Counties / Ohio / Delaware County

Delaware County, OH

FIPS 39041 · population 226,834 · part of Columbus, OH

$525k
Zillow home value · 2026-06
The numbers

What this county costs and earns

Everything here joins on the county FIPS code, so each figure comes from the agency that publishes it with no name matching in between.

Zillow home value
$525k
▲ 0.4% year over year
Zillow ZHVI · direct
Median asking rent
$1,597
▼ 0.5% year over year
Zillow ZORI · direct
Gross yield
3.6%
annual rent ÷ price, before costs
derived: rent × 12 ÷ price ✓
HUD 2-bed standard
$1,430
market rent is 1.12x the standard
HUD Fair Market Rent · direct
Independent price check

Do two methods point the same way?

Zillow estimates a current home value. FHFA tracks repeat mortgage transactions. Their growth rates should be read side by side, not averaged.

Both annual signals move in the same direction
FHFA five-year cumulative+58.4%not annualized · through 2025
0%ZILLOW ZHVI2026-06+0.4%FHFA HPI2025+6.3%
Annual changes use different methods and may use different periods. The comparison checks direction and magnitude; it does not create a blended estimate. Zillow county ZHVI pulled 2026-07-26; FHFA annual county HPI pulled 2026-07-28.
Owner-reported value$446k
Surveyed gross rent$1,492
Rent burden 30%+42.1%
Median year built2000
Housing composition

Who occupies the stock—and what it is

ACS 2024 5-year
4.6%vacant
86,269estimated housing units
Occupied tenure21.5% renter
owner 78.5%renter 21.5%
Structure mix81.2% single-family
Single-family 81.2%20+ units 5.3%Mobile home 2.0%Other 11.6%
ACS estimates describe the standing housing stock and occupied tenure. They do not measure current listings, transaction prices or asking rents.

Survey source: Census ACS 5-year — county housing value, tenure and stock · ACS 2024 5-year · pulled 2026-07-30. These values describe different housing universes and are not combined into gross yield.

Annual average covered jobs100,726▲ 2.6% from the prior annual release
Covered establishments7,489annual average reporting locations
Average weekly wage$1,459▲ 5.0% from the prior annual release
Largest private supersectorProfessional and business services24.9% of disclosed private covered jobs
Local labor base

Jobs, pay and private-sector concentration

2025
0%COVERED JOBS+2.6%WEEKLY WAGE+5.0%Professional and business services24.9%
Annual QCEW counts cover jobs located at reporting establishments. The industry share uses disclosed private covered employment; it is not a resident-employment measure or a forecast.

Workplace source: BLS QCEW — county employment and wages · annual county employment and wages 2025 vs 2024 · pulled 2026-07-31. QCEW counts covered jobs located in the county, not employed residents or the metro score’s CES/LAUS series.

County brief

What the local evidence says

01Decision frame

At Zillow’s 2026-06 county observation, the $524,727 median home value and $1,597 monthly median asking rent correspond to the supplied 3.65% gross yield before expenses. The decision tension is an expensive entry point paired with modest current income production: cost-sensitive leveraged buyers should be cautious, while buyers able to verify unusually low operating costs should investigate whether a specific asset can outperform the county median. This is a county screen, not a property valuation.

02Housing economics

Measured market asking rent, rather than a subsidy benchmark, is the income input: HUD’s $1,430 two-bedroom FMR is a payment standard, not an estimate of asking rent. The 1.60% effective property-tax rate raises carrying-cost scrutiny. Zillow’s home-value change was 0.40% year over year, while FHFA’s 2025 annual repeat-transaction HPI increased 6.32%. FHFA is an index rather than a home value; the methods and vintages differ, so neither rate should be averaged nor treated as a single price path.

03Demand & competition

Annual QCEW data for 2025 show county workplace covered employment rising 2.59%; this is job activity at county establishments, not resident employment or an outlook. Calculated net migration was 965 tax-return households, and movers in reported average income $11,494 above movers out, a higher-income inflow composition signal but not proof of tenant demand. Realtor.com’s 2026-06 MLS evidence shows 512 active listings, 23.82% more than a year earlier; shorter marketing time and price reductions complicate that supply reading. Its listings are asking-market evidence, not closed sales. Investor-linked purchases were 153 of 3,311, or 4.62%, limiting the evidence of broad non-owner competition.

