Renting cheap housing in Akron is not cheap.
The city has a disproportionate share of homes built around World War I and World War II. And they’re concentrated in neighborhoods with extreme “rent burdens” census tracts where rent consumes 35% or more of a tenant’s income.
These older homes are more costly per unit to repair, upgrade or maintain than larger apartment complexes. City administrators suspect the units eat into landlords profit margins, discourage investment or force renters to make difficult budgetary decisions.
According to a Beacon Journal analysis of tract-level census data, rents consume 40% to 50% of incomes in nearly all of the central neighborhoods, including downtown. Renters send less of their wages to their landlords the farther they live from the city center, though some pockets in Goodyear Heights, North Hill and around Romig Road in Kenmore come close to rent eating up 40% of household incomes.
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