Where Youngstown Rentals Actually Pencil
Short answer: The Youngstown metro’s gross rent-to-price ratio is about 6.96 percent, barely above the national 6.32 percent. The city of Youngstown itself runs about 17.95 percent, roughly 2.84 times the national figure. The cash flow reputation belongs to the city and to Warren, not to Canfield, Poland, Boardman, or Columbiana, and the gap between them is the single most important thing an investor here needs to understand.
Youngstown shows up on national cash flow lists constantly. Most of those lists quote a metro number, and the metro number is not the reason anyone is here. Our team works with investors across the Mahoning Valley, and the conversation that saves people the most money is the one where we pull the numbers apart by municipality instead of by metro.
This page is the honest version. Every sourced figure below is attributed. Everything we could not source, we left out.
The metro number is unremarkable. The city number is not.
The simplest yield screen an investor runs is annual rent divided by property value. Using Zillow’s public research data for June 2026, here is how the Youngstown metro, the United States, and the city of Youngstown compare.
| Geography | Rent index (monthly) | Value index | Gross rent-to-price |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | $1,965.00 | $372,995 | 6.32% |
| Youngstown metro area | $1,045.61 | $180,319 | 6.96% |
| City of Youngstown | $1,087.13 | $72,648 | 17.95% |
Source: Zillow public research data, June 2026 vintage, city and metro ZHVI and ZORI files. The metro sits at roughly 1.10 times the national ratio. The city sits at roughly 2.84 times it. That is not a rounding difference, and it is why a national list that quotes the metro tells you almost nothing useful about a specific address.
Read the methodology before you read the number.
These two Zillow series are not built to be divided by each other. The value index covers single-family homes and condos. The rent index includes multifamily. So the ratio above is directional, not a capitalization rate, and it is a gross figure that sits entirely before property taxes, insurance, vacancy, management, maintenance, and capital expense. Treat it as a way to rank places against each other, not as a return you will collect.
A 4.6 times value spread inside one metro
The reason the metro average washes out is that the communities inside it are not remotely alike. Here are city-level Zillow home value index figures for June 2026 across the towns our team works in.
| Community | County | Home value index, June 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Canfield | Mahoning | $332,925 |
| Poland | Mahoning | $259,446 |
| Columbiana | Columbiana | $257,517 |
| Boardman | Mahoning | $206,074 |
| Salem | Columbiana | $192,745 |
| Austintown | Mahoning | $183,897 |
| Lisbon | Columbiana | $177,108 |
| Alliance | Stark | $166,874 |
| Warren | Trumbull | $129,849 |
| Youngstown | Mahoning | $72,648 |
Source: Zillow public research data, June 2026. Canfield and Youngstown are both in Mahoning County and both inside the Youngstown metro, and Canfield’s index is about 4.6 times Youngstown’s. One metro, two entirely different businesses. Worth noting for the sake of precision that Salem, Lisbon, and Columbiana sit in the Salem metro area and Alliance sits in the Canton-Massillon metro area, so they are neighbors rather than parts of the same statistical market.
If you are looking at the upper end of that table for a place to live rather than a place to rent out, our guides to living in Canfield, to buying in Columbiana near Firestone Farms, and to what rising prices are doing to buying power in Alliance cover those communities on their own terms.
Two outside rankings that back the picture up
The rent-to-price ratio above is a screen we built. Two independent sources point the same direction using their own methods.
ATTOM’s 2026 Single-Family Rental Market Report ranked Trumbull County, Ohio fifth nationally among 416 counties analyzed, at an 11.5 percent annual gross rental yield. Trumbull is Warren’s county, immediately north of Mahoning. ATTOM’s figure is built on actual three-bedroom rents against median sale prices, which makes it a cleaner investor-facing measure than a ratio of two different index series. It also reported that yields fell in 54.8 percent of US counties, so a county holding a placement like that is holding it in a year when the national trend went the other way.
The National Association of Realtors put the Youngstown-Warren-Boardman OH-PA metro median existing single-family price at $185,600 in the second quarter of 2026, up 6.6 percent year over year, ranking third-least-expensive among roughly 235 metros tracked, against a US median of $434,900. The metro sits at about 43 percent of the national median price. That is the denominator doing the work in every yield calculation on this page.
If you want the broader price and trend picture behind those figures, our 2026 Youngstown housing market update and our look at how the area’s economic revival is moving home values both go deeper on the demand side.
Now the part the cash flow lists leave out
A 17.95 percent gross ratio exists for reasons, and the reasons are visible in the same data sets that produce the ratio. An investor who reads only the yield number is reading half the file.
Vacant and abandoned property is a real feature of the market. ATTOM’s second-quarter 2026 Vacancy and Zombie Foreclosure Report ranked the Youngstown metro first among 138 metros for its zombie foreclosure rate, at 11.4 percent. A zombie foreclosure is a home where the foreclosure has started, the owner has moved out, and nobody has taken the property to completion. Those houses sit. They are a factor in what the block around your rental looks like.
Most vacancy here is not market vacancy. American Community Survey five-year data through 2024 puts the city of Youngstown at about 15.0 percent of housing units vacant, and roughly 74 percent of those vacant units are classified as other vacant, meaning they are neither listed for sale nor listed for rent. That is a very different thing from a market with soft demand. It means a meaningful share of the housing stock is simply out of circulation, which supports rents on the units that are in circulation and also tells you something about the condition of what is left.
The housing stock is old. The same survey data shows about 90.4 percent of city of Youngstown housing was built before 1980, with a median year built of 1950. Nearly every deal in the city has a rehab component, and pre-1978 construction brings federal lead-based paint disclosure obligations to a landlord. We cover the financing and disclosure side of that in a separate article on pre-1978 homes in Youngstown.
