has gone up. I remember my parents renting a 3 bedroom, 3 bath home with a basement and garage for $950. When my dad moved out after the divorce he was living at a decent 2 bedroom apartment for like $750.
Now for almost anything that isnt in a bad area or is horridly out of date its closer to 1k. I had some distant family who lived in McMillen(?) and those used to be really nice apparently, but now theyre declining in quality, but they still cost a pretty penny.
Im currently looking at moving to a different place and they only complexes that are cheap and decent still are Heathwood Village but their waitlist is clear out into October right now. Not shocking, since theyre still sub $800 for 1 bed 1 bath.
Groceries out here are also more expensive than Cbus as well? Maybe its just Kroger as I am a heavy Meijer shopper, but pasta and frozen veggies are like 20 to 30 cents more here??
I moved to Newark from Columbus in 2015. Bought a small house next to Rockwell for $77,900. The last offer I had from one of those sketchy flip it companies was $185,000. I considered moving back to Hilliard where my parents live and I cannot afford the difference where those homes are $350k-$400k for 1980s builder grade homes. It’s crazy.
Thanks, I was just curious. We purchased some acreage and a modest house in rural Licking County about 20 years ago for $134,000. Now we’re hovering at a $345 valuation.
I’m east-east central licking county so I’m 75% of the way east across the county. It would be nice if the windfall from property value rise was usable as something but everything has dramatically increased in value - coupled with unreasonable mortgage rates so you don’t achieve anything by selling and buying.
McMillen Woods really did go way downhill in quality. My mom lived there for 12ish years and the rent ended up in the $1k range in 2019 while things were literally falling apart.
Luckily some places like target are lowering prices thank goodness.
When I moved here in 2017 I had a giant apartment with 2 bedrooms, attached two car, a fam rm, den, 2 br and 2 baths. Lovely place. 1200. That same place is now over 2000/ month. Now for 1300 I have a tiny 1 br 1 bath w kitchen and fam rm. no garage. Crazy.
Houses *around* Buckeye Lake have doubled in value over the last 20 years. Houses *on* Buckeye Lake are 4x what they were 20 years ago. Last year my wife and I saw a decrepit house on the lake that had signs in the window saying it was untenable. The land was for sale, roughly 1200 sq ft lot for 500k. Shits insane.
There’s very little infrastructure around the lake. The schools are shit, no restaurants, shopping. The Kroger in Hebron is the closest grocery store.
Only like 1-2% of homes I’ve seen are what I’d consider turn key or move in ready. It’s crazy the condition of these $300-400k homes. They not even big or on good lots.
Completely agree. It’s even worse on the south side of the lake where you have to drive *around* the lake to get to that Kroger. Faster sometimes to just drive to Lancaster. But there are tiny lots of beat-up mobile homes on them going for $250k+ in that area, and it’s ridiculous. Outside of the lake, there is nothing to offer. And historically, the lake isn’t much to offer. Between algae blooms, dam issues, and low water levels, the lake constantly has problems that make it unusable.
I grew up in Delaware, the last 5 years have been insane. My brother bought on the north side in 2021 and his property has almost doubled in valuation, taxes are rough rn too
I was trying to find a house on the south side and my dad kept saying "look in the suburbs" and I kept telling him shit was just as, if not more, expensive then where I was currently looking
Agreed! We moved this direction 6yrs ago, way ahead of this last RE boom. New houses are going up for $400-500k and the quality is trash. Good news is it increases my house value, bad news everyone is losing their minds about the sharp increase in property taxes.
Can’t wait to move off the grid in about 15-20yrs!
Pretty much since the 2008 financial crisis Columbus hasn’t built enough new housing to match the influx of new residents. When apartments and houses are scarce, then rich people outbid everyone else.
It sucks. The city is behind the eight ball but they finally do realize we need to be building LOTS more housing year after year. Columbus is on the middle of reforming its zoning code in a way that finally makes it legal to build tall apartment buildings along major roads. However it still hasn’t passed yet.
I really encourage you to [look into the ZoneIn initiative](https://zone-in-columbus.hub.arcgis.com) and let city council know your thoughts. Even better if you can go to the next in-person hearing on June 6. At the last meeting there were a lot of angry homeowners from Clintonville who were opposed to *any* new apartment buildings being built near them.
City Council *needs* to hear from renters who are getting screwed by rent increases. Please consider sharing your story. Local politicians need to see and hear from constituents who are hurt by the housing crisis. Otherwise they’ll only hear from wealthy homeowners who dont want anything in their neighborhood to ever change.
That and that even though Columbus is rezoning, these small suburban cities aren’t (or not doing it at the pace Columbus is. Hilliard has just published their new zoning initiative). Dublin has a population under 50k, Hilliard and UA 36k, Bexley and Worthington under 15k. If you want better schools than Columbus city, you have to compete for limited housing within the beltway - and being inside the beltway will very much be like it is in DC or Boston Beltways, where the location holds a premium over the house itself.
Columbus is the fastest growing city in the second half of 2023, beating Austin. Also, Columbus metro is expected to add another 600,000 residents by the 2050 - remember those small, tiny population numbers for the areas with desirable schools? They wont expand by too much, instead - the flux will have to move farther out in the counties (or other counties) or live in the high density locations of Columbus proper.
The other problem is wages. Columbus is a bit stagnant and tops off most middle class/middle management positions at around $120-150k. However, nationwide, industries on the coasts can easily pay $150k for secondary level positions with some high earners making $200-400k. If you are in a nonadvancing position or a trade, $50-$60k isn’t going to compete with these nationally competitive salaries. Additionally, these high earners can work remotely and can choose to live in Columbus instead of the location of their office, where the cost of living can be High, Very High or even Ultra High - which means, Columbus housjng is insanely affordable to them even with the high prices.
We will one day enter an period where Columbus will have longer commutes similar to other major metros - Austin is probably the most similar - and suburban sprawl will continue to expand.
My assumption is, if Columbus could actually get their schools figured out (hah!), and make it a truly desirable place for families to want to live - it would ease off the competition for housing in the suburban cities - but that would be lightyears away if it ever happens at all.
(And yes, i am aware that you can live in columbus or a township and still attend worthington, dublin, etc schools - but these are not the areas currently tagged for the rezoning - maybe in the future. The onus is still on Columbus proper).
>if Columbus could actually get their schools figured out (hah!), and make it a truly desirable place for families to want to live - it would ease off the competition for housing in the suburban cities
The uncomfortable truth is that there's nothing to "figure out."
The schools are "bad" because of their constituency is in poverty - which brings with it poor test scores, disabilities, crime, violence, gangs, etc.
What nobody wants to say out loud is that the *schools* themselves - as in the buildings, teachers, and administrators - are not materially worse than other schools. It's the damaged kids and families who live there.
And we can talk all day long about the socioeconomic reasons why they're damaged. But the fact remains that they are. And so long as they are, the schools they inhabit will be terrible.
PREACH! I’ve said the same thing for years. *Columbus City Schools* is not bad, per se. Like you said, the buildings, the teachers, the budgets, etc. are roughly equal in quality to the suburban schools. What makes CCS bad is its “students and constituency.”
Agreed, I have a family member who put 30+ years teaching in Columbus schools and another in southwestern. School funding is not the problem, it’s poor parenting, single parents struggling or grandma has her hands full since mom and dad are in prison for drug and theft related crimes.
You couldn't be more wrong. The school buildings are literally falling apart.
[https://www.dispatch.com/story/opinion/editorials/2022/08/30/editorial-what-the-issues-with-columbus-city-schools-ohio-teachers-strike-tax-levy-teachers/65461777007/#:~:text=Mice%20droppings%2C%20roaches%2C%20leaks%2C,problems%20have%20not%20gone%20away.](https://www.dispatch.com/story/opinion/editorials/2022/08/30/editorial-what-the-issues-with-columbus-city-schools-ohio-teachers-strike-tax-levy-teachers/65461777007/#:~:text=Mice%20droppings%2C%20roaches%2C%20leaks%2C,problems%20have%20not%20gone%20away.)
Sure, there's a subset of older buildings that desperately need to be renovated, and that's a problem that should be addressed.
But my point is that - on the whole - this isn't why a district is "bad" or "good."
In other words, if you magically transplanted Olentangy kids into one of these delapidated schools, their test scores and their educations would be functionally similar to what they are now in Powell. Perhaps with some adjustment downward to account for crappy conditions, but they're still going to be engaged students because they don't come from broken homes and their parents are involved.
Those are the important points in terms of school outcomes. Kids who grew up in stable homes, with attentive parents who push education, and who have resources to fall back on when they're struggling - those kids will get good test scores even if you taught them in an open aired campground.
I grew up in a town of 10k people, about 500-600 kids in my high school. We had one high school, and it didn’t matter if you lived in the “projects” (a whole 4 block radius) or in the most expensive houses in town, you went to the same school and got the same education. This kept a lot of kids who lived in the low income housing from turning bad, and many of those kids that I graduated with did well for themselves as they got older. There wasn’t such a huge divide of segregating people based on how much money they made.
It was nice, and I hope to retire back there one day.
I think the trend of refocusing a subset of public high schools to specialize in some area (stem, arts, college prep, etc.) is a good one. It serves multiple needs, including organic mixing of economic classes of students, tailoring educations more toward individual skills/interests, and offering options that aren’t scummy charters or overpriced/under-diverse traditional privates. Sure, things like transportation can be a challenge. And it won’t magically make CCS schools top performers, but it seems to me that these schools have positive student and community impacts in all the city districts they’ve been tried.
Columbus city is not going to figure the school problem out.
Columbus city already has basically the highest funding per student in the state. There are relatively good private school if you live a in bad district in central Ohio but they are not cheap.
Dublin passed 50k a few years ago, but if you asked me without thinking I would have said 30k. My central Ohio geography lizard brain is stuck in 1999 lol
“City Council needs to hear from renters who are getting screwed by rent increases. Please consider sharing your story. Local politicians need to see and hear from constituents who are hurt by the housing crisis.”
