Cleveland, OH Rental Investment Market: DSCR & STR Numbers (June 2026)

The Read

What the numbers say about investing in Cleveland

At 0.92% rent-to-price, Cleveland, OH sits in the "1% rule" neighborhood — the territory where DSCR loans are easiest to qualify. When the median home runs $145,000 and average rent is $1,340 a month, the rent does most of the work of covering PITIA, which means standard 20%-down leverage usually clears lender thresholds without rate buy-downs or oversized down payments.

That ratio is above the 0.71% median of our 15-metro DSCR leaderboard, and Cleveland, OH currently ranks #3 of 15 with a composite score of 86/100. Rent growth of 4.2% year over year is among the stronger prints on the board, which means a deal that squeaks by today should have more cushion at the first lease renewal. The catch is carrying cost: 2.18% effective property tax is on the heavy end, and taxes land inside PITIA, so they eat directly into the DSCR ratio.

The illustrative median deal pencils to about a 1.18 DSCR at 20% down — it covers, but sits below the 1.25 threshold where the best rate tiers start. Expect to either accept slightly wider pricing, put 25–30% down, or hunt for properties renting above the metro average to push the ratio up.

Cleveland isn't on our short-term-rental board — the opportunity we track here is the long-term rental engine: Ohio lease economics, DSCR qualification, and rent momentum. Treat every number on this page as a metro-level screen, not an appraisal: rents and prices vary block by block, so run your actual address through the calculator and get a real quote before you write offers.

Data as of June 2026 — refreshed monthly. Metro-level estimates for screening, not underwriting.

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