Living in Far South Side, Columbus: Homes, Rent, and Complaints
The Far South Side is the part of Columbus along South High Street and Parsons Avenue south of Route 104, where the old Southland Mall is now Columbus City Schools offices.
Most homes here are lived in by their owners. Most rentals are houses, not apartments. Rent is among the lowest in Columbus, and homes cost less. Junk car complaints, mostly cars parked on lawns or left on the street, come up more often than in most of Columbus.
Check an address in Far South Side
See what has been reported at that address, the same building, and the block around it.
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What the homes are like in Far South Side
Most rentals in Far South Side are houses, not apartments. Across Columbus, most renters live in apartments. A little more than half of the homes here were built between 1940 and 1979, against about 4 in 10 across Columbus.
| Far South Side | Columbus | |
|---|---|---|
| Rented | 35% | 56% |
| Single-family houses | 81% | 55% |
| Rentals that are houses | 62% | 27% |
| Built before 1940 | 5% | 12% |
| Built before 1980 | 59% | 50% |
| Renters paying 30%+ of income | 45% | 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 Far South Side
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 | Far South Side | Columbus |
|---|---|---|
| Homes | ||
| Homes (housing units) | 5,950 | 425,180 |
| Rented | 35% | 56% |
| Lived in by the owner | 65% | 44% |
| Empty (any reason) | 4%* | 8% |
| Empty and for rent | 0%* | 2% |
| Empty and for sale | 0%* | 0% |
| Empty for other reasons | 2%* | 4% |
| Buildings | ||
| Single-family houses | 81% | 55% |
| 2 to 4 units | 1%* | 13% |
| 5 to 19 units | 3%* | 20% |
| 20 or more units | 6%* | 12% |
| Mobile homes and other | 9% | 1% |
| Rentals that are single-family houses | 62% | 27% |
| Age | ||
| Built before 1940 | 5% | 12% |
| Built 1940 to 1979 | 54% | 38% |
| Built 1980 to 1999 | 27% | 26% |
| Built 2000 or later | 14% | 24% |
| Typical year built | 1970 | 1980 |
| Costs | ||
| Typical rent, with utilities | $1,050 | $1,300 |
| Renters spending 30%+ of income on rent | 45% | 47% |
| Renters spending 50%+ of income on rent | 25% | 23% |
| Typical home value (owner estimate) | $180,000 | $250,000 |
| Who stays | ||
| Renters who moved in 2020 or later | 25% | 50% |
| Owners who moved in before 2010 | 56% | 43% |
| Conditions | ||
| More than one person per room | 2%* | 3% |
| Missing complete plumbing | 0%* | 1% |
| Missing a complete kitchen | 1%* | 2% |
Renting or buying in Far South Side
Questions worth asking before you sign, based on the homes and the records here.
What neighbors report in Far South Side
From 1,284 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 1,284 in Far South Side, plotted block by block. Filter by problem, search any address, or zoom in to any street.
How do reports in Far South Side compare with the rest of Columbus?
Show the detailed stats for all 13 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
Vehicles 238 reports · 18.5% of all |
1.6× | ↑ Increasing | |
Overgrowth 599 reports · 46.7% of all |
1.05× | ↑ Increasing | |
Trash 262 reports · 20.4% of all |
0.99× | → Steady | |
Encampment 20 reports · 1.6% of all |
0.96× | — | — |
Rats 56 reports · 4.4% of all |
0.91× | — | |
Pest / Rodent 78 reports · 6.1% of all |
0.85× | ↑ Increasing | |
Vacant Structure 59 reports · 4.6% of all |
0.67× | ↓ Decreasing | |
Noise 10 reports · 0.8% of all |
0.63× | — | — |
Sewage 8 reports · 0.6% of all |
0.61× | — | — |
Mold / Water Damage 19 reports · 1.5% of all |
0.49× | — | — |
Safety 9 reports · 0.7% of all |
0.41× | — | — |
Landlord / Management 19 reports · 1.5% of all |
0.37× | — | — |
HVAC / Utilities 11 reports · 0.9% of all |
0.36× | — | — |
Common questions about Far South Side
What problems show up most in Far South Side's city records?
Higher than normal rate of junk car complaints.
Compared with the rest of Columbus, Far South Side sees more abandoned vehicle complaints than usual.
What is the housing like in Far South Side?
Far South Side is mostly mid-century single-family houses (built in the 1940s to 1970s), most of them lived in by their owners. Across Columbus, most renters live in apartments. A little more than half of the homes in Far South Side were built between 1940 and 1979, against about 4 in 10 across Columbus. In the 2020–2024 Census survey, the typical renter paid about $1,050 a month with utilities, against $1,300 across Columbus, and the typical owner valued their home at about $180,000, against $250,000. Those are what current residents paid or estimated over five years, not what listings ask today.
Which streets in Far South Side have the most complaints?
Ranked by complaints per address, the most-reported stretches are the 2700 to 3499 blocks of S High St. Each one is roughly a hundred addresses, so check the exact address before drawing conclusions.
Tap a street to see it on the map.
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. The most-reported stretch is the 2700 to 3499 blocks of S High St, with 71 reports from 25 addresses. For any specific address, run a Block Report to see what has been reported there and next door.
Are reports in Far South Side going up or down?
Up. Reports so far this year are running about 18% ahead of the same months last year. Most of the change is in overgrowth complaints and abandoned vehicle complaints.
How serious are the reports in Far South Side?
12% of the reports for Far South Side are rated severe or critical, such as sewage, no heat, mold, or an active infestation, against 16% citywide. Fewer 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 South Side and its next-door neighbors and Columbus as a whole. Lower is calmer.
Nearby pagesDriving Park·Southwest Columbus
How do I report a problem in Far South Side?
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. General pest reports here peak in July. If that is your problem, report it when it starts. Do not wait for the busiest month.
What should landlords and property owners in Far South Side know?
Tenants in this area most often report abandoned vehicle problems. Responding to tenant reports before they reach 311 keeps a property out of this dataset.
Is Far South Side 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 1,284 records for Far South Side, 9 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.