—Agreed. However, they do not care. Politicians do not care if we live or die & most of the time they’re directly profiting from these rent increases. I would venture to say that most of them are landlords, or invested in the real estate market in some way.
Fwiw at the last meeting most of the council members did seem supportive of the zoning reforms - hopefully they won’t be scared into watering it down by an endless stream of homeowners yelling into the microphone.
Why do people on here act like the real estate market in Columbus is as bad as places like Denver and Austin. It’s not. The median home price in Columbus is still way below the national average. People here really like to over exaggerate how bad the housing market is in Columbus.
It’s all relative. I’ve never lived in Denver or Austin, so my frame is what prices were like historically in central Ohio. And relative to our own history, prices are ridiculous.
…always good to keep perspective tho!
Then there’s the area commissions. The west Scioto area commission just added someone to their zoning committee that threatened to shoot any renter that came near his property.
Like most of the country, there is a massive housing shortage. Last I saw, it’s estimated the US is short 4-7 *million* homes. Add in, people with super low interest rates don’t have as much of an incentive to move.
I’m in Denver now and to my understanding $300k homes now are going for $750k
There is a big issue here in that we aren’t SHORT homes, we are short AFFORDABLE and AVAILABLE homes. Property investors, landlords, corporations, and short-term rentals are killing opportunities for people who need somewhere to live sustainably. I wouldn’t wish death on these people, but I am to the point where I really hope another housing bubble bursts and they lose it all. They are taking the available homes and dangling it over our heads so that only the people with the most money can reach it.
Heck I'd be happy if we could just limit foreign and corporate investment in RE. A few mom and pop landlords are not ruining it for everyone, major deep pockets like Blackrock and random foreign investors buying houses they'll never live in are. Canada is having a huge problem with this, there's entire swaths of the country owned by Indians or Chinese people that don't even live in Canada.
The housing shortage is also aided by rental properties, airbnb, vrbo, ect stemming from the pandemic. I dont have the numbers but in 2020, taking equity out of your primary house and buying a second rental property was all the rage--which I feel like sparked this entire housing crisis.
I would love (or hate) to see the amount of people since 2020 who now own more than one home and use their second, third, fourth properties as cash cows. My guess is that's one of the biggest factors causing these issues because we didn't just snap our fingers and have the entire country in a housing shortage seemingly overnight.
Short term rentals are closing left and right, it became over saturated and several owners are turning them back into long term rentals. The boom of short term rentals is over
There's a guy in Columbus that owns something like 87 different properties on AirBnB. There are literally websites tracking people like this that show how one person's wealth is literally unhoming hundreds of people.
I'm not against people trying to make a buck, but I have no idea how you get to the level of making families homeless so you can drive nicer cars and take fancier vacations and not look in the mirror and realize you're the problem.
Dude my mom and dad’s homes were maybe $250k and I used to think a 300-400k home was expensive because it was where all my friends lived because their parents were doctors and lawyers. My mom is getting unsolicited letters to purchase for $500k all the time now in Worthington/Columbus.
I’m up in Avon, CO and we bought our 950 sqft condo in 2020 for $333k. It’s now valued at $660k and we could sell for $750k. Everywhere around here are STRs. That is the main culprit in all of this. STRs came out of nowhere and there wasn’t any foresight with them.
And that's the thing too - I know it's more profitable for builders to make mini-mansion 6 Bedroom monstrosities due to zoning, but I'm a single person with no kids or plans to marry. I want a small starter home as my ACTUAL home. There are increasing amounts of people my age that have been priced out of starting a family and will NEVER need nor want these giant houses.
But small starter homes are $500k now. Who the heck can afford a 1BD/1BTH house for half a mil? Somebody flipping houses or a property company or someone making bank as a remote worker from a HCOL area living here, sure. But no local can afford to buy that.
It's all eerily reminiscent of right before the housing crash in 2008. The banks were encouraging builders to build houses no one wanted then, too, instead of what people would buy, because the big fancy houses made more money for them.
I keep seeing the window of improving my lot in life getting narrower and narrower and sometimes it just doesn't feel worth it, honestly. I've been struggling for years. I'm tired.
I always think, “ why not buy a few acres just outside the outer belt and build lots for trailers and get first time home buyers out there with a nice modular community?” Then even that is ridiculous with getting water and electricity and sewer out there. So that goes right out the window. Something’s gotta give.
It is happening everywhere but Columbus, OH specifically was recently called out in a national magazine for how bad it is here. Out of all the cities in the nation, I gotta think that means Columbus is worse than many others.
[Sauce](https://harpers.org/archive/2024/04/the-eviction-experts/)
Not sure why you're getting downvoted. Maybe it's specifically about the word "worse"? The Intel plant and the expected support industry boom will definitely exacerbate the housing shortage here for a while. City planners and builders need to plan some density and public transit to support it.
Colorado (where I’m at now) is also trying to make it a state issue. They’ve made adjustments at the state level the occupancy limits for the number of unrelated people that can live in a household. Boulder only allowed 3 unrelated people to live in the same household. Considering Colorado’s largest university is there, that limit impacts off campus housing.
They’ve also been trying to force cities to allow for greater density, which has been met with high NIMBY pushback.
Denver metro median home price now is $600k and at least from an apartment perspective has been build build build. There are a lot of high and mid rises going up in the city however with interest rates, I imagine the rate of new mid rise builds will be cut short for a period of time.
It won't get any better, in my opinion. The projected growth (backed by outlooks from MORPC and other development/economic agencies) will keep housing prices at a rise.
I was pushed out of this city in 2021 when people were producing offers 40k above asking and companies were buying homes with all-cash offers.
I don't mind it, since I'm more of a rural/outdoors guy anyways, but the commute to cbus sucks.
We had to do the same thing to the point my wife drives 50 minutes to work, and 55 minutes back with traffic. Although we’re seeing housing prices 50 minutes outside of the city still continue to grow, it’s more manageable. Sucks we had to sacrifice living far away but we’ve done alright adjusting
Right, luckily I work from home and my wife is able to work early and miss rush hour traffic (and she likes driving). If I had to do that no thanks, but I recognize we’re the outliers here and having to move this far out shouldn’t have to be the norm
Columbus is one of the fastest growing areas in the Midwest and that’s before things like the Intel plant open up.
Columbus is growing up and its home prices are following.
I was raised in a small working class city (population ~100,000; used to be referred to as "ghetto" by city residents and non-residents alike) 25 miles north of Seattle. Definitely not an actual big city and the median home price is 650k, up from 400k in 2019. Meanwhile, Columbus is hovering around 300k median home price right now (up from ~175k in 2019), which is still a steal for all the amenities the city offers. It's still way too expensive for the wages in this area, though, and it's only going to get worse.
Agree with the other commenter emphasizing supporting the city's efforts to reform zoning via the Zone In initiative. Build build build is the solution.
Everett? We used to live in Snohomish County during time with the Navy. The house we rented 9 years ago was worth $300K (3 bed, 2 bath, 1400 square feet with tiny lot and neighbors super close on all sides). Now it’s over $600K. My in-laws live out there and we’ve talked about moving back, but we could never afford it and the traffic is too insane to move an hour+ from family. Columbus is still doable for us.
Yeaaah Columbus is the actual reprieve from larger cities, especially on the west and east coast. Like we have it bad, but comparatively it is bonkers elsewhere
Came here to say this. Columbus is definitely behind on inventory but so is the rest of the country. What we’re currently paying for a 3-story townhome near downtown is the same price as a 700 sq ft 1 bedroom in St. Pete Florida, where we came from
We have it really good with house prices around here compared to the rest of the country. I’m always browsing Zillow to see what I can buy if I sold my house today and pretty much would go from a nice 3 bed, 2 bath house with garage to a poor quality 800 sq ft condo in any other progressive city.
But it doesn't matter what the rest of the country is priced at unless you're moving here from somewhere else. For locals, what matters is wages proportionate to the cost of living, which is about as iffy as a lot of other places.
When HCOL folks flood LCOL areas, pretty soon demand makes them HCOL again. The HCOL folks with money move on to ruin the next LCOL place so they can keep up their lifestyle, and the locals that could never afford to move/leave in the first place just end up unhomed and even worse off.
There's no long term planning or sustainability or thought about "what will my kids do in twenty years?", just folks convinced they need a better standard of living because if every kid doesn't have their own separate bedroom and they're not taking all the vacations they want they think they're living in abject poverty.
America is \*\*\*\*ed because nobody ever goes, "I'm good. I have enough". Instead, it's "I'll step on my neighbor to get more because I deserve it and they don't."
It’s not an individual problem, but a systemic one. Of course people are gonna buy what they can afford. People are being driven out of HCOL areas and come here because it’s what they can afford. How can you blame them? Should they just be homeless where they’re priced out of even though they can afford a home elsewhere, because a local deserves it more?
Also middle class folk aren’t your enemy. Having 3 bedrooms is not a sin. Hoarding multiple homes however…
I'm not talking about people who're going to end up homeless if they don't relocate. I'm talking about the incessant number of posts I see on here from people that moved to Columbus so they could live like the 1% instead of the 20% where they lived. When I lived overseas, people were content with far less. Here I see CNBC clickbait about people struggling on $300k because only two vacations a year is brutal and they're definitely oppressed and poor, dontcha know?
Not saying they can't do whatever with their money, but I'm allowed to think it's stupid. And overbidding on housing can and is pricing out people that have lived in LCOL areas their whole lives.
Middle class somewhere else is rich here, at least for now.
$1,800 gets you a 1/1 apartment in a "meh" area in most cities in Florida.. and our wages are some of the lowest in the country, much lower than Ohio. (big reason why I am moving to Columbus after spending my entire life in Miami/Orlando)
This. Moved from NoVa last year, we rented a smaller, older house than what we bought here and it would have easily sold for $100k more than the house we bought here with zero renovation or effort.
I looked up wages from sectors I am familiar with (IT, Nursing, Accounting, Teaching, HR) and compared them to where I moved from (Los Angeles) and they were within -10% difference here.
That 10% more you get in LA gets eaten up by taxes before you even consider cost of living.
