Cleveland, OH Multifamily Market Report Q3 2026

Absorption Runs 2.3x Deliveries; Rents Rise 4.1%

Demand

Cleveland absorbed 410 units in Q3 2026, against 2 in the same quarter last year. Vacancy is 3.5%, 76 bps tighter than Q3 2025. Strongsville/Medina is the tightest submarket at 2.1% vacancy; Beachwood/Mayfield leads rent growth at +14.6%. Trailing-12-month absorption of 2,359 units is down from 4,185 a year earlier. Rent of $1,474 is up 4.1% year over year and a record. Vacancy sits 238 bps below the Q4 2023 peak of 5.9%.

Supply

Cleveland recorded 150 units of completions in Q3 and 1,030 over the trailing twelve months (-37% versus the prior TTM period). Units under construction equal 0.9% of inventory, concentrated in Beachwood/Mayfield at 4.3% of its stock. Annual completions peaked at 1,877 units in 2018. Q3 deliveries were less than half of last year’s 614. The 1,665-unit pipeline equals about three quarters of absorption at the trailing pace.

Investment Market

Cleveland recorded $0.3B in sales over the trailing twelve months, +14% against the prior TTM period; Q3 accounted for $63M. The high-water mark in this series is $0.7B in 2018.

Cleveland cap rates average 8.01%, up for 19 straight quarters. Pricing sits at $82k per unit, higher for 2 consecutive years. The cap rate is 126 bps above the Q4 2021 low of 6.75%.