Expanding into US multifamily — which Ohio market and neighborhoods?

Question

Hi BP folks,

I run a real estate investment portfolio in Canada and I'm now in the US expanding into multifamily, starting with Ohio. Purchase price target is $1.5–2M. Strategy is value-add: increase NOI through rent growth and operational cost reduction over a 4–5 year hold.

I'm open to Ohio market — Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dayton, or others I should be considering.

For those operating in Ohio:

Which city would you focus on today for value-add MF at this price point, and why?

Which specific neighborhoods are working for you — and which look good on paper but you'd avoid?

Looking forward to learning from experts here.

Thanks in advance!

Patrick Drury · Answer

@Jay DhanakI recommend areas like Hilltop, Linden, Eastmoor/ Whitehall, and Franklinton. These are areas where you can cash flow in Columbus because the rent-to-price ratio is favorable. Out of these areas, Franklinton and Linden are seeing some of the most development. With things like the ONE Linden plan in Linden, which is a 50M plan to improve the neighborhood. Of that 50M, 25M was allocated for the construction of a new recreational facility that has since been completed. Franklinton has been seeing lots of developments, like the completion of Gravity Phases 1 and 2, with Phase 3 on the way. As well as coffee shops like Bottoms Up Coffee, are moving in, and small microbreweries like Brew Dog and Land Grant. Franklinton also has developments like the one at the Peninsula, which has new built apartments along with the Junto hotel, which has a rooftop bar called Brass Eye. Hilltop is located just west of Franklinton, and has started to see more investment from the city than in the previous years, like a 10.5M investment into engineering work toward a bus rapid transit line along W Broad.

Denise Supplee · Answer

We've invested in several multifamily deals in Ohio through our co-investing club, and it's been a good market for us. One thing I've learned is that the local operator and property management team can make all the difference. I'd spend just as much time getting to know the team as I would the property itself.

Morgan Weiss · Answer

Welcome to the US side. Since you're choosing among four metros you can't easily drive, here's the numbers half to set against the local reads — I work with housing-market data rather than owning units in Ohio, so weigh it accordingly, but I pulled the 2024 census-tract data for the four core counties (Franklin/Columbus, Hamilton/Cincinnati, Cuyahoga/Cleveland, Montgomery/Dayton) before writing, and for a value-add hold that lives or dies on rent growth they split cleanly into two tiers.

Jimmy's right that Columbus has the "strong mix of population growth, job creation, and diverse employers," and his "compare Columbus with Cincinnati" is the correct short list — those two are the only ones of the four carrying a real demand tailwind. On the authoritative county population series (Census PEP, 2020-2025), Franklin County grew +2.8% and Hamilton +1.0%, while Montgomery (Dayton) added just +0.5% and Cuyahoga (Cleveland) actually lost 2.4% of its people. Incomes and realized appreciation rank the same way: tract-median household income is ~$72.5k in Franklin and $71k in Hamilton versus ~$62k in Cuyahoga and $63k in Montgomery, and tract-median home value rose +90% and +66% from 2014-2024 against +49% (Cleveland) and +57% (Dayton). Cleveland and Dayton are the cheaper, higher-yield markets — Cuyahoga's tract-median gross yield is 8.6% against Franklin's 6.0% — but for a hold that has to grow rents, a core county that's shrinking or flat is the wrong tailwind to buy into.

The part that outweighs the metro pick, though: inside any one of these counties the tract you buy swings your math further than the gap between the four cities does. Franklin's tract-median gross yield (annual median rent divided by median home value) is 6.0%, but the 10th-to-90th-percentile band runs 3.4% to 10.5% — a 7-point spread inside Columbus alone, versus about 2.6 points separating all four metro medians. Population is the same: Columbus's growth is a countywide average, and at the tract level nearly half (46%) of Franklin County tracts actually lost population from 2020-2024, with a band from -11.5% to +19.5%. So the real decision isn't Columbus-vs-Cincinnati, it's which tract inside whichever metro you can build a team in.

