Cleveland rents and rental comps

The median asking rent across Cleveland, OH sits at $1,210/month, pulled from active rental listings in 20 zip codes. That's down 3.7% from a year ago.

Rents aren't uniform across the city. ZIP 44121 tops the list at $1,675/month. ZIP 44112 comes in lowest at $850/month. That's a 97% spread between the top and bottom zip codes, which is wide. City-wide averages won't tell you much about a specific property here.

A 2-bedroom rents for $1,075/month at the median. 1-bedrooms run about $875. 3-bedrooms come in around $1,350.

Listings take longer here. The average is 50 days on market, which gives renters more room to negotiate and means landlords should price carefully.

Gross rent-to-value lands around 8.7% ($1,210/month rent on a $166,950 median price). Middle of the pack for cash-flow markets.

HUD's Fair Market Rent for a 2-bedroom in the Cleveland metro is $1,920/month. Asking rents come in about 37% below the federal benchmark, which can make Section 8 properties competitive here.

Cleveland is a pure cash flow play. Purchase prices run among the lowest of any major metro, and rent-to-price ratios can be exceptional in the right neighborhoods. The Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals are the economic anchors. Healthcare employment here is massive and recession-resistant. Tremont, Ohio City, and Detroit Shoreway are the gentrified premium areas. East side neighborhoods have the most aggressive cash flow numbers but demand more careful property selection. Like Detroit, the gap between a great investment and a problem property can be a few streets. Rewards investors who do the homework on specific neighborhoods instead of chasing the prettiest spreadsheet.

These numbers are city-wide averages. If you're pricing a specific property in Cleveland, pull comps from the same zip code. The spread is usually bigger than people expect.