Living in Northwest Columbus: Homes, Rent, and Complaints
This page covers the northwest edge of Columbus between Upper Arlington, Dublin, and Hilliard, from the apartments along Bethel and Sawmill Roads to newer subdivisions near Hayden Run Road. Some addresses here are in the Dublin or Hilliard school districts.
A little more than 4 in 10 homes were built since 2000, and about half are rented. Rent is among the highest in Columbus, and homes cost much more. Landlord complaints, mostly leaks and repairs going unanswered in apartments, come up about twice as often as in most of Columbus. Mold and rat complaints also come up more often.
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What the homes are like in Northwest Columbus
Much of Northwest Columbus is newer than the rest of Columbus. A little more than 4 in 10 homes here were built in 2000 or later, against about a quarter across Columbus.
| Northwest Columbus | Columbus | |
|---|---|---|
| Rented | 51% | 56% |
| Single-family houses | 52% | 55% |
| Rentals that are houses | 15% | 27% |
| Built 2000 or later | 42% | 24% |
| Built before 1980 | 21% | 50% |
| Renters paying 30%+ of income | 37% | 47% |
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 Northwest Columbus
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 | Here | Columbus |
|---|---|---|
| Homes | ||
| Homes (housing units) | 31,270 | 425,180 |
| Rented | 51% | 56% |
| Lived in by the owner | 49% | 44% |
| Empty (any reason) | 4% | 8% |
| Empty and for rent | 2% | 2% |
| Empty and for sale | 0%* | 0% |
| Empty for other reasons | 1%* | 4% |
| Buildings | ||
| Single-family houses | 52% | 55% |
| 2 to 4 units | 9% | 13% |
| 5 to 19 units | 23% | 20% |
| 20 or more units | 15% | 12% |
| Mobile homes and other | 1%* | 1% |
| Rentals that are single-family houses | 15% | 27% |
| Age | ||
| Built before 1940 | 2% | 12% |
| Built 1940 to 1979 | 19% | 38% |
| Built 1980 to 1999 | 36% | 26% |
| Built 2000 or later | 42% | 24% |
| Typical year built | 1996 | 1980 |
| Costs | ||
| Typical rent, with utilities | $1,550 | $1,300 |
| Renters spending 30%+ of income on rent | 37% | 47% |
| Renters spending 50%+ of income on rent | 16% | 23% |
| Typical home value (owner estimate) | $390,000 | $250,000 |
| Who stays | ||
| Renters who moved in 2020 or later | 57% | 50% |
| Owners who moved in before 2010 | 43% | 43% |
| Conditions | ||
| More than one person per room | 3% | 3% |
| Missing complete plumbing | 0%* | 1% |
| Missing a complete kitchen | 1%* | 2% |
Renting or buying in Northwest Columbus
Questions worth asking before you sign, based on the homes and the records here.
What neighbors report in Northwest Columbus
From 676 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 676 in Northwest Columbus, plotted block by block. Filter by problem, search any address, or zoom in to any street.
How do reports in Northwest Columbus compare with the rest of Columbus?
Show the detailed stats for all 11 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
Landlord / Management 55 reports · 8.1% of all |
2.1× | — | |
Mold / Water Damage 36 reports · 5.3% of all |
1.8× | — | — |
Rats 51 reports · 7.5% of all |
1.6× | ↑ Increasing | |
Noise 13 reports · 1.9% of all |
1.6× | — | — |
Pest / Rodent 73 reports · 10.8% of all |
1.5× | ↑ Increasing | |
HVAC / Utilities 22 reports · 3.3% of all |
1.3× | — | — |
Vehicles 76 reports · 11.2% of all |
0.97× | ↑ Increasing | |
Trash 130 reports · 19.2% of all |
0.93× | ↓ Decreasing | |
Overgrowth 265 reports · 39.2% of all |
0.88× | → Steady | |
Safety 6 reports · 0.9% of all |
0.52× | — | — |
Vacant Structure 12 reports · 1.8% of all |
0.26× | — | — |
Common questions about Northwest Columbus
What problems show up most in Northwest Columbus's city records?
Higher than normal rate of landlord, mold, rat, and pest complaints.
Compared with the rest of Columbus, Northwest Columbus sees landlord and management complaints about twice as often as usual, and mold and water damage reports and rat 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 Northwest Columbus?
Northwest Columbus is a mix of newer houses and apartment buildings, about half of them rented. A little more than 4 in 10 homes in Northwest Columbus were built in 2000 or later, against about a quarter across Columbus. In the 2020–2024 Census survey, the typical renter paid about $1,550 a month with utilities, against $1,300 across Columbus, and the typical owner valued their home at about $390,000, against $250,000. Those are what current residents paid or estimated over five years, not what listings ask today.
Are the problems concentrated in a few buildings?
Reports here are neither tightly clustered nor fully spread out. The ten most-reported addresses hold about 11% of reports. For any specific address, run a Block Report to see what has been reported there and next door.
Are reports in Northwest Columbus going up or down?
Up. Reports so far this year are running about 33% ahead of the same months last year. Most of the change is in overgrowth complaints and rat reports.
How serious are the reports in Northwest Columbus?
20% of the reports for Northwest Columbus 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.
How do I report a problem in Northwest Columbus?
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 Northwest Columbus know?
Tenants in this area most often report landlord and management problems and mold and water damage problems. Responding to tenant reports before they reach 311 keeps a property out of this dataset.
Is Northwest Columbus 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 676 records for Northwest Columbus, 6 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.