The 10 Cheapest Columbus, OH Neighborhoods To Live In For 2024


The cheapest Columbus neighborhoods are Fort Columbus Airport and Southwest for 2024 based on Saturday Night Science.

Worst Neighborhoods In Columbus
Source: Wikipedia User Yassie (talk) | GFDL

Everything else equal, we can all agree that living in a cheaper place is better than living in a more expensive place.

I’d much rather pay $500/mo in rent than $1,000. And I’d rather pay $2 for coffee than $5.

And while every neighbhorhood in Columbus might be more expensive than living in rural Ohio, there are certain neighborhoods that are definitely cheaper.

What exactly are those Columbus neighborhoods where your dollar goes a little further — you can get that one bedroom instead of the studio?

Instead of relying on public opinion and speculation, we wanted to get the facts straight and determine which neighborhoods in Columbus are the cheapest using Saturday Night Science.

The Cheapest Neighborhoods In Columbus For 2024

  1. Fort Columbus Airport
  2. Southwest
  3. South Alum Creek
  4. West Columbus Interim
  5. Near Southside
  6. Olentangy River Road
  7. Westland
  8. Far South
  9. Whitehall
  10. Tri-South

What’s the cheapest neighborhood to live in Columbus for 2024? According to the most recent census data, Fort Columbus Airport looks to be the cheapest Columbus neighborhood to live in.

At this point, we should make it clear that you do get what you pay for — some of these neighborhoods might not be the best places to live in Columbus. You could be sacrificing location or crime rates for more space and cheaper groceries.

Read on to see how we determined the places around Columbus that deserve a little bragging rights, or maybe you’re interested in the worst neighborhoods in Columbus.

For more Ohio reading, check out:


Table Of Contents: Top Ten | Methodology | Summary | Table


The 10 Cheapest Neighborhoods To Live In Columbus For 2024

Fort Columbus Airport Columbus, OH

Source: Wikipedia User Pwojdacz | CC BY-SA 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

3
/10

Population: 3,184
Cost Of Living Index: 74 (cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 1.1 (cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.019 (19th cheapest)
More on Fort Columbus Airport: Data | Real Estate

Southwest Columbus, OH

Source: Wikipedia User Nheyob | CC BY-SA 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 8,116
Cost Of Living Index: 80 (6th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 1.6 (3rd cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.018 (17th cheapest)
More on Southwest: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

4
/10

Population: 4,981
Cost Of Living Index: 85 (20th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 1.9 (6th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.018 (18th cheapest)
More on South Alum Creek: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

8.5
/10

Population: 53,633
Cost Of Living Index: 91 (25th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.2 (15th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.011 (4th cheapest)
More on West Columbus Interim: Data | Real Estate

Near Southside Columbus, OH

Source: Wikipedia User Postdlf | GFDL
Overall SnackAbility

3
/10

Population: 16,697
Cost Of Living Index: 79 (5th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 1.9 (8th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.024 (3cheapest)
More on Near Southside: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

4
/10

Population: 3,967
Cost Of Living Index: 77 (4th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 1.2 (2nd cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.036 (39th cheapest)
More on Olentangy River Road: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 36,756
Cost Of Living Index: 85 (20th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.3 (18th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.014 (9th cheapest)
More on Westland: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

4
/10

Population: 13,301
Cost Of Living Index: 82 (14th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.0 (10th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.019 (22nd cheapest)
More on Far South: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 18,878
Cost Of Living Index: 82 (14th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.0 (9th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.02 (24th cheapest)
More on Whitehall: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

3
/10

Population: 4,051
Cost Of Living Index: 81 (9th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 1.9 (7th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.025 (32nd cheapest)
More on Tri-South: Data | Real Estate

Methodology: How We Determined The Cheapest Columbus Hoods In 2024

To rank the cheapest places to live in Columbus, we had to determine what criteria define “cheap” and then apply Saturday Night Science.

Using Census and extrapolated BLS data, we arrived at the following set of criteria:

  • Overall Cost Of Living
  • Rent To Income Ratio
  • Median Home Value To Income Ratio

We then ranked each neighborhood with scores from 1 to 39 in each category, where 1 was the cheapest.

Next, we averaged the rankings for each neighborhood to create a cheap neighborhood index.

And finally, we crowned the neighborhood with the lowest cheapest neighborhood index, the “Cheapest City Neighborhood In Columbus.” We’re lookin’ at you, Fort Columbus Airport.

We updated this article for 2024. This is our fourth time ranking the cheapest neighborhoods to live in Columbus. Skip to the end to see the list of all the neighborhoods in the city, from cheapest to most expensive.

Summary: Lowest Cost Places To Live In Columbus

If you’re measuring the neighborhoods in Columbus where prices are low, and it’s cheap to live, this is an accurate list.

The most affordable neighborhoods in Columbus are Fort Columbus Airport, Southwest, South Alum Creek, West Columbus Interim, Near Southside, Olentangy River Road, Westland, Far South, Whitehall, and Tri-South.

As mentioned earlier, the neighborhoods in Columbus aren’t all cheap. Downtown takes the title of the most expensive neighborhood to live in Columbus.

The most expensive neighborhoods in Columbus are Downtown, Weinland Park, Brewery, Italian Village, and Harrison West.

We ranked the neighborhoods from cheapest to most expensive in the chart below.

For more Ohio reading, check out:

Detailed List Of The Cheapest Neighborhoods To Live In Columbus For 2024

Rank Neighborhood Cost Of Living Index
1 Fort Columbus Airport 74
2 Southwest 80
3 South Alum Creek 85
4 West Columbus Interim 91
5 Near Southside 79
6 Olentangy River Road 77
7 Westland 85
8 Far South 82
9 Whitehall 82
10 Tri-South 81
11 Southeast 87
12 North Linden 81
13 Brice-Tussing 86
14 South Side 81
15 Northland 88
16 Greater Hilltop 82
17 North Central 81
18 Northwest 93
19 Far North 96
20 Southside 107
21 Worthington 98
22 Rocky-Fork Blacklick Accord 98
23 Near East 82
24 South Linden 77
25 Northeast 82
26 Clintonville 96
27 Bexley 107
28 Franklinton 75
29 Mckinley Avenue Corridor 90
30 Upper Arlington 111
31 University 82
32 South Central Accord 93
33 Victorican Village 104
34 Milo Grogan 81
35 Harrison West 104
36 Italian Village 103
37 Brewery 115
38 Weinland Park 83
39 Downtown 101
About Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar has been in the real estate business for almost ten years now. He originally worked for Movoto Real Estate as the director of marketing before founding HomeSnacks.

He believes the key to finding the right place to live comes down to looking at the data, reading about things to do, and, most importantly, checking it out yourself before you move.

If you've been looking for a place to live in the past several years, you've probably stumbled upon his writing already.

You can find out more about him on LinkedIn or his website.