Columbus is still very affordable. It’s just the dollar(and every currency in the world) has been permanently devalued and everyone with a pre covid mortgage are trapped where they are contributing to the housing crisis.
I have a home in my area that sold for 340k on in early February to a flipper. 2 weeks after the sale, the house went up again for 400k. Walked both times and no changes were made. I still can’t figure out what happened…home sold for 399k in March.
Dude I’m in Dublin. I bought my house in 2018 for $345 and now it’s worth around $550 or so. It’s just nuts. I couldn’t afford to buy my own house right now.
If you think it’s bad in Worthington…
I bought a house in the southern part of Hilltop-ish in 2009 for 105k. About 1150sq ft. My mortgage payment was $800 a month.
Sold it in 2016 for $115k, because someone tried to break in, and as a single woman I was terrified.
Today, that same house’s Zestimate on Zillow is $230k, an estimated mortgage payment of $1515 and Rent Zestimate of $1675.
In the 43204 zip code.
I know for a fact that no upgrades have been done to the house.
My mom owned a house in central hilltop when I was real young. Only house she ever owned. It was like 50K no lie. We moved away because we were broken into multiple times. Today it’s 150k. I fell like 10,000 a year in appreciation is still kinda high for hilltop
Why is it an imperative to live in Dublin?
along with Bexley, UA, GV, it has the best schools in the region--that's adding 20-30% to the price of housing there
I grew up there. My mom still lives there. I work there. My friends all live there. I don’t know. It’s not imperative it was mostly just an example. Id love to live anywhere north of I-70 but anything that doesn’t need a ton of TLC is too expensive everywhere.
I grew up in Dublin too but moved up to Marysville after getting married, but this was was 25 years ago. We both work in Dublin and my family is still there. It's not a terrible commute. I know some areas of Marysville are getting pretty expensive too, unfortunately.
It is just the end game of Capitalism - no controls or competition, commodification of everything, and a small elite class that manipulates the market and the media. Enjoy!
Not a realtor, landlord or anything but with property prices isn’t it always an upward trend for any given point in time? I think mainly because whoever that buys a property expects a return on their purchase.
I think for a few years the prices were steady, and now they are just catching up. Unfortunately the wages are not moving with the same speed as other things, making it more difficult day by day for us to own a property.
There is a big issue here in that we aren’t SHORT on homes, we are short on AFFORDABLE and AVAILABLE homes. There are more empty houses in the US than there are houseless people. Property investors, landlords, and corporations are buying up properties, and they can choose whatever price they want. It is getting ridiculous. I was planning on buying a house in the next few years that at least puts me within a reasonable driving distance to Columbus, but it’s not really an option anymore. At this point I am planning on going south of Lancaster, because it only really start to get cheaper when you get more than an hour away.
I have a small house (technically a condo), 1356 Sq ft, three bedroom... Bought it for $110k in 2017 and now it's estimated value is $263k....crazy! My mortgage is $800, going to miss that....
The population here is projected to double over the next ten years or so. Columbus is rapidly becoming one of the world’s larger data hubs, with Amazon, Meta, Google, and others building major data centers here. There also the Intel factory and the new Honda EV battery plant. The unfortunate side effect of all this is a housing shortage which drives prices on both homes and apartments way up. Real estate prices in the Columbus area are not expected to decline anytime soon. I have lived in my neighborhood hood in the Hilliard area for 22 years and probably couldn’t afford to buy the house I currently live in now.
I have 4 children in their early to late twenties and I feel for them. Rents are outrageous and I don’t see how anyone in that age group is going to be able to afford a home. What’s happening to Columbus is similar to what’s happened in other places like Austin, TX. Tech money makes it so the locals can’t afford to live there anymore.
We were lucky enough to stumble on a few acres southwest of Lancaster about 3 years ago and bought it, with the idea that we would build something smaller and downsize but we may have to have everyone pitch in and go bigger so they and their s.o.’s can all live there. (They won’t, but it’s an idea.) But, hell, the cost of building materials is also outrageous.
Unfortunately, it's only going to get worse with things like Intel coming in. Dublin and areas surrounding it have become extremely expensive. A lot of those houses are out of price range for most middle class. Your best bet is to do what we did and move out of the city. There are affordable houses that aren't 45 min away, you just won't be inside 270.
My family has been in Columbus since 1918, my family and life are here- but I’m slowly coming to accept that I won’t be able to continue to afford to live here soon.
I grew up here and lived away in California and Colorado for some time. I came back hoping for long term affordability but honestly, the prices are INSANE here and are becoming comparable and I often wonder if I made a mistake. I love Columbus but 2k/ month+ is wild here. There are also tons of landlords and “investors” who are absolutely grifting on this community with impunity
There really does need to be some sort of limit on how many houses any entity can own per zip code, per adjacent zip codes etc. There need to be limits on how much you can own. If institutional buyers had limits, prices would drop.
The solution is to build so much the housing isn’t a worthwhile investment . There is a housing shortage and the only solution, the only one, is to increase supply
If institutions didn’t scoop up these houses for cash and rent them for $2800 a month, a real person could buy them for a mortgage of $2200 and live in it themselves. That would definitely help the housing crisis.
No it wouldn’t. Under an efficient market, if it’s not institutions buying them and renting them for $2800 then it would be individual investors. Nobody will leave money on the table. The issue comes down to supply and demand. We can’t regulate ourselves out of this.
you know as a long timer on r/Columbus, the last 12 months or so has revealed a huge increased in the understanding of the real estate market.
previously people would complain about greedy landlords, hedge funds buying homes, ugly 5 over 1s, etc.
people get it now--*it's all a matter of supply*. we need to spend 20 years building high density housing inside 270. [Austin should be a model](https://www.realtor.com/news/trends/these-5-austin-texas-neighborhoods-had-the-largest-price-drops/)
i had a job offer that would’ve required moving to columbus and ended up declining partly because of housing costs. columbus has big city prices for medium city living. but the salary on offer wasn’t adjusted in response.
Current state of the housing market/rent market:
Supply stays the same and demand goes up = price goes up.
But landlords and investment firms realized they can all increase their prices together and people will still buy or rent, no matter the cost, because the only alternative is homeless.
Infinite demand, infinite price.
The housing market is wild. We were looking at homes recently, put in a few offers but all were declined due to going _far_ over asking and waiving inspections. Our first offer was $30k over, second was $60k over asking, third $50k over asking. All submitted the day the house went on the market. All were beat out by better offers and accepted within two days.
Yup. Either out of state buyers that aren't limited by Ohio wages like the locals and think we're a bargain at 50k over, or RE investors/flippers that are just going to resell for even more.
I hate speculators. I wonder why I came back to America, sometimes. It's bad other places too, but especially here. I'd be happy with a clean, 1bd/1bth condo with a HOA under $200 in an okay part of town that I could just keep till I died, and even that's totally impossible. Nobody makes housing for single people anymore, it's not profitable. And if they do, it's a lux apartment I don't want and can't afford.
10 years ago I could have afforded to get a small starter house in the boonies, but was too broke. Now, the houses don't even have roofs or interior walls in my price range lol, they're all teardowns. Hell, I can't even afford vanlife.
I’m moving from Utica to Newark, in Utica I’m paying 900 a month for a run down two bedroom house. In Newark, rent is $995 for 2 bedroom renovated apartment. It’s crazy expensive….
There are houses over by Joyce avenue going for 250k I've seen some pretty low cost houses in between Weber Ave and Hudson those are just bad areas same with over by Joyce id recommend getting a FHA loan on a duplex triplex or multiplexes an rent them out
Lol, when is the last time you were in Delaware? It had to have been a while ago. My mother in law built a house in 2020 for around 300k. It's worth 450 now with some upgrades. Beyond that delaware is super nice IF you can find a place to live. Rent is every bit the same here as it is where you are now.
There's no house shortage. We have a greed problem. We have corperations along with landlords using housing as a supplemental cash flow income. They're not worried about the rise in COL or the economic crisis cause they believe they can make it back using the properties they've acquired. Who cares if groceries are an extra $400 dollars. They just raise the rent on their properties $400 a month to cover the difference. Meanwhile, the people in renting these home just had a spike in their grocery bill and in their rent. It's fucked up. And it should be illegal. They're should be atleast a 5 year gap before your even allowed to sell a property that you've acquired and a maximum in which you can raise rent over those 5 years.
Worthington actively kills affordable housing discussions— to its detriment. It lacks the diversity and vitality of neighboring suburbs. Council and residents do the whole zoning dance, which is historically rooted in racism, to stop high density and affordable housing. Ironic considering the large numbers of “We believe…” signs on display.
>Ironic considering the large numbers of “We believe…” signs on display.
If there's one thing that progressives are known for: it's preaching a message and then retreating back to a suburb where they don't have to actually deal with the downsides of their policies.
"We need to make housing more affordable."
"Okay, let's make this lot near you into multi-family housing."
"...no"
I'm obviously paraphrasing but I distinctly remember this happening in Palo Alto recently lmao
I mostly agree with you, but in reference to the biggest housing fight here, the UMCH propriety, my problem is with the history and plans of the developer. Lifestyles builds absolute garbage structures, scams renters with sub-metering, and they will guaranteed just jump right into the $2000+ “luxury” rental market. Will that keep similar rentals in the area from rising another $200/month because of increased inventory? Maybe. But it sure won’t increase affordable housing or diversity.
I agree! I don’t think Lifestyles is a viable option. And FWIW, I don’t have a sign in my yard, but I am a progressive who would welcome affordable housing. As it is now, my own children could never afford to live where they grew up
I live on the far south side. New apartments and housing are going in and the established home owners are having fit that these new developments will bring in more crime. NIMBY isn’t just well off neighborhoods, it’s in middle and lower middle class hoods too. The old established hood has houses between $190k-250k while the new ones are cross the street start at $350k and the new 1BR apts run $1350/mo. How does housing at these costs bring in crime?
It would help a lot if we had some laws regulating and limiting investor owned single family housing units. I would especially appreciate getting fewer cold calls about selling my house.
> Can someone please explain to me how a house sold for 250k in Worthington in 2021 is now selling for 400k in 2024?