That's where the "steady reinvestment but still have room for rent growth" screen from the reply above actually has teeth, because you can see both ends in the tract data. The already-run end of Columbus is the Near East Side (Olde Towne East, ZIP 43205, and 43203 beside it): tract-median value appreciated roughly +210% and +271% over the decade with gross yields now compressed to roughly 4-5% — that's the "hottest areas where pricing already reflects most of the upside" made concrete. The room-still-left end is the west and south sides: the Hilltop (43223) runs ~9.5% gross yield with +2.7% population, but its appreciation is only +67%, still below the county's +90% median — i.e. the reinvestment isn't priced in yet; the South Side (43207) is ~8% yield with +2.5% population. Cincinnati mirrors it — Over-the-Rhine/downtown (45202) has already run to a ~$444k tract-median value at a 3.8% yield, and Northside (45223) appreciated +118% with +17% population, while Price Hill (45205) still shows ~9% gross yield with +7.9% population and appreciation only modestly above the county median — reinvestment underway but not yet priced in. The trap to avoid at a 4-5 year hold is the pure-yield tract with nothing growing under it: South Linden (43211) posts a 12% gross yield but lost ~8% of its population in four years — strong current cash flow, wrong end of the map for a rent-growth value-add play.

Mechanically it's all free and replicable: for every tract in your target county pull B25064 (gross rent) and B25077 (home value) for rent-to-price, B19013 (income) and B01003 (population) for the demand trajectory, and B25002 for the vacancy read, on data.census.gov; keep the tracts where income and population are climbing and appreciation still trails the metro's hot core, and drop the high-yield/shrinking-population ones. Fair caveats: it's gross rent, not net, and tract medians skew single-family, so treat it as a submarket screen, not underwriting for a specific building's NOI; these are core-county tracts, and the Cincinnati and Cleveland metros run into faster-growing collar counties (Warren, Butler; Medina, Lorain) the core number understates; the 2020 census redrew tract lines, so 2014-2024 appreciation carries some vintage noise (directional, not precise); and tract ACS is small-sample, so trust multi-year direction over any single print. Which is really just the quantitative version of the advice already here — the screen only tells your team which blocks to pull actual comps on; it doesn't replace the comps.

Mike Paolucci · Answer

I've got about 20 units across Columbus and Dayton. Happy to connect and chat further about some of my experiences owning in those areas.

Marc Rice · Answer

Those are the exact markets you should be looking at. I own 50+ units in Columbus and buying actively. Happy to connect!

Arman Ahmed · Answer

With that budget, you'll have some great options across Ohio. I'd focus less on picking a single city and more on finding the right submarket and asset. Columbus has strong long-term fundamentals, while Cleveland and Dayton can offer compelling value-add opportunities with better cash flow if you buy in the right neighborhoods. Since you're investing from Canada, I'd also put a lot of emphasis on building a strong local team because the right property manager, contractor, and lender will have just as much impact on your returns as the property itself.

Evan Polaski · Answer

In reality, this is like asking which mutual fund you should invest in.  All four cities offer value-add multifamily deals in the 1.5-2mm price point.  All have their own pros and cons.  You can great properties, professional management, slews of agents, in each market, and many more.  Middletown, Toledo, Akron, Youngstown, Chillicothe, etc.

The make or break is first the deal itself: are you getting it for a good price relative to the condition and risks of that market?  And connected to that: the typical tenant base that is renting in that area.

Since all are basically the same, I would start by seeing where you can get to the cheapest.  At least for me, I would not be investing that much without planning on being on site multiple times per year to meet with team, see how property is being maintained, talk with tenants, etc.  So, if Cleveland is a $2k trip and Cincinnati and Columbus are $3k trips, than that could help make the decision on the front end.  But from there, it is getting into market.  Touring properties during week, weekend, morning, afternoon and night.  Get a sense of what that neighborhood is like.

And remember: you can't underwrite a "low rent" area with the same assumptions as a "high rent" area.  A refrigerator or plumber call costs what is costs, whether you are getting $600/mo in rent or $6,000/mo in rent.  Or, in my experience, the "low rent" tenant turns over more frequently with higher wear and tear than the "high rent" payer.  The "low rent" area takes longer to fund qualified tenants and more application fraud than the "high rent" areas.

Kerlous Tadres · Answer

Columbus, hands down, for value-add multifamily at that price point. I'd focus on the South Side ZIP codes where you can still find multi-unit buildings priced reasonably, rents are climbing, and there's real room to push NOI through light rehab and better management. From my experience operating there, the fundamentals are strong enough to support a 4 to 5 year value-add hold without betting on speculative appreciation.

Remington Lyman · Answer

I have bought property in that price point in Columbus Ohio. I prefer the A and B areas in Columbus. C are good too but I typically 1031 them after 2-5 years

Expanding into US multifamily — which Ohio market and neighborhoods?

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