04Risk & next checks

Inland flood is the stated dominant hazard, and modeled climate loss equals 0.11% of building value annually; that modeled loss measure should be considered with flood exposure rather than converted into a dollar estimate. The record lacks property-level flood-zone, elevation, insurance, condition and repair information, as well as closed-sale comparables, vacancy, operating expenses and financing terms. Those omissions prevent a net-yield, debt-coverage, resilience-adjusted value or exit-liquidity conclusion. Next review should test tax bills, insurance and flood mitigation by parcel, then verify achievable lease rent and recent closed sales.

Cities & communities

Where people live within Delaware County

Census-recognized incorporated places and CDPs that intersect this county. The list does not pretend to include every neighborhood or informal community.

Population scale

Largest Census places

ACS 2024 5-year
Columbus city*914.8KDublin city*49.3KDelaware city44.6KWesterville city*38.6KPowell city14.5KSunbury city8KGalena village1.7KAshley village1.6K
Bars use total place population, not a county-share estimate. An asterisk marks a place that crosses a county line.
Official directory

12 Census places

Population
  1. 01
    Columbus cityIncorporated place · spans 3 counties
    914,802
  2. 02
    Dublin cityIncorporated place · spans 3 counties
    49,294
  3. 03
    Delaware cityIncorporated place
    44,589
  4. 04
    Westerville cityIncorporated place · spans 2 counties
    38,645
  5. 05
    Powell cityIncorporated place
    14,451
  6. 06
    Sunbury cityIncorporated place
    8,005
  7. 07
    Galena villageIncorporated place
    1,709
  8. 08
    Ashley villageIncorporated place
    1,593
  9. 09
    Ostrander villageIncorporated place
    1,008
  10. 10
    Shawnee Hills villageIncorporated place
    946
  11. 11
    Radnor CDPCensus-designated place
    95
  12. 12
    Kilbourne CDPCensus-designated place
    43

Population is the total place-wide ACS estimate, not an allocated county share. A place crossing a county line is labelled explicitly. Source: Census ACS 5-year — cities and communities · ACS 2024 5-year · pulled 2026-07-30.

Risk, demand and competition

The three things a price does not tell you

01
Risk & carrying costFEMA NRI + Census ACS
Dominant hazardinland flooding

0.113% of building value expected lost per year

Effective property tax1.60%

$7,132 median annual bill

02
DemandIRS SOI household flows
Net migration+965

8,387 in · 7,422 out

Arriving vs leaving income+$11,494

$103,605 arriving · $92,111 leaving

03
CompetitionHMDA financed purchases
Purchases by investors4.6%

153 of 3,311 mortgages

investorother financed
Current listing pressure

What sellers and visible supply are doing

Realtor.com® Economic Research · county inventory 2026-06 · pulled 2026-07-28
Active listings512▲ 23.8% year over year
Median days on market34▼ 5.6% year over year
Listings price-reduced27.2%seller-concession signal
Median listing pricen/a▼ 0.1% year over year

Listing price is an asking price, not a closed sale. Quality-flagged county rows are withheld instead of displayed.

Same metro

The other counties in Columbus, OH

A metro is an average of these. Which side of a county line a property sits on can change the tax bill, the hazard profile and the tenant pool.

CountyPopulationPriceRentYieldHazard
Delaware County226,834$525k$1,5973.6%inland flooding
Franklin County1,333,048$301k$1,5106.0%inland flooding
Licking County181,837$345k$1,8176.3%inland flooding
Fairfield County163,453$370k$1,8386.0%inland flooding
Union County67,324$419k$1,7234.9%inland flooding
Pickaway County60,131$333k$1,8456.7%inland flooding
Madison County44,423$322k$1,9387.2%inland flooding
Perry County35,535$230kn/an/ainland flooding
Morrow County35,404$287kn/an/ainland flooding
Bear case

What can break the county thesis

  1. Property-level taxes, insurance, repairs and vacancy could make the gross yield inadequate after expenses.
  2. Flood exposure or insurance constraints may be materially worse for a selected parcel than the county modeled loss measure.
  3. Visible MLS supply and seller reductions may not translate into closed-sale liquidity or lease demand.
Underwriting questions

Before pricing a property

Is HUD FMR the county's asking-rent estimate?

No. The record identifies median asking market rent separately; HUD FMR is a two-bedroom payment standard.

Can the Zillow and FHFA price changes be combined into one growth rate?

No. Zillow reports a county home-value measure, while FHFA reports a repeat-transaction appreciation index for a different supplied period.

What does the purchase record say about investor participation?

It identifies non-owner purchase mortgages as a minority of reported purchases, but does not show parcel-level or neighborhood-level competition.