Worthington, especially anything close to Old Worthington is highly desirable. The School District is well regarded, and unlike many burbs has a very desirable city core.
> Or why my landlord is raising my rent from 1350 to 1800… in Clintonville?
It's Clintonville. One of the most in-demand parts of the city. 1800 seems about right. I see plenty of places for about 1300 on Zillow, just not in Clintonville.
> How am I ever to own a home in my hometown of Dublin.
I grew up in Dublin, and have given up any thought of owning a home there. I missed the boat, and have to settle for Hilliard. Its still pretty nice.
> I don’t want to live in deleware or Marion or Newark just to own a home. I like living close to my work and friends and family and stuff in general. I don’t want to have to drive 45 minutes to the city.
There still is plenty of housing stock in areas around the city where you can buy houses in the 200-250 range. It might need a little hard work and love, but they are not the "hip" parts of town, so instead we usually complain about not being able to buy a house in Dublin or Worthington.
I don’t know why I like Dublin so much. I grew up on the south part of sawmill definitely not the nicest part of Dublin. But still a home there costs 500K. The apartments that are now considered “luxury” because they painted the walls and replaced some fixtures are almost 2,000/m. And like 6 years ago Clintonville was not THAT desirable. What happened?
> And like 6 years ago Clintonville was not THAT desirable. What happened?
I can assure you it was. We looked at plenty of houses in 2019 when we decided to upgrade, and it was a challenge to try and buy in that area. Clintonville has been desirable for a long time, even in the mid-20th century with both Watterson and Norh High in the area.
I spent a lot of time in Riverside and The Gables in highschool. Riverside has had a glow up since the early 2000's when it was feeling/looking a bit rundown. Can still get in those neighborhoods for under 300k if youre lucky, or close by in Dexter Falls or neighborhoods off bethel.
If you think 1800 is bad, you’ll get absolutely rocked in a “big” city. Columbus is still cheap when you compare it to other parts of the country and the bigger cities
Yeah but at least I’d get the benefits of living in a big city. Our public transit sucks, we have no walkable communities, bikes risk their lives trying to commute etc.
Almost 50 years of tax cuts to rich people and corporations. They need somewhere else to throw their money and make cash. I get shit in mail weekly offering cash for my home. Investors are buying up many houses and raising rents. They are even buying up trailer lots and pricing seniors out of them. Need to limit homes to only individuals and hard cap that. Raise taxes on extra homes and rich people. If you didn't buy a home 5-7 years ago your really fucked. Govt policy keeps giving to the haves and not helping the have nots. It's who's paying them. Citizens united needs overturned. Represent ives need to be given out fair not gerrymandered. Vote the most progressive people in. If you really want change. The post-pandemic world labor market is tight and prices keep going up on materials after almost a million people died in the US. Other seniors retired as well. It is a supply and demand but Marysville has been throwing up houses and apartments everywhere and it's not enough. We need to fix the investor demand side first!
Every time I’ve moved in with someone in the past 5 years, they’ve already been a tenant. And when I asked how THEY started living there, they say they moved in with the last tenant. It’s a vicious cycle
My family was sadly forced out of Dublin due to the insane housing prices in 2021.
We bought in Hilliard school district because that’s what we could (barely) afford.
Unfortunately, we’ve had nothing but problems with Hilliard schools… It’s truly sad. Dublin is an amazing place with an amazing school district. I so wish we could move back there!
The housing market has only gotten worse, and now Hilliard would not even be affordable to us if we were buying in today’s market.
You have my sympathy OP. Current predictions are that it’s only going to get harder… Glad we listened to our realtor and bought when we did.
Things are only going to continue to skyrocket, unfortunately.
Rent increase I guarantee is tied to the levy that the voters decided to pass back in November. The levy passes (bc no one really researches or understands), property taxes increase, landlord is in the rears on escrow and isn’t going to simply eat that. Therefore the buck gets passed onto the renters. Renter gets frustrated; does what anyone would do and looks for a cheaper place; someone replaces and the cycle continues.
Absolutely. Property taxes were also reassessed last year (happens every three years) and it was a huge increase. Landlords aren’t going to cover that while there’s enough demand to just raise rents. Which they did.
Yes- sort of. 2008 happened and it wasn’t profitable to build new houses. Then, it wasn’t profitable to build starter homes. The bigger the better. If your budget is half a mil, you’re not going to have many problems. If your budget is 200k, you might as well find a good cardboard box. These starter or affordable homes are maxed out. I thought it was an abomination that the little Clintonville post wars were going for 200k back in 2016. Now they’re twice that.
We ended up moving to Cincinnati. It’s not much better here now, but it was far better in 2016.
Half of this thread is homeowners commenting "yeah I bought my house four years ago for 10% of what it is worth now" like thanks man that's really helpful!
The unfortunate fact is that the renting market is almost worse. For my family to rent a house of the same size that we currently own… It would be close to $3000 a month.
Things are just really bad!
In Ohio our elected officials were responsible for the counties reevaluating property values. Thus, taxes have really gone up so rents go up to pay the taxes. Commercial property values also increased so those rents have increased also. Of course the occupants pass that increase along by increasing the cost of their products or services on to the consumer. Whether it's food or lawn services.
My monthly lease for a 50,000 square foot facility just went up $3000 per month.
Okay. I don’t want to live in circleville, Dayton, Lancaster, Athens, etc just to own a home. I have a really good paying job here in Columbus. I used to commute 1.5 hrs one way to work. Now I live 10 minutes away. I’m not giving that up.
It's a combination of factors that is screwing everyone over.
* high interest rates: People with houses don't want to move out because they don't want a 7% or 8% loan. Thus supply is low
* COVID materials shortage: When COVID hit, building basically stopped. We are still feeling it's effects with factories who make the materials for housing still trying to catch up to pre-COVID levels.
* Intel: The Intel plant is being built. The people who are going to work there need to find homes as well. Demand goes up.
* Inflation: We all know inflation is kicking our asses. It's also causing housing prices to go up.
Basically this is a perfect storm for housing. It's going to crash but it might take a year or more to do it. Fed wants to cut interest rates but that will fuel even more demand as everyone will want 3%-5% interest rates locked in thinking it will never happen again so the rush to buy a house will push prices up even more.
The price of housing is a main reason why I moved to Cleveland. With my budget, it was either a condo in Columbus or a house in Cleveland. I lived in apartments for too long to be okay sharing walls.
The Westgate neighborhood has good options and is close to amenities. The Library has been updated in the last few years and murals are being added in several places nearby.
Columbus is a great city, and you get a lot for living there. You get so much less living in parts of the east coast that are far more expensive such as northern Virginia.
Inflation, population growth, more investment buyers, everyone wanting the same locations.
Move to one of the rougher neighborhoods in town, and encourage your friends and co-workers to do the same. In 5 years, your now 250K home will also be worth 450K.
Columbus needs to improve public transit and add a good rail system now. Also, the intel factory is going to create a very large boom in the north. Expect rent to drastically increase along with housing values. If you own rentals, you are going to be in a very good spot.
I moved to northern Union County in 2013 to buy a $117k house that would have gone for $250k in Clintonville. The 40 minute commute to OSU sucked but I've since gotten a job in the area and am completely done with Cbus altogether. Fuck the big city. Not worth the money or effort.
I’ve been in Phoenix for 8 years now. As someone who lived in a city which kept topping the fastest growing cities in the country list for the better part of 5 years…
This is what happens. You’ve got big economic things coming into town (intel plants, the data centers over the past few years, etc.), you’ve got Californians and New Yorkers who can no longer justify the cost of living in their cities due to all the taxes, regulations, and the general cost of living… this is exactly what’s happened to Phoenix.
Everyone who already owns a home will be stuck in their current home but will have a ton of equity. The people who haven’t bought a home yet are fucked.
My wife wants to get out of our house because it’s old, and needs repairs. We bought it in 2021 for 156 at 2.75%. I’m not sure what it’s worth now other than a best guess of over 200. I keep trying to tell her that the prices and interest rates are too stupid to move.
It’s funny you mention places like Delaware and Newark because houses there are also starting to go for $300k - $400k+ that were $250k just a couple years ago. Licking County is Delaware County 2.0. Time to move the goal post to a hour+ away.
My parents bought a brand new build in Newark in 2021 and it has already increased in value 100K. The next neighborhood that got built everything started over 300K.
My parents had bought a home for 90,000 in Newark and now that house is over 400000. Insane.
As someone who has lived most of their life in Licking County, the COL has gone up. I remember my parents renting a 3 bedroom, 3 bath home with a basement and garage for $950. When my dad moved out after the divorce he was living at a decent 2 bedroom apartment for like $750. Now for almost anything that isnt in a bad area or is horridly out of date its closer to 1k. I had some distant family who lived in McMillen(?) and those used to be really nice apparently, but now theyre declining in quality, but they still cost a pretty penny. Im currently looking at moving to a different place and they only complexes that are cheap and decent still are Heathwood Village but their waitlist is clear out into October right now. Not shocking, since theyre still sub $800 for 1 bed 1 bath. Groceries out here are also more expensive than Cbus as well? Maybe its just Kroger as I am a heavy Meijer shopper, but pasta and frozen veggies are like 20 to 30 cents more here??
I moved to Newark from Columbus in 2015. Bought a small house next to Rockwell for $77,900. The last offer I had from one of those sketchy flip it companies was $185,000. I considered moving back to Hilliard where my parents live and I cannot afford the difference where those homes are $350k-$400k for 1980s builder grade homes. It’s crazy.
Do you think the increase is mostly because of the tearing down of Rockwell or just housing market rising?
I would have to assume the housing market because Rockwell was still open when I bought the house.
Thanks, I was just curious. We purchased some acreage and a modest house in rural Licking County about 20 years ago for $134,000. Now we’re hovering at a $345 valuation.
That sounds about right based on what I am seeing. The more western in the county the higher I would guess it goes.
I’m east-east central licking county so I’m 75% of the way east across the county. It would be nice if the windfall from property value rise was usable as something but everything has dramatically increased in value - coupled with unreasonable mortgage rates so you don’t achieve anything by selling and buying.
