Living in Forest Park, Columbus: Homes, Rent, and Complaints
Forest Park is the part of Northland just north of Morse Road between Cleveland Avenue and Karl Road, built starting in the late 1950s around Tamarack Circle.
Most homes were built from the 1940s to the 1970s, and about half are rented. Rent is among the lowest in Columbus, and homes cost a little less. Heat and utility complaints, mostly no heat or hot water in apartment complexes, come up about twice as often as in most of Columbus, most of them from a few buildings. Rat and pest complaints also come up more often.
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What the homes are like in Forest Park
Most of Forest Park was built in the decades after World War II. About three in four homes here were built between 1940 and 1979, against about 4 in 10 across Columbus.
| Forest Park | Columbus | |
|---|---|---|
| Rented | 53% | 56% |
| Single-family houses | 51% | 55% |
| Rentals that are houses | 11% | 27% |
| Built before 1940 | 2%* | 12% |
| Built before 1980 | 77% | 50% |
| Renters paying 30%+ of income | 51% | 47% |
* Small sample here, so read this one as approximate.
Census 2020–2024 medians in 2024 dollars: what people already living here paid or think their home is worth. Today’s listings usually ask more. Use these to compare places, not to budget.
All housing numbers for Forest Park
From the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey, 2020–2024 five-year estimates, for the same map area as the reports on this page. These are survey estimates, rounded. Small areas have wider margins of error. * Low confidence: the survey’s margin of error is wide for this number here.
| Measure | Forest Park | Columbus |
|---|---|---|
| Homes | ||
| Homes (housing units) | 5,370 | 425,180 |
| Rented | 53% | 56% |
| Lived in by the owner | 47% | 44% |
| Empty (any reason) | 7% | 8% |
| Empty and for rent | 1%* | 2% |
| Empty and for sale | 0%* | 0% |
| Empty for other reasons | 4%* | 4% |
| Buildings | ||
| Single-family houses | 51% | 55% |
| 2 to 4 units | 13%* | 13% |
| 5 to 19 units | 20% | 20% |
| 20 or more units | 15% | 12% |
| Mobile homes and other | 1%* | 1% |
| Rentals that are single-family houses | 11% | 27% |
| Age | ||
| Built before 1940 | 2%* | 12% |
| Built 1940 to 1979 | 74% | 38% |
| Built 1980 to 1999 | 18% | 26% |
| Built 2000 or later | 5% | 24% |
| Typical year built | 1971 | 1980 |
| Costs | ||
| Typical rent, with utilities | $1,100 | $1,300 |
| Renters spending 30%+ of income on rent | 51% | 47% |
| Renters spending 50%+ of income on rent | 28% | 23% |
| Typical home value (owner estimate) | $230,000 | $250,000 |
| Who stays | ||
| Renters who moved in 2020 or later | 41% | 50% |
| Owners who moved in before 2010 | 40% | 43% |
| Conditions | ||
| More than one person per room | 8%* | 3% |
| Missing complete plumbing | 4%* | 1% |
| Missing a complete kitchen | 1%* | 2% |
Renting or buying in Forest Park
Questions worth asking before you sign, based on the homes and the records here.
What neighbors report in Forest Park
From 970 complaints filed with the city, January 2025 to September 2026.
See every complaint in Columbus on the map
About 81,000 complaints across the city, including 970 in Forest Park, plotted block by block. Filter by problem, search any address, or zoom in to any street.
How do reports in Forest Park compare with the rest of Columbus?
Show the detailed stats for all 15 categories
Every category with at least 5 reports here. Category names link to the citywide guide.
| Category | vs citywide | Trend · 2026 vs 2025 | By month · Jan – Dec |
|---|---|---|---|
Hoarding 5 reports · 0.5% of all |
2.9× | — | — |
HVAC / Utilities 58 reports · 6.0% of all |
2.5× | ↓ Decreasing | |
Rats 94 reports · 9.7% of all |
2.0× | ↑ Increasing | |
Pest / Rodent 122 reports · 12.6% of all |
1.8× | ↑ Increasing | |
Roaches 12 reports · 1.2% of all |
1.7× | — | — |
Landlord / Management 56 reports · 5.8% of all |
1.5× | ↑ Increasing | |
Vehicles 149 reports · 15.4% of all |
1.3× | ↑ Increasing | |
Safety 20 reports · 2.1% of all |
1.2× | — | — |
Trash 201 reports · 20.7% of all |
1.01× | ↓ Decreasing | |
Mold / Water Damage 29 reports · 3.0% of all |
1.00× | — | — |
Overgrowth 320 reports · 33.0% of all |
0.74× | ↓ Decreasing | |
Encampment 11 reports · 1.1% of all |
0.70× | — | — |
Noise 7 reports · 0.7% of all |
0.59× | — | — |
Sewage 5 reports · 0.5% of all |
0.50× | — | — |
Vacant Structure 20 reports · 2.1% of all |
0.30× | — | — |
Common questions about Forest Park
What problems show up most in Forest Park's city records?
