WASHINGTON (WOWO) – Ohio experienced the steepest decline in homeownership affordability of any state between 2020 and 2025, with fewer occupations paying enough to afford a typical home, according to a new report from the National Housing Conference.
The report, Priced Out: When a Good Job Isn’t Enough, found the share of occupations able to afford a typically priced home with a 10% down payment fell by nearly 41 percentage points across Ohio’s metropolitan areas.
Five Ohio metros — Mansfield, Cleveland, Springfield, Toledo and Akron — ranked among the 25 largest declines in homeownership affordability nationwide.
In Mansfield, 82% of tracked occupations could afford a typical home in 2020. By 2025, that share had dropped to 30%. Columbus saw a similar decline, from 40% to just 9%.
The report found the cost of a typically priced home in Mansfield increased from $115,041 in 2020 to $188,863 in 2025. The annual income needed to qualify for the home more than doubled, rising 121% from $28,483 to $62,931.
The changes have made homeownership more difficult for workers in several fields. In 2020, elementary and special education teachers, emergency medical technicians, paramedics, firefighters and postal service mail carriers were among the occupations able to afford a typical Mansfield home.
By 2025, firefighters, postal service mail carriers, executive secretaries and loan officers could no longer afford one, according to the report.
Affordability continued to decline between 2023 and 2025, with Ohio’s measure dropping by more than 5 percentage points. Springfield and Toledo recorded declines of 13.48 and 12.05 percentage points, respectively, among the sharpest recent drops nationally.
National Housing Conference President and CEO David M. Dworkin said the findings point to a broader workforce and economic challenge as workers struggle to afford homes in the communities where they work.
The organization said increasing the supply of homes at prices workers can afford, preserving existing housing and reducing unnecessary development costs and delays could help address the problem.
Renters are also facing affordability challenges. The report found 45,833 combinations of occupations and metropolitan areas could afford a two-bedroom apartment without being cost-burdened in 2025 — 5,989 fewer than in 2020. Nearly half of the combinations tracked could not afford a two-bedroom rental.
The report’s analysis uses occupational wage data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, typical home values from Zillow and fair market rent data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The full report and local housing affordability data are available through the National Housing Conference’s Paycheck to Paycheck database.