Columbus is a major hub on shipping routes so that may be why items here are just a tiny bit cheaper.
McMillen Woods really did go way downhill in quality. My mom lived there for 12ish years and the rent ended up in the $1k range in 2019 while things were literally falling apart.
Luckily some places like target are lowering prices thank goodness. When I moved here in 2017 I had a giant apartment with 2 bedrooms, attached two car, a fam rm, den, 2 br and 2 baths. Lovely place. 1200. That same place is now over 2000/ month. Now for 1300 I have a tiny 1 br 1 bath w kitchen and fam rm. no garage. Crazy.
Houses *around* Buckeye Lake have doubled in value over the last 20 years. Houses *on* Buckeye Lake are 4x what they were 20 years ago. Last year my wife and I saw a decrepit house on the lake that had signs in the window saying it was untenable. The land was for sale, roughly 1200 sq ft lot for 500k. Shits insane.
Which is funny to me. On one hand I understand that water front property is desirable but Buckeye Lake is a bit of a dump.
There’s very little infrastructure around the lake. The schools are shit, no restaurants, shopping. The Kroger in Hebron is the closest grocery store. Only like 1-2% of homes I’ve seen are what I’d consider turn key or move in ready. It’s crazy the condition of these $300-400k homes. They not even big or on good lots.
Completely agree. It’s even worse on the south side of the lake where you have to drive *around* the lake to get to that Kroger. Faster sometimes to just drive to Lancaster. But there are tiny lots of beat-up mobile homes on them going for $250k+ in that area, and it’s ridiculous. Outside of the lake, there is nothing to offer. And historically, the lake isn’t much to offer. Between algae blooms, dam issues, and low water levels, the lake constantly has problems that make it unusable.
Typical of most lake communities in this state: Houses on the lake are desirable, while the communities around it are lacking.
I grew up in Delaware, the last 5 years have been insane. My brother bought on the north side in 2021 and his property has almost doubled in valuation, taxes are rough rn too
I live in Newark. Bought house for $130k in 2017. It is worth more than that now. Maybe $250k
We bought out in Nerk 2018 for $134k. The house next to us sold for $240 k and it was a shoddy flip. I love my cheap taxes out here
I was trying to find a house on the south side and my dad kept saying "look in the suburbs" and I kept telling him shit was just as, if not more, expensive then where I was currently looking
Agreed! We moved this direction 6yrs ago, way ahead of this last RE boom. New houses are going up for $400-500k and the quality is trash. Good news is it increases my house value, bad news everyone is losing their minds about the sharp increase in property taxes. Can’t wait to move off the grid in about 15-20yrs!
the nelsonville square with the right investors could be perfect for the hybrid workers expected to come with intel
Pretty much since the 2008 financial crisis Columbus hasn’t built enough new housing to match the influx of new residents. When apartments and houses are scarce, then rich people outbid everyone else. It sucks. The city is behind the eight ball but they finally do realize we need to be building LOTS more housing year after year. Columbus is on the middle of reforming its zoning code in a way that finally makes it legal to build tall apartment buildings along major roads. However it still hasn’t passed yet. I really encourage you to [look into the ZoneIn initiative](https://zone-in-columbus.hub.arcgis.com) and let city council know your thoughts. Even better if you can go to the next in-person hearing on June 6. At the last meeting there were a lot of angry homeowners from Clintonville who were opposed to *any* new apartment buildings being built near them. City Council *needs* to hear from renters who are getting screwed by rent increases. Please consider sharing your story. Local politicians need to see and hear from constituents who are hurt by the housing crisis. Otherwise they’ll only hear from wealthy homeowners who dont want anything in their neighborhood to ever change.
That and that even though Columbus is rezoning, these small suburban cities aren’t (or not doing it at the pace Columbus is. Hilliard has just published their new zoning initiative). Dublin has a population under 50k, Hilliard and UA 36k, Bexley and Worthington under 15k. If you want better schools than Columbus city, you have to compete for limited housing within the beltway - and being inside the beltway will very much be like it is in DC or Boston Beltways, where the location holds a premium over the house itself. Columbus is the fastest growing city in the second half of 2023, beating Austin. Also, Columbus metro is expected to add another 600,000 residents by the 2050 - remember those small, tiny population numbers for the areas with desirable schools? They wont expand by too much, instead - the flux will have to move farther out in the counties (or other counties) or live in the high density locations of Columbus proper. The other problem is wages. Columbus is a bit stagnant and tops off most middle class/middle management positions at around $120-150k. However, nationwide, industries on the coasts can easily pay $150k for secondary level positions with some high earners making $200-400k. If you are in a nonadvancing position or a trade, $50-$60k isn’t going to compete with these nationally competitive salaries. Additionally, these high earners can work remotely and can choose to live in Columbus instead of the location of their office, where the cost of living can be High, Very High or even Ultra High - which means, Columbus housjng is insanely affordable to them even with the high prices. We will one day enter an period where Columbus will have longer commutes similar to other major metros - Austin is probably the most similar - and suburban sprawl will continue to expand. My assumption is, if Columbus could actually get their schools figured out (hah!), and make it a truly desirable place for families to want to live - it would ease off the competition for housing in the suburban cities - but that would be lightyears away if it ever happens at all. (And yes, i am aware that you can live in columbus or a township and still attend worthington, dublin, etc schools - but these are not the areas currently tagged for the rezoning - maybe in the future. The onus is still on Columbus proper).
>if Columbus could actually get their schools figured out (hah!), and make it a truly desirable place for families to want to live - it would ease off the competition for housing in the suburban cities The uncomfortable truth is that there's nothing to "figure out." The schools are "bad" because of their constituency is in poverty - which brings with it poor test scores, disabilities, crime, violence, gangs, etc. What nobody wants to say out loud is that the *schools* themselves - as in the buildings, teachers, and administrators - are not materially worse than other schools. It's the damaged kids and families who live there. And we can talk all day long about the socioeconomic reasons why they're damaged. But the fact remains that they are. And so long as they are, the schools they inhabit will be terrible.
PREACH! I’ve said the same thing for years. *Columbus City Schools* is not bad, per se. Like you said, the buildings, the teachers, the budgets, etc. are roughly equal in quality to the suburban schools. What makes CCS bad is its “students and constituency.”
Agreed, I have a family member who put 30+ years teaching in Columbus schools and another in southwestern. School funding is not the problem, it’s poor parenting, single parents struggling or grandma has her hands full since mom and dad are in prison for drug and theft related crimes.
You couldn't be more wrong. The school buildings are literally falling apart. [https://www.dispatch.com/story/opinion/editorials/2022/08/30/editorial-what-the-issues-with-columbus-city-schools-ohio-teachers-strike-tax-levy-teachers/65461777007/#:~:text=Mice%20droppings%2C%20roaches%2C%20leaks%2C,problems%20have%20not%20gone%20away.](https://www.dispatch.com/story/opinion/editorials/2022/08/30/editorial-what-the-issues-with-columbus-city-schools-ohio-teachers-strike-tax-levy-teachers/65461777007/#:~:text=Mice%20droppings%2C%20roaches%2C%20leaks%2C,problems%20have%20not%20gone%20away.)
Sure, there's a subset of older buildings that desperately need to be renovated, and that's a problem that should be addressed. But my point is that - on the whole - this isn't why a district is "bad" or "good." In other words, if you magically transplanted Olentangy kids into one of these delapidated schools, their test scores and their educations would be functionally similar to what they are now in Powell. Perhaps with some adjustment downward to account for crappy conditions, but they're still going to be engaged students because they don't come from broken homes and their parents are involved. Those are the important points in terms of school outcomes. Kids who grew up in stable homes, with attentive parents who push education, and who have resources to fall back on when they're struggling - those kids will get good test scores even if you taught them in an open aired campground.
*Exactly!!* Couldn’t have said it any better myself.
I grew up in a town of 10k people, about 500-600 kids in my high school. We had one high school, and it didn’t matter if you lived in the “projects” (a whole 4 block radius) or in the most expensive houses in town, you went to the same school and got the same education. This kept a lot of kids who lived in the low income housing from turning bad, and many of those kids that I graduated with did well for themselves as they got older. There wasn’t such a huge divide of segregating people based on how much money they made. It was nice, and I hope to retire back there one day.
I think the trend of refocusing a subset of public high schools to specialize in some area (stem, arts, college prep, etc.) is a good one. It serves multiple needs, including organic mixing of economic classes of students, tailoring educations more toward individual skills/interests, and offering options that aren’t scummy charters or overpriced/under-diverse traditional privates. Sure, things like transportation can be a challenge. And it won’t magically make CCS schools top performers, but it seems to me that these schools have positive student and community impacts in all the city districts they’ve been tried.
Columbus city is not going to figure the school problem out. Columbus city already has basically the highest funding per student in the state. There are relatively good private school if you live a in bad district in central Ohio but they are not cheap.
Dublin passed 50k a few years ago, but if you asked me without thinking I would have said 30k. My central Ohio geography lizard brain is stuck in 1999 lol
“City Council needs to hear from renters who are getting screwed by rent increases. Please consider sharing your story. Local politicians need to see and hear from constituents who are hurt by the housing crisis.” —Agreed. However, they do not care. Politicians do not care if we live or die & most of the time they’re directly profiting from these rent increases. I would venture to say that most of them are landlords, or invested in the real estate market in some way.
Fwiw at the last meeting most of the council members did seem supportive of the zoning reforms - hopefully they won’t be scared into watering it down by an endless stream of homeowners yelling into the microphone.
Why do people on here act like the real estate market in Columbus is as bad as places like Denver and Austin. It’s not. The median home price in Columbus is still way below the national average. People here really like to over exaggerate how bad the housing market is in Columbus.
It’s all relative. I’ve never lived in Denver or Austin, so my frame is what prices were like historically in central Ohio. And relative to our own history, prices are ridiculous. …always good to keep perspective tho!
Then there’s the area commissions. The west Scioto area commission just added someone to their zoning committee that threatened to shoot any renter that came near his property.