Higher than normal rate of heat and utility, rat, pest, landlord, and junk car complaints.
Compared with the rest of Columbus, Forest Park sees heating and utility complaints about twice as often as usual, and rat reports and general pest reports are also more common than in most of the city. The full category table above compares every complaint type against the citywide rate.
What is the housing like in Forest Park?
Forest Park is a mix of mid-century houses and apartment buildings (built in the 1940s to 1970s), about half of them rented. About three in four homes in Forest Park were built between 1940 and 1979, against about 4 in 10 across Columbus. In the 2020–2024 Census survey, the typical renter paid about $1,100 a month with utilities, against $1,300 across Columbus, and the typical owner valued their home at about $230,000, against $250,000. Those are what current residents paid or estimated over five years, not what listings ask today.
Which streets in Forest Park have the most complaints?
Ranked by complaints per address, the most-reported stretches are the 1500 to 2299 blocks of Morse Rd, the 4600 to 5399 blocks of Karl Rd, and the 4600 to 5199 blocks of Tamarack Blvd. 5 stretches stand out in total. Each one is roughly a hundred addresses, so check the exact address before drawing conclusions.
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Are the problems concentrated in a few buildings?
Problems here are spread across the neighborhood rather than concentrated. Reports come from 580 different addresses, and no single building or complex dominates. The most-reported stretch is the 1500 to 2299 blocks of Morse Rd, with 46 reports from 21 addresses. For any specific address, run a Block Report to see what has been reported there and next door.
Are reports in Forest Park going up or down?
They are steady. So far this year Forest Park has logged about the same number of reports as the same months last year.
How serious are the reports in Forest Park?
23% of the reports for Forest Park are rated severe or critical, such as sewage, no heat, mold, or an active infestation, against 16% citywide. More of the reports here are serious than in Columbus overall. The rest are moderate or low, like tall grass, trash, or a junk car.
Share of reports rated severe or critical, next to The rest of Northland and its next-door neighbors and Columbus as a whole. Lower is calmer.
Nearby pagesClintonville·Beechwold·Far North / Polaris·Maple Canyon / Sharon Woods
How do I report a problem in Forest Park?
Reports are what inspectors act on. If you see pests, mold, or no heat, report it to 311. It becomes part of the public record you're reading now. Overgrowth complaints here peak in May. If that is your problem, report it when it starts. Do not wait for the busiest month.
What should landlords and property owners in Forest Park know?
Tenants in this area most often report heating and utility problems and rat problems. A furnace check before the first cold week prevents the complaints that recur most here.
Is Forest Park safe?
This site does not track crime, so it cannot answer that. It tracks what residents report to the city about property and living conditions. Of the 970 records for Forest Park, 20 are safety complaints such as gas leaks, exposed wiring, or missing smoke detectors. For crime data, use the Columbus Division of Police. For one specific address, run a Block Report.
Know Your Block is a free public tool that shows what Columbus residents report to the city's code enforcement office: rats, mold, no heat, sewage backups, drug activity, noise, vacant buildings, and the other property and quality-of-life problems that a listing or a tour will not tell you about — the stuff Zillow and Apartments.com don't show. The live map plots every report in the city, and a Block Report checks one address, the building it sits in, and the block around it. This page and the other neighborhood pages are computed from the same records, so the numbers here match what you would find on the map. There is no account and no fee. More about the project.
Data comes from official City of Columbus code enforcement records (Accela portal + ArcGIS REST API). Comparison figures are computed against the full citywide dataset; "above the citywide rate" means a category's share of complaints in this neighborhood is higher than its share citywide. Complaints are reports filed with the city — they may be unverified, resolved, or in dispute. Categories are assigned by automated keyword matching and may include mismatches. Individual property records are surfaced through search, not listed on this page. Housing figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), split onto this page's map area by where each Census block's homes sit, so they cover the same ground as the reports. They describe homes, not people, and they are survey estimates with margins of error.