Springfield, Ohio Rental Market, Fall 2026: Prices, Rents, and What the Jobs News Means

Jenny Craven

Aug 31

4 min read

Every quarter I pull the numbers on Springfield, Ohio for the investors I work with, because the story here changes faster than the national headlines suggest. This is the fall 2026 edition: prices, rents, days on market, the renter share, and the jobs news that is starting to show up in tenant demand. If you are deciding whether Springfield belongs on your list, this is the page to read first.

Springfield, Ohio by the numbers (updated September 2026)

Median sale price, mid-2026: $214,717, up 7.6% year over year, with 34 days on market and about 2.2 months of supply (WHIO / Redfin).
Median price 2022 → 2026: $140,750 → $220,200 — a 56.5% climb in four years (WHIO, Q1 2026).
Average apartment rent, August 2026: $1,100 (+6%). One-bedroom $904, two-bedroom $1,183, three-bedroom $1,485 (RentCafe).
About 48% of Springfield households rent rather than own (RentCafe).
Typical home value on Zillow: $190,723, and homes go pending in a median of 10 days (Zillow).
Jobs: Vultr’s $1.3 billion data center opening in 2026, Silfex’s 400-job plant, and roughly 1,400 Honda workers commuting from Clark and Champaign counties.

A note on the math: at a $190,000–$215,000 median with $1,100–$1,180 rents, the gross rent-to-price ratio is roughly 0.55–0.6%. That is not where investors make money here. The starter-home tier — sub-$150,000 houses on the north and south sides — is where the ratio climbs toward 0.85–0.9%. That figure is derived from the medians above, not a published statistic; the point is that Springfield cash-flows at the low end of the market, and knowing which sub-$150k houses are worth owning is the whole job.

What the price numbers are telling you

A 56% rise in the median since 2022 sounds like a market that has run. It has, at the median. But the median is being pulled up by the surrounding-town and newer-construction end of the market; the sub-$150,000 house on a north-side street has moved far less in dollar terms, and that is the house an investor buys. Days on market at 34 and a median of 10 days to pending say the same thing from the other direction: correctly-priced houses sell fast, and an investor who waits for the perfect deal to sit on the market will not see many.

What the rent numbers are telling you

Rents up 6% in a year, to about $1,100 average, with three-bedrooms near $1,485. Compare that to Dayton at $1,110 and Columbus at $1,366: Springfield rents are within a few dollars of Dayton on a substantially lower purchase price. That spread — Dayton-level rents, sub-Dayton prices — is the entire investment case for the city, and it is why the best areas for investors are the ones where that spread is widest.

The jobs story, and why it matters for landlords

Springfield has spent thirty years losing population — Clark County is down from roughly 147,000 in 1990 to about 135,000 today (USAFacts). That is the bear case, and it is real. The bull case is that 2025–2026 brought the first serious inbound investment in a generation: Vultr’s $1.3 billion data center, Silfex’s 400-job plant, the Crusoe data center, and Honda’s continued draw from Clark and Champaign counties. Data centers do not employ thousands of people, but they bring construction crews, contractors, and a tier of technical jobs that did not exist here before, and the city is spending $75 million on service expansions to support them.

For a landlord the translation is simple: more people with steady paychecks looking for a decent three-bedroom, in a city where half of households already rent and new supply is minimal. I am not forecasting a boom. I am saying the demand floor is firmer than it was two years ago.

Where the cash flow is right now

North and south side single-family, sub-$150k: the buy-and-hold core. Rent-to-price toward 0.85–0.9% on a renovated house. Stable tenants, predictable maintenance.
Older downtown-adjacent houses: the value-add and BRRRR territory. Cheapest entry, biggest rehab, widest ARV gap — and the appraisal risk that comes with it.
Two-to-four unit buildings: thin inventory, strong demand, and the best fit for a house hack. When one comes up correctly priced it does not last.
Enon, New Carlisle, Medway: lower yields, longer tenancies, better appreciation from Dayton and Wright-Patterson commuters. Pay more, turn over less.

What I would not do in Springfield right now

Buy at the median expecting cash flow. A $215,000 house renting for $1,300 does not work here, and the data sites that show Springfield as a negative-cash-flow market are computing exactly that. Buy below $150,000, rehab to the block, and the picture changes completely. That is also why I would not buy sight-unseen from a turnkey provider marking up north-side houses to out-of-state buyers; the margin they are charging is the margin you would keep with a local agent.

Springfield rental market FAQ

Is Springfield, Ohio a good place to invest in real estate in 2026?

At the sub-$150,000 end, for cash flow, with a local team: yes. At the median, for appreciation: it is a slower, less liquid market than Columbus or Dayton, and you should expect that.

How does Springfield compare to Dayton for investors?

Rents are within a few dollars of each other; Springfield purchase prices are meaningfully lower; Dayton has more inventory and more liquidity. Many of my clients hold both — Springfield for yield, the Dayton suburbs for appreciation.

How often is this post updated?

Quarterly. The numbers above are as of September 2026 and every figure links to its source.

Let’s talk about your next Springfield deal

If you want these numbers applied to an actual property instead of a city average, send me your buy box. I’m Jenny Craven, an investor-friendly Realtor with eXp Realty in Springfield, Ohio. Call or text (440) 567-7961 or email jennycravenre@gmail.com with your strategy and budget, and I’ll send you the areas — and the actual streets — that fit it.