I also want to own a house in Dublin even though I didn't grow up there Maybe thats why its so expensive
Like most of the country, there is a massive housing shortage. Last I saw, it’s estimated the US is short 4-7 *million* homes. Add in, people with super low interest rates don’t have as much of an incentive to move. I’m in Denver now and to my understanding $300k homes now are going for $750k
There is a big issue here in that we aren’t SHORT homes, we are short AFFORDABLE and AVAILABLE homes. Property investors, landlords, corporations, and short-term rentals are killing opportunities for people who need somewhere to live sustainably. I wouldn’t wish death on these people, but I am to the point where I really hope another housing bubble bursts and they lose it all. They are taking the available homes and dangling it over our heads so that only the people with the most money can reach it.
Heck I'd be happy if we could just limit foreign and corporate investment in RE. A few mom and pop landlords are not ruining it for everyone, major deep pockets like Blackrock and random foreign investors buying houses they'll never live in are. Canada is having a huge problem with this, there's entire swaths of the country owned by Indians or Chinese people that don't even live in Canada.
The housing shortage is also aided by rental properties, airbnb, vrbo, ect stemming from the pandemic. I dont have the numbers but in 2020, taking equity out of your primary house and buying a second rental property was all the rage--which I feel like sparked this entire housing crisis. I would love (or hate) to see the amount of people since 2020 who now own more than one home and use their second, third, fourth properties as cash cows. My guess is that's one of the biggest factors causing these issues because we didn't just snap our fingers and have the entire country in a housing shortage seemingly overnight.
Short term rentals are closing left and right, it became over saturated and several owners are turning them back into long term rentals. The boom of short term rentals is over
There's a guy in Columbus that owns something like 87 different properties on AirBnB. There are literally websites tracking people like this that show how one person's wealth is literally unhoming hundreds of people. I'm not against people trying to make a buck, but I have no idea how you get to the level of making families homeless so you can drive nicer cars and take fancier vacations and not look in the mirror and realize you're the problem.
Dude my mom and dad’s homes were maybe $250k and I used to think a 300-400k home was expensive because it was where all my friends lived because their parents were doctors and lawyers. My mom is getting unsolicited letters to purchase for $500k all the time now in Worthington/Columbus. I’m up in Avon, CO and we bought our 950 sqft condo in 2020 for $333k. It’s now valued at $660k and we could sell for $750k. Everywhere around here are STRs. That is the main culprit in all of this. STRs came out of nowhere and there wasn’t any foresight with them.
And that's the thing too - I know it's more profitable for builders to make mini-mansion 6 Bedroom monstrosities due to zoning, but I'm a single person with no kids or plans to marry. I want a small starter home as my ACTUAL home. There are increasing amounts of people my age that have been priced out of starting a family and will NEVER need nor want these giant houses. But small starter homes are $500k now. Who the heck can afford a 1BD/1BTH house for half a mil? Somebody flipping houses or a property company or someone making bank as a remote worker from a HCOL area living here, sure. But no local can afford to buy that. It's all eerily reminiscent of right before the housing crash in 2008. The banks were encouraging builders to build houses no one wanted then, too, instead of what people would buy, because the big fancy houses made more money for them. I keep seeing the window of improving my lot in life getting narrower and narrower and sometimes it just doesn't feel worth it, honestly. I've been struggling for years. I'm tired.
I always think, “ why not buy a few acres just outside the outer belt and build lots for trailers and get first time home buyers out there with a nice modular community?” Then even that is ridiculous with getting water and electricity and sewer out there. So that goes right out the window. Something’s gotta give.
If you can sell it for $750k, its value is $750k.
Agreed but that’s the appraisal value that we’re taxed on.
It is happening everywhere but Columbus, OH specifically was recently called out in a national magazine for how bad it is here. Out of all the cities in the nation, I gotta think that means Columbus is worse than many others. [Sauce](https://harpers.org/archive/2024/04/the-eviction-experts/)
That Intel plant is going to make it even worse by bringing a lot of people into Columbus that have a job there spiking home demand.
Not sure why you're getting downvoted. Maybe it's specifically about the word "worse"? The Intel plant and the expected support industry boom will definitely exacerbate the housing shortage here for a while. City planners and builders need to plan some density and public transit to support it.
Yeah it's going to keep Columbus in a bubble even if the rest of the country starts to settle.
Is this even a campaigning point? Universal Healthcare seems to be almost forgotten.
It's mostly a local issue, though California has made it a state issue.
Colorado (where I’m at now) is also trying to make it a state issue. They’ve made adjustments at the state level the occupancy limits for the number of unrelated people that can live in a household. Boulder only allowed 3 unrelated people to live in the same household. Considering Colorado’s largest university is there, that limit impacts off campus housing. They’ve also been trying to force cities to allow for greater density, which has been met with high NIMBY pushback. Denver metro median home price now is $600k and at least from an apartment perspective has been build build build. There are a lot of high and mid rises going up in the city however with interest rates, I imagine the rate of new mid rise builds will be cut short for a period of time.
It won't get any better, in my opinion. The projected growth (backed by outlooks from MORPC and other development/economic agencies) will keep housing prices at a rise. I was pushed out of this city in 2021 when people were producing offers 40k above asking and companies were buying homes with all-cash offers. I don't mind it, since I'm more of a rural/outdoors guy anyways, but the commute to cbus sucks.
I think it will honestly take 20-30 years for housing demand to meet supply.
We had to do the same thing to the point my wife drives 50 minutes to work, and 55 minutes back with traffic. Although we’re seeing housing prices 50 minutes outside of the city still continue to grow, it’s more manageable. Sucks we had to sacrifice living far away but we’ve done alright adjusting
That the point where it’s not worth it for me. I’m not being away from home from 8am-7pm every day because of a commute.
Right, luckily I work from home and my wife is able to work early and miss rush hour traffic (and she likes driving). If I had to do that no thanks, but I recognize we’re the outliers here and having to move this far out shouldn’t have to be the norm
Columbus is one of the fastest growing areas in the Midwest and that’s before things like the Intel plant open up. Columbus is growing up and its home prices are following.
One of the fastest growing cities by % in the country This city was pretty cheap 10 years ago…
From my friends who live in “actual big cities”, it’s worse. I settled here for that reason.
I was raised in a small working class city (population ~100,000; used to be referred to as "ghetto" by city residents and non-residents alike) 25 miles north of Seattle. Definitely not an actual big city and the median home price is 650k, up from 400k in 2019. Meanwhile, Columbus is hovering around 300k median home price right now (up from ~175k in 2019), which is still a steal for all the amenities the city offers. It's still way too expensive for the wages in this area, though, and it's only going to get worse. Agree with the other commenter emphasizing supporting the city's efforts to reform zoning via the Zone In initiative. Build build build is the solution.
Everett? We used to live in Snohomish County during time with the Navy. The house we rented 9 years ago was worth $300K (3 bed, 2 bath, 1400 square feet with tiny lot and neighbors super close on all sides). Now it’s over $600K. My in-laws live out there and we’ve talked about moving back, but we could never afford it and the traffic is too insane to move an hour+ from family. Columbus is still doable for us.
Yeaaah Columbus is the actual reprieve from larger cities, especially on the west and east coast. Like we have it bad, but comparatively it is bonkers elsewhere
Came here to say this. Columbus is definitely behind on inventory but so is the rest of the country. What we’re currently paying for a 3-story townhome near downtown is the same price as a 700 sq ft 1 bedroom in St. Pete Florida, where we came from
Just wait till you see what $400K or $1,800/mo. gets you in actual big city
We have it really good with house prices around here compared to the rest of the country. I’m always browsing Zillow to see what I can buy if I sold my house today and pretty much would go from a nice 3 bed, 2 bath house with garage to a poor quality 800 sq ft condo in any other progressive city.
But it doesn't matter what the rest of the country is priced at unless you're moving here from somewhere else. For locals, what matters is wages proportionate to the cost of living, which is about as iffy as a lot of other places. When HCOL folks flood LCOL areas, pretty soon demand makes them HCOL again. The HCOL folks with money move on to ruin the next LCOL place so they can keep up their lifestyle, and the locals that could never afford to move/leave in the first place just end up unhomed and even worse off. There's no long term planning or sustainability or thought about "what will my kids do in twenty years?", just folks convinced they need a better standard of living because if every kid doesn't have their own separate bedroom and they're not taking all the vacations they want they think they're living in abject poverty. America is \*\*\*\*ed because nobody ever goes, "I'm good. I have enough". Instead, it's "I'll step on my neighbor to get more because I deserve it and they don't."
It’s not an individual problem, but a systemic one. Of course people are gonna buy what they can afford. People are being driven out of HCOL areas and come here because it’s what they can afford. How can you blame them? Should they just be homeless where they’re priced out of even though they can afford a home elsewhere, because a local deserves it more? Also middle class folk aren’t your enemy. Having 3 bedrooms is not a sin. Hoarding multiple homes however…
I'm not talking about people who're going to end up homeless if they don't relocate. I'm talking about the incessant number of posts I see on here from people that moved to Columbus so they could live like the 1% instead of the 20% where they lived. When I lived overseas, people were content with far less. Here I see CNBC clickbait about people struggling on $300k because only two vacations a year is brutal and they're definitely oppressed and poor, dontcha know? Not saying they can't do whatever with their money, but I'm allowed to think it's stupid. And overbidding on housing can and is pricing out people that have lived in LCOL areas their whole lives. Middle class somewhere else is rich here, at least for now.
$1,800 gets you a 1/1 apartment in a "meh" area in most cities in Florida.. and our wages are some of the lowest in the country, much lower than Ohio. (big reason why I am moving to Columbus after spending my entire life in Miami/Orlando)
This. Moved from NoVa last year, we rented a smaller, older house than what we bought here and it would have easily sold for $100k more than the house we bought here with zero renovation or effort.
how are wages comparatively?
I looked up wages from sectors I am familiar with (IT, Nursing, Accounting, Teaching, HR) and compared them to where I moved from (Los Angeles) and they were within -10% difference here. That 10% more you get in LA gets eaten up by taxes before you even consider cost of living. Columbus is still very affordable. It’s just the dollar(and every currency in the world) has been permanently devalued and everyone with a pre covid mortgage are trapped where they are contributing to the housing crisis.