None of this makes the yield fake. It makes the yield the compensation for the work. A house at a $72,648 index value and a house at a $332,925 index value are not the same job, and the price difference is the market pricing the difference in that job.
What this means when the loan is a DSCR loan
On a DSCR loan, the qualification runs on the property’s own income against its own debt service rather than on your personal income documents. That makes the geography on this page directly relevant to whether a file works, because a stronger rent-to-price relationship generally means a stronger coverage ratio at the same loan structure.
Three things are worth being precise about, because this is where investors get surprised.
First, a DSCR loan is for non-owner-occupied property only and is documented as business-purpose lending. It cannot finance a home you intend to live in. That is a statement about how the loan is classified, not a claim that the standards are lighter.
Second, a strong gross yield does not mean a file qualifies. The coverage ratio is built on the property’s actual rent against principal, interest, taxes, insurance, and any association dues. A gross rent-to-price screen ignores all of the expense side. Two properties with identical gross ratios can land on opposite sides of a program threshold once taxes and insurance are entered. Anything we quote is subject to a full loan estimate and subject to credit approval.
Third, the tax line in that calculation is not a constant in Ohio right now. The state is phasing the non-business property tax rollback off residential rental property on a fixed schedule, which raises the tax expense inside your coverage ratio in scheduled steps. If you are underwriting a property you plan to hold for years, underwrite the tax line you will have then.
How to use the split instead of arguing with it
The practical read on all of the above is that this metro supports two different strategies and you should pick one on purpose rather than by accident.
If cash flow is the objective, the data points at the city of Youngstown and at Warren, and it points at an operating business with a rehab leg, a management plan, and a tolerance for the vacancy and condition realities described above. If appreciation and tenant profile matter more than yield, Canfield, Poland, Boardman, and Columbiana are the same market on paper and a different market in practice, with ratios that will look ordinary next to the city.
The affordability that makes both work is real and it extends past housing. Our breakdown of how far a dollar goes in Youngstown covers the wider cost picture, and our guides to affordable homes in Salem and to home prices in Lisbon show how the neighboring Columbiana County communities compare.
Two companion pieces finish the picture. One walks the full carry cost of owning a rental here, which is where a gross ratio becomes a net one. The other is written for buyers purchasing from out of state, who face a set of Ohio filing and agent requirements that local owners often do not think about.
Frequently asked questions
What is the rental yield in Youngstown, Ohio?
It depends entirely on whether you mean the city or the metro. Using Zillow’s June 2026 public research data, the city of Youngstown’s gross rent-to-price ratio is about 17.95 percent while the Youngstown metro is about 6.96 percent and the United States is about 6.32 percent. The city figure is roughly 2.84 times the national one. These are gross, directional ratios and not capitalization rates.
Why is the city ratio so different from the metro ratio?
Because rents across the metro are relatively flat while values are not. Zillow’s June 2026 city figures put Canfield at $332,925 and the city of Youngstown at $72,648, both in Mahoning County and both inside the same metro, a spread of about 4.6 times. Rents do not vary by anything close to that multiple, so the ratio collapses as values rise.
Is a gross rent-to-price ratio the same as a cap rate?
No. A capitalization rate uses net operating income. The ratios on this page use gross rent and sit before property taxes, insurance, vacancy, management, maintenance, and capital expense. They also divide a rent index that includes multifamily by a value index covering single-family homes and condos, which is why we treat them as a directional comparison between places rather than a return figure.
What are the risks behind the yield in Youngstown?
Vacancy and housing condition. ATTOM’s second-quarter 2026 report ranked the Youngstown metro first among 138 metros for zombie foreclosure rate at 11.4 percent. American Community Survey five-year data through 2024 puts city vacancy near 15.0 percent, with about 74 percent of vacant units neither for sale nor for rent, and about 90.4 percent of the city’s housing built before 1980 with a median year built of 1950. The yield is compensation for that work.
Does a strong yield mean a DSCR loan will approve?
No. A coverage ratio is built on the property’s actual rent against principal, interest, taxes, insurance, and any association dues, so the whole expense side that a gross ratio ignores is what decides the file. DSCR financing is also available on non-owner-occupied property only and is business-purpose lending. Any scenario is subject to a full loan estimate and subject to credit approval.
How does Youngstown compare nationally on price?
The National Association of Realtors put the Youngstown-Warren-Boardman OH-PA metro median existing single-family price at $185,600 in the second quarter of 2026, up 6.6 percent year over year and third-least-expensive of roughly 235 metros tracked, against a US median of $434,900. Separately, ATTOM’s 2026 Single-Family Rental Market Report ranked neighboring Trumbull County fifth nationally among 416 counties at an 11.5 percent gross rental yield.
Run a real property through the numbers with our team.
Call (330) 337-3260, email TeamDawes@FairwayMC.com, or get pre-approved online.
This article is general market information and is not investment, tax, or legal advice. Index figures are Zillow public research data for June 2026, ranking data is from ATTOM and the National Association of Realtors as cited, and housing and vacancy characteristics are American Community Survey five-year estimates through 2024. Ratios shown are gross and directional and are not capitalization rates or projected returns. Property-level results depend on the specific parcel, its condition, its taxes, and its management. DSCR financing is available on non-owner-occupied, business-purpose transactions only. William Dawes, NMLS #259692. Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation, NMLS #2289. All loan programs are subject to credit approval and subject to a full loan estimate. This is not a commitment to lend.