Rent burden
Could the typical household here afford the going rent? This map shows the Columbus-area HUD Fair Market Rent as a share of each neighborhood’s median household income. Search your address or click any neighborhood, and switch bedroom size — above 30% is the classic “rent-burdened” line.
Full ranking — all 41 neighborhoods
| Rank | Neighborhood | fair-market rent as % of median income |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harmon Road Corridor | 54.0% |
| 2 | Franklinton | 39.1% |
| 3 | State of Ohio | 38.6% |
| 4 | South Linden | 37.5% |
| 5 | University District | 35.3% |
| 6 | East Columbus | 33.8% |
| 7 | Milo-Grogan | 33.5% |
| 8 | Airport | 32.5% |
| 9 | North Central | 31.6% |
| 10 | Mid East | 29.3% |
| 11 | South Side | 28.8% |
| 12 | Livingston Avenue Area | 27.1% |
| 13 | Near East | 27.0% |
| 14 | North Linden | 26.9% |
| 15 | Olentangy West | 25.7% |
| 16 | Northeast | 25.6% |
| 17 | Greater Hilltop | 25.5% |
| 18 | Fifth by Northwest | 23.2% |
| 19 | South East | 22.6% |
| 20 | Northland | 22.4% |
| 21 | Southwest | 21.9% |
| 22 | Far South | 21.2% |
| 23 | Downtown | 20.7% |
| 24 | Far East | 20.2% |
| 25 | Westland | 18.0% |
| 26 | Fort Hayes | 17.8% |
| 27 | Wolfe Park | 17.6% |
| 28 | Harrison West | 17.1% |
| 29 | Northwest | 17.0% |
| 30 | Rocky Fork-Blacklick | 16.3% |
| 31 | West Scioto | 16.3% |
| 32 | Far North | 15.5% |
| 33 | Victorian Village | 15.4% |
| 34 | Clintonville | 15.0% |
| 35 | Far West | 14.9% |
| 36 | Italian Village | 14.9% |
| 37 | Dublin Road Corridor | 14.0% |
| 38 | Hayden Run | 13.6% |
| 39 | Brewery District | 12.8% |
| 40 | Far Northwest | 12.5% |
| 41 | German Village | 12.5% |
How to read this map
Fair Market Rent (FMR) is HUD’s estimate of a modest local rent, set once a year for the whole Columbus metro — so it’s the same dollar figure everywhere on this map. We annualize it and divide by each neighborhood’s median household income (from the Census ACS), area-weighted across the tracts a neighborhood covers. Because the rent is constant, the map’s pattern is really an affordability-of-income map: a warmer color means the same rent takes a bigger bite of local paychecks.
Above 30% is the long-standing “rent-burdened” threshold. Switch bedroom size with the tabs; the drawer shows the neighborhood’s median household income and its median gross rent — what renters here actually pay, which (unlike FMR) does vary place to place.
Source: HUD Fair Market Rents (Columbus, OH HUD Metro FMR Area) and U.S. Census ACS 5-year median household income + gross rent by tract, intersected with Census TIGER/Line tract boundaries. See methodology for details.