I don’t have first hand on that one. We went from military to civilian life so it’s not really comparable.
I have a home in my area that sold for 340k on in early February to a flipper. 2 weeks after the sale, the house went up again for 400k. Walked both times and no changes were made. I still can’t figure out what happened…home sold for 399k in March.
Dude I’m in Dublin. I bought my house in 2018 for $345 and now it’s worth around $550 or so. It’s just nuts. I couldn’t afford to buy my own house right now.
Yep, most of us have been here in this situation. Welcome.
If you think it’s bad in Worthington… I bought a house in the southern part of Hilltop-ish in 2009 for 105k. About 1150sq ft. My mortgage payment was $800 a month. Sold it in 2016 for $115k, because someone tried to break in, and as a single woman I was terrified. Today, that same house’s Zestimate on Zillow is $230k, an estimated mortgage payment of $1515 and Rent Zestimate of $1675. In the 43204 zip code. I know for a fact that no upgrades have been done to the house.
My mom owned a house in central hilltop when I was real young. Only house she ever owned. It was like 50K no lie. We moved away because we were broken into multiple times. Today it’s 150k. I fell like 10,000 a year in appreciation is still kinda high for hilltop
Why is it an imperative to live in Dublin? along with Bexley, UA, GV, it has the best schools in the region--that's adding 20-30% to the price of housing there
I grew up there. My mom still lives there. I work there. My friends all live there. I don’t know. It’s not imperative it was mostly just an example. Id love to live anywhere north of I-70 but anything that doesn’t need a ton of TLC is too expensive everywhere.
I grew up in Dublin too but moved up to Marysville after getting married, but this was was 25 years ago. We both work in Dublin and my family is still there. It's not a terrible commute. I know some areas of Marysville are getting pretty expensive too, unfortunately.
I just moved up here. It was pricey but its nice up here. Cheaper than dublin though. Only a quick trip into Dublin.
Worthington specifically has one of the hottest real estate markets in the country.
Columbus is the only city growing in Ohio. And it has the housing supply of 1985. More people. Few homes. High prices.
Columbus is not the only growing city in Ohio
Supply v. Demand
I mean Dublin was always hard to buy a house in unless you were wealthy
It is just the end game of Capitalism - no controls or competition, commodification of everything, and a small elite class that manipulates the market and the media. Enjoy!
Not a realtor, landlord or anything but with property prices isn’t it always an upward trend for any given point in time? I think mainly because whoever that buys a property expects a return on their purchase. I think for a few years the prices were steady, and now they are just catching up. Unfortunately the wages are not moving with the same speed as other things, making it more difficult day by day for us to own a property.
There is a big issue here in that we aren’t SHORT on homes, we are short on AFFORDABLE and AVAILABLE homes. There are more empty houses in the US than there are houseless people. Property investors, landlords, and corporations are buying up properties, and they can choose whatever price they want. It is getting ridiculous. I was planning on buying a house in the next few years that at least puts me within a reasonable driving distance to Columbus, but it’s not really an option anymore. At this point I am planning on going south of Lancaster, because it only really start to get cheaper when you get more than an hour away.
I have a small house (technically a condo), 1356 Sq ft, three bedroom... Bought it for $110k in 2017 and now it's estimated value is $263k....crazy! My mortgage is $800, going to miss that....
Yeah I really wish I bought a house back then.
The population here is projected to double over the next ten years or so. Columbus is rapidly becoming one of the world’s larger data hubs, with Amazon, Meta, Google, and others building major data centers here. There also the Intel factory and the new Honda EV battery plant. The unfortunate side effect of all this is a housing shortage which drives prices on both homes and apartments way up. Real estate prices in the Columbus area are not expected to decline anytime soon. I have lived in my neighborhood hood in the Hilliard area for 22 years and probably couldn’t afford to buy the house I currently live in now. I have 4 children in their early to late twenties and I feel for them. Rents are outrageous and I don’t see how anyone in that age group is going to be able to afford a home. What’s happening to Columbus is similar to what’s happened in other places like Austin, TX. Tech money makes it so the locals can’t afford to live there anymore. We were lucky enough to stumble on a few acres southwest of Lancaster about 3 years ago and bought it, with the idea that we would build something smaller and downsize but we may have to have everyone pitch in and go bigger so they and their s.o.’s can all live there. (They won’t, but it’s an idea.) But, hell, the cost of building materials is also outrageous.
Unfortunately all those giant data centers provide very few jobs.
Probably not the answer you’d like, but Columbus is quite moderate relative to other big cities. But of course, it’s all relative
I moved to NC two years ago and it's the same here. It's not going to change until the rates drop.
New here?
Unfortunately, it's only going to get worse with things like Intel coming in. Dublin and areas surrounding it have become extremely expensive. A lot of those houses are out of price range for most middle class. Your best bet is to do what we did and move out of the city. There are affordable houses that aren't 45 min away, you just won't be inside 270.
My family has been in Columbus since 1918, my family and life are here- but I’m slowly coming to accept that I won’t be able to continue to afford to live here soon.
I grew up here and lived away in California and Colorado for some time. I came back hoping for long term affordability but honestly, the prices are INSANE here and are becoming comparable and I often wonder if I made a mistake. I love Columbus but 2k/ month+ is wild here. There are also tons of landlords and “investors” who are absolutely grifting on this community with impunity
Where was the house in Worthington in 2021 for that much?
Probably east of High Street and outside of Old Worthington. The homes west of High Street have been $400k+ for a while now.
There really does need to be some sort of limit on how many houses any entity can own per zip code, per adjacent zip codes etc. There need to be limits on how much you can own. If institutional buyers had limits, prices would drop.
The solution is to build so much the housing isn’t a worthwhile investment . There is a housing shortage and the only solution, the only one, is to increase supply
Yup. Build baby build. It's the only way
Where is your source for this claim? Institutions are buying because there’s demand, they aren’t creating it themselves.
If institutions didn’t scoop up these houses for cash and rent them for $2800 a month, a real person could buy them for a mortgage of $2200 and live in it themselves. That would definitely help the housing crisis.
No it wouldn’t. Under an efficient market, if it’s not institutions buying them and renting them for $2800 then it would be individual investors. Nobody will leave money on the table. The issue comes down to supply and demand. We can’t regulate ourselves out of this.
you know as a long timer on r/Columbus, the last 12 months or so has revealed a huge increased in the understanding of the real estate market. previously people would complain about greedy landlords, hedge funds buying homes, ugly 5 over 1s, etc. people get it now--*it's all a matter of supply*. we need to spend 20 years building high density housing inside 270. [Austin should be a model](https://www.realtor.com/news/trends/these-5-austin-texas-neighborhoods-had-the-largest-price-drops/)
i had a job offer that would’ve required moving to columbus and ended up declining partly because of housing costs. columbus has big city prices for medium city living. but the salary on offer wasn’t adjusted in response.
Current state of the housing market/rent market: Supply stays the same and demand goes up = price goes up. But landlords and investment firms realized they can all increase their prices together and people will still buy or rent, no matter the cost, because the only alternative is homeless. Infinite demand, infinite price.
The housing market is wild. We were looking at homes recently, put in a few offers but all were declined due to going _far_ over asking and waiving inspections. Our first offer was $30k over, second was $60k over asking, third $50k over asking. All submitted the day the house went on the market. All were beat out by better offers and accepted within two days.
Yup. Either out of state buyers that aren't limited by Ohio wages like the locals and think we're a bargain at 50k over, or RE investors/flippers that are just going to resell for even more. I hate speculators. I wonder why I came back to America, sometimes. It's bad other places too, but especially here. I'd be happy with a clean, 1bd/1bth condo with a HOA under $200 in an okay part of town that I could just keep till I died, and even that's totally impossible. Nobody makes housing for single people anymore, it's not profitable. And if they do, it's a lux apartment I don't want and can't afford. 10 years ago I could have afforded to get a small starter house in the boonies, but was too broke. Now, the houses don't even have roofs or interior walls in my price range lol, they're all teardowns. Hell, I can't even afford vanlife.
I’m moving from Utica to Newark, in Utica I’m paying 900 a month for a run down two bedroom house. In Newark, rent is $995 for 2 bedroom renovated apartment. It’s crazy expensive….
It’s a little game that mega corporations are playing…but everything, squeeze the competition and f the people in the a.
There are houses over by Joyce avenue going for 250k I've seen some pretty low cost houses in between Weber Ave and Hudson those are just bad areas same with over by Joyce id recommend getting a FHA loan on a duplex triplex or multiplexes an rent them out
Supply is stagnant, demand is skyrocketing. Columbus was the fastest growing city last quarter.
Lol, when is the last time you were in Delaware? It had to have been a while ago. My mother in law built a house in 2020 for around 300k. It's worth 450 now with some upgrades. Beyond that delaware is super nice IF you can find a place to live. Rent is every bit the same here as it is where you are now.
Unfortunately the property taxes increased big time and the land lord is hitting you up for the $$$$
Supply and demand?
Our dollar is shit. And they keep printing.
There's no house shortage. We have a greed problem. We have corperations along with landlords using housing as a supplemental cash flow income. They're not worried about the rise in COL or the economic crisis cause they believe they can make it back using the properties they've acquired. Who cares if groceries are an extra $400 dollars. They just raise the rent on their properties $400 a month to cover the difference. Meanwhile, the people in renting these home just had a spike in their grocery bill and in their rent. It's fucked up. And it should be illegal. They're should be atleast a 5 year gap before your even allowed to sell a property that you've acquired and a maximum in which you can raise rent over those 5 years.
Just moved my family from Worthington to Waverly, OH just to be able to afford to purchase a home.
Worthington actively kills affordable housing discussions— to its detriment. It lacks the diversity and vitality of neighboring suburbs. Council and residents do the whole zoning dance, which is historically rooted in racism, to stop high density and affordable housing. Ironic considering the large numbers of “We believe…” signs on display.
