Survey Shows Spike in Price of Cleveland Rentals

Cleveland saw a sharp increase in rental prices in recent months.

That's according to a recent survey by the apartment listing site Abodo.com, which looked at one-bedroom rentals in about 80 cities. The site found that Cleveland topped the list with the highest percentage increase in median rent last month at 6.5 percent. That marks the third consecutive month in which Cleveland led the pack.

But Kyle Fee, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, said the stat should be viewed with some skepticism, because the survey only includes apartments that were listed on the website. Because it doesn't include offline listings, "You're not really getting the full representative picture of rents," he said.

Robin Dubin, a professor of urban economics at Case Western Reserve University, agrees. “A higher median rental price doesn't necessarily mean all apartments are more expensive," she said. Newer construction in areas like downtown and University Circle could be stretching the range of available pads. 

"If it is just the luxury apartments, that's going to bring the median up," she said. Dubin also noted that the survey pegs the median price of a one-bedroom at $817. That's slightly lower than the cities of Buffalo and Milwaukee. 

Even if the average rental price is going up, "Cleveland is still a bargain," she said.