Cost of Living & Housing in Akron-Canton
Housing across Akron-Canton runs consistently below Columbus and Cincinnati, from Akron's own $145K average up to Hudson's $641K median -- and Hudson stands so far above every other member place in this region that it functions almost as its own separate, high-end market layered onto an otherwise genuinely affordable region.
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Learn moreAkron and Canton: The Region's Affordable Urban Cores
Akron ($145K average home value) and Canton ($163K) are both genuinely affordable big-city markets, well below every Ohio Tier A city built in this project's Columbus and Cincinnati coverage. Both prices reflect real, disclosed population and industrial-decline histories -- Akron's rubber-industry contraction from its historic peak, Canton's own manufacturing-heritage shifts -- rather than hidden undervaluation.
Kent and Wooster: College-Town and County-Seat Middle Tier
Kent ($217K, Kent State University's home) and Wooster ($267K, Wayne County's seat) both run meaningfully above Akron and Canton while staying well below Columbus-suburb pricing. Kent's market carries real, seasonal, student-driven rental demand alongside its owner-occupied housing; Wooster's price reflects its status as an established, independent county-seat town rather than a satellite of either Akron or Canton.
Hudson: The Region's Clear Outlier, and Millersburg's Amish Country
Hudson's median sale price around $641K sits in an entirely different tier from the rest of this region -- one of the most affluent suburbs in northeast Ohio, closer in price to Columbus's Dublin or New Albany than to its own regional neighbors. Millersburg, the Holmes County seat and heart of Ohio's Amish Country, runs a genuinely different, rural, tourism-adjacent housing market (a median sale price around $280K) shaped by the area's status as home to one of the largest Amish populations in the world.
Key takeaways
- Akron and Canton are both genuinely affordable big-city markets (roughly $145K-$163K average home value), well below Columbus and Cincinnati, reflecting real disclosed industrial-decline histories rather than hidden bargains.
- Kent (Kent State) and Wooster (Wayne County seat) form a middle tier ($217K-$267K), each shaped by a distinct local anchor -- a university versus an independent county seat.
- Hudson's ~$641K median sale price is dramatically above every other place in this region -- one of northeast Ohio's most affluent suburbs, priced closer to Columbus's top suburbs than to Akron or Canton.
- Millersburg's housing market reflects Holmes County's genuine, large Amish population and rural tourism economy, a distinctly different product from the rest of the region.
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