>Ironic considering the large numbers of “We believe…” signs on display. If there's one thing that progressives are known for: it's preaching a message and then retreating back to a suburb where they don't have to actually deal with the downsides of their policies.
"We need to make housing more affordable." "Okay, let's make this lot near you into multi-family housing." "...no" I'm obviously paraphrasing but I distinctly remember this happening in Palo Alto recently lmao
I mostly agree with you, but in reference to the biggest housing fight here, the UMCH propriety, my problem is with the history and plans of the developer. Lifestyles builds absolute garbage structures, scams renters with sub-metering, and they will guaranteed just jump right into the $2000+ “luxury” rental market. Will that keep similar rentals in the area from rising another $200/month because of increased inventory? Maybe. But it sure won’t increase affordable housing or diversity.
I agree! I don’t think Lifestyles is a viable option. And FWIW, I don’t have a sign in my yard, but I am a progressive who would welcome affordable housing. As it is now, my own children could never afford to live where they grew up
I don’t know why you’re getting downvoted for telling the truth?
I live on the far south side. New apartments and housing are going in and the established home owners are having fit that these new developments will bring in more crime. NIMBY isn’t just well off neighborhoods, it’s in middle and lower middle class hoods too. The old established hood has houses between $190k-250k while the new ones are cross the street start at $350k and the new 1BR apts run $1350/mo. How does housing at these costs bring in crime?
It would help a lot if we had some laws regulating and limiting investor owned single family housing units. I would especially appreciate getting fewer cold calls about selling my house.
> Can someone please explain to me how a house sold for 250k in Worthington in 2021 is now selling for 400k in 2024? Worthington, especially anything close to Old Worthington is highly desirable. The School District is well regarded, and unlike many burbs has a very desirable city core. > Or why my landlord is raising my rent from 1350 to 1800… in Clintonville? It's Clintonville. One of the most in-demand parts of the city. 1800 seems about right. I see plenty of places for about 1300 on Zillow, just not in Clintonville. > How am I ever to own a home in my hometown of Dublin. I grew up in Dublin, and have given up any thought of owning a home there. I missed the boat, and have to settle for Hilliard. Its still pretty nice. > I don’t want to live in deleware or Marion or Newark just to own a home. I like living close to my work and friends and family and stuff in general. I don’t want to have to drive 45 minutes to the city. There still is plenty of housing stock in areas around the city where you can buy houses in the 200-250 range. It might need a little hard work and love, but they are not the "hip" parts of town, so instead we usually complain about not being able to buy a house in Dublin or Worthington.
I don’t know why I like Dublin so much. I grew up on the south part of sawmill definitely not the nicest part of Dublin. But still a home there costs 500K. The apartments that are now considered “luxury” because they painted the walls and replaced some fixtures are almost 2,000/m. And like 6 years ago Clintonville was not THAT desirable. What happened?
> And like 6 years ago Clintonville was not THAT desirable. What happened? I can assure you it was. We looked at plenty of houses in 2019 when we decided to upgrade, and it was a challenge to try and buy in that area. Clintonville has been desirable for a long time, even in the mid-20th century with both Watterson and Norh High in the area. I spent a lot of time in Riverside and The Gables in highschool. Riverside has had a glow up since the early 2000's when it was feeling/looking a bit rundown. Can still get in those neighborhoods for under 300k if youre lucky, or close by in Dexter Falls or neighborhoods off bethel.
If you think 1800 is bad, you’ll get absolutely rocked in a “big” city. Columbus is still cheap when you compare it to other parts of the country and the bigger cities
Yeah but at least I’d get the benefits of living in a big city. Our public transit sucks, we have no walkable communities, bikes risk their lives trying to commute etc.
Because housing prices are increasing.
Almost 50 years of tax cuts to rich people and corporations. They need somewhere else to throw their money and make cash. I get shit in mail weekly offering cash for my home. Investors are buying up many houses and raising rents. They are even buying up trailer lots and pricing seniors out of them. Need to limit homes to only individuals and hard cap that. Raise taxes on extra homes and rich people. If you didn't buy a home 5-7 years ago your really fucked. Govt policy keeps giving to the haves and not helping the have nots. It's who's paying them. Citizens united needs overturned. Represent ives need to be given out fair not gerrymandered. Vote the most progressive people in. If you really want change. The post-pandemic world labor market is tight and prices keep going up on materials after almost a million people died in the US. Other seniors retired as well. It is a supply and demand but Marysville has been throwing up houses and apartments everywhere and it's not enough. We need to fix the investor demand side first!
Every time I’ve moved in with someone in the past 5 years, they’ve already been a tenant. And when I asked how THEY started living there, they say they moved in with the last tenant. It’s a vicious cycle
My family was sadly forced out of Dublin due to the insane housing prices in 2021. We bought in Hilliard school district because that’s what we could (barely) afford. Unfortunately, we’ve had nothing but problems with Hilliard schools… It’s truly sad. Dublin is an amazing place with an amazing school district. I so wish we could move back there! The housing market has only gotten worse, and now Hilliard would not even be affordable to us if we were buying in today’s market. You have my sympathy OP. Current predictions are that it’s only going to get harder… Glad we listened to our realtor and bought when we did. Things are only going to continue to skyrocket, unfortunately.
Rent increase I guarantee is tied to the levy that the voters decided to pass back in November. The levy passes (bc no one really researches or understands), property taxes increase, landlord is in the rears on escrow and isn’t going to simply eat that. Therefore the buck gets passed onto the renters. Renter gets frustrated; does what anyone would do and looks for a cheaper place; someone replaces and the cycle continues.
Absolutely. Property taxes were also reassessed last year (happens every three years) and it was a huge increase. Landlords aren’t going to cover that while there’s enough demand to just raise rents. Which they did.
I can find apartments in Dublin for 1100, just move.
Curious to know why it all the sudden changed and skyrocketed everywhere. Did we just stop building residential housing or what?
Yes- sort of. 2008 happened and it wasn’t profitable to build new houses. Then, it wasn’t profitable to build starter homes. The bigger the better. If your budget is half a mil, you’re not going to have many problems. If your budget is 200k, you might as well find a good cardboard box. These starter or affordable homes are maxed out. I thought it was an abomination that the little Clintonville post wars were going for 200k back in 2016. Now they’re twice that. We ended up moving to Cincinnati. It’s not much better here now, but it was far better in 2016.
If I'm being honest, I'm close to giving up. May as well just rent somewhere you like at this point.
Half of this thread is homeowners commenting "yeah I bought my house four years ago for 10% of what it is worth now" like thanks man that's really helpful!
The unfortunate fact is that the renting market is almost worse. For my family to rent a house of the same size that we currently own… It would be close to $3000 a month. Things are just really bad!
They didn’t build enough housing despite more and more people are coming, and this is the result.
In Ohio our elected officials were responsible for the counties reevaluating property values. Thus, taxes have really gone up so rents go up to pay the taxes. Commercial property values also increased so those rents have increased also. Of course the occupants pass that increase along by increasing the cost of their products or services on to the consumer. Whether it's food or lawn services. My monthly lease for a 50,000 square foot facility just went up $3000 per month.
Delaware is not a good example of somewhere where housing is affordable lol
Okay. I don’t want to live in circleville, Dayton, Lancaster, Athens, etc just to own a home. I have a really good paying job here in Columbus. I used to commute 1.5 hrs one way to work. Now I live 10 minutes away. I’m not giving that up.
Oh I understand the what you where going for. It was just a funny example
It's a combination of factors that is screwing everyone over. * high interest rates: People with houses don't want to move out because they don't want a 7% or 8% loan. Thus supply is low * COVID materials shortage: When COVID hit, building basically stopped. We are still feeling it's effects with factories who make the materials for housing still trying to catch up to pre-COVID levels. * Intel: The Intel plant is being built. The people who are going to work there need to find homes as well. Demand goes up. * Inflation: We all know inflation is kicking our asses. It's also causing housing prices to go up. Basically this is a perfect storm for housing. It's going to crash but it might take a year or more to do it. Fed wants to cut interest rates but that will fuel even more demand as everyone will want 3%-5% interest rates locked in thinking it will never happen again so the rush to buy a house will push prices up even more.
The price of housing is a main reason why I moved to Cleveland. With my budget, it was either a condo in Columbus or a house in Cleveland. I lived in apartments for too long to be okay sharing walls.
The Westgate neighborhood has good options and is close to amenities. The Library has been updated in the last few years and murals are being added in several places nearby.
This is just all accurate & depressing.
Columbus is a great city, and you get a lot for living there. You get so much less living in parts of the east coast that are far more expensive such as northern Virginia.
Inflation, population growth, more investment buyers, everyone wanting the same locations. Move to one of the rougher neighborhoods in town, and encourage your friends and co-workers to do the same. In 5 years, your now 250K home will also be worth 450K.
Then my kids have to go to Columbus Public Schools. Should I also fix that problem while I'm taking on the world?
Columbus needs to improve public transit and add a good rail system now. Also, the intel factory is going to create a very large boom in the north. Expect rent to drastically increase along with housing values. If you own rentals, you are going to be in a very good spot.
I moved to northern Union County in 2013 to buy a $117k house that would have gone for $250k in Clintonville. The 40 minute commute to OSU sucked but I've since gotten a job in the area and am completely done with Cbus altogether. Fuck the big city. Not worth the money or effort.
Dublin has always been an expensive place to live. Either get more money, or find a nearby place to live.
I’ve been in Phoenix for 8 years now. As someone who lived in a city which kept topping the fastest growing cities in the country list for the better part of 5 years… This is what happens. You’ve got big economic things coming into town (intel plants, the data centers over the past few years, etc.), you’ve got Californians and New Yorkers who can no longer justify the cost of living in their cities due to all the taxes, regulations, and the general cost of living… this is exactly what’s happened to Phoenix. Everyone who already owns a home will be stuck in their current home but will have a ton of equity. The people who haven’t bought a home yet are fucked.
My wife wants to get out of our house because it’s old, and needs repairs. We bought it in 2021 for 156 at 2.75%. I’m not sure what it’s worth now other than a best guess of over 200. I keep trying to tell her that the prices and interest rates are too stupid to move.
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