Duplexes in Akron OH 2026: Prices, Rents, and the Catch
The short version: Akron is not on the Foothold Index. 15 of 82 listings survived the screen, but the median surviving deal leaves an owner-occupant $607 a month worse off than renting comparable space. Entry price is $169,900; the problem is the payment, not the price tag.
Why Akron duplexes fail the Foothold screen
Every listing goes through seven checks and a single failure removes it. In Akron, of 82 listings:
- 58 of 82 failed the abandoned-property (other-vacant) ceiling.
- 8 of 82 failed the gross-yield ceiling: a yield above 25%, which usually means a repair bill wearing a rent number.
- 6 of 82 failed the neighborhood violent-crime ceiling.
Listings can fail more than one check, so these counts overlap. The dominant one here is the abandoned-property (other-vacant) ceiling. The 15 that cleared everything are the only buildings the numbers below describe.
How much does a duplex cost in Akron in 2026?
What the two prices mean: entry ($169,900) is the 25th percentile of the 15 surviving listings and typical ($199,900) is their median. Both are list prices. The median deal itself was a 2-unit, 4-bedroom building at $199,900 in ZIP 44320. With so few survivors, treat both numbers as a lead to investigate, not a market statistic.
What is the average rent in Akron in 2026?
A one-bedroom in Akron rents for about $779 a month, the average of Zumper’s and Apartment List’s asking rents for mid-2026. The model scales that figure by ZIP with HUD’s FY2026 Small Area Fair Market Rents, so a building in a cheaper ZIP is measured against a cheaper rent. A two-bedroom is about $1,175 on HUD’s FY2026 small-area fair market rents, the median across 14 ZIPs, and $925 on Zumper’s asking-rent data for July 2026.
What you pay each month living in one unit and renting the other
The full payment on the median surviving deal, with an FHA loan at 3.5% down and a 6.71% 30-year fixed rate, is $1,886 a month including mortgage insurance, property tax and insurance. The rented unit brings in $704. After the allowance, your share of the month is about $1,386, against $779 to rent a one-bedroom nearby.
How the mortgage rate changes the gap in Akron
| Mortgage rate | Median deal, per month, versus renting |
|---|---|
| 5.00% | $393 behind renting |
| 5.50% | $454 behind renting |
| 6.00% | $516 behind renting |
| 6.50% | $580 behind renting |
| 6.71% (model rate) | $607 behind renting |
| 7.00% | $645 behind renting |
| 7.50% | $712 behind renting |
What this means for you: even at 5.00% the median deal is $393 a month behind renting, so no realistic rate cut closes the gap here. The building has to be cheaper, or the rent higher, before this works.
How much income do you need to buy a duplex in Akron?
- Full payment$1,886On the typical building at 6.71%
- Income, front-end guideline$73,003Payment at 31% of gross income
- Income, back-end guideline$52,63043%, with no other debt
- Median household income$71,364What the median household here earns
On the typical $199,900 building the full payment at 6.71% is about $1,886 a month. FHA’s front-end guideline (payment at 31% of gross income) puts that at $73,003 a year. The back-end guideline (43%, with no other debt) puts it at $52,630. An FHA lender can also count 75% of the second unit’s rent toward your income. The median household here earns $71,364.
The assistance test: HUD puts the Akron area median income at $97,100 for a four-person household (FY2026). Most down payment programs cap eligibility at 80% of that, which HUD publishes as $77,700 for four people and $54,400 for one. The $73,003 front-end figure above sits $4,697 under that four-person limit. Household size and each program’s own cap decide it.
Down payment and assistance for an Akron duplex
Renting the other unit to a Section 8 voucher tenant in Akron
- The tenant pays a share set from income. The housing authority pays you the rest, up to a cap called the payment standard.
- The payment standard is set by ZIP code. For scale, HUD’s FY2027 metro-wide two-bedroom Fair Market Rent for the Akron, OH MSA, in effect from October 1, 2026, is $1,231 (FY2026: $1,268), and a basic-range payment standard runs from 90% to 110% of the published figure that applies.
- The tenant’s share is capped at move-in. When the rent is above the payment standard, a family moving in cannot take on a share above “40 percent of the family’s adjusted monthly income”.
- The unit passes an inspection first. HUD is moving voucher inspections to its newer NSPIRE standard, but under Notice PIH 2026-18 housing authorities “may continue using HQS as previously defined or other HUD-approved inspection methods as their inspection standards until February 1, 2027”.
The short version: with a Housing Choice Voucher, the tenant pays a share of the rent set from their income and the housing authority pays you the rest, up to a cap called the payment standard. In Akron the main voucher agency is the Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority (AMHA). It publishes its payment standards by ZIP code, effective January 1, 2026; look up the figure for the building’s unit size and location.
HUD requires housing authorities in this metro to set payment standards from Small Area Fair Market Rents, ZIP code by ZIP code, so the figure depends on the building’s ZIP. For scale, HUD’s FY2027 metro-wide two-bedroom Fair Market Rent for the Akron, OH MSA, in effect from October 1, 2026, is $1,231 (FY2026: $1,268), and a basic-range payment standard runs from 90% to 110% of the published figure that applies.
The catch: the payment standard is a ceiling, not an offer.
HUD’s rule is that “the PHA may not approve a lease until the PHA determines that the initial rent to owner is a reasonable rent”, judged against rents for similar unassisted units.
The housing authority’s monthly payment is the lower of the payment standard or the gross rent, minus the tenant’s share, and when the rent is above the payment standard, a family moving in cannot take on a share above “40 percent of the family’s adjusted monthly income”.
A rent well above what similar units nearby get can fail even when it sits under the payment standard.
The inspection: before the lease starts, HUD’s rule requires that “The unit has been inspected by the PHA and passes HQS”; HQS are HUD’s Housing Quality Standards. HUD is moving voucher inspections to its newer NSPIRE standard, but under Notice PIH 2026-18 housing authorities “may continue using HQS as previously defined or other HUD-approved inspection methods as their inspection standards until February 1, 2027”.
What Ohio law says about voucher tenants: Ohio has no statewide source-of-income law: its fair housing statute bars discrimination because of “race, color, religion, sex, military status, familial status, ancestry, disability, or national origin”, and source of income is not on that list. Locally: Akron’s city council passed an ordinance in May 2021 barring housing discrimination based on lawful source of income, including housing assistance, as News 5 Cleveland reported.
I did not read the ordinance, so whether it exempts an owner-occupied building is not confirmed. Source of income is not a federal protected class: the Fair Housing Act’s rental rule lists “because of race, color, religion, sex, familial status, or national origin”. This summarizes what the laws say; it is not legal advice.
One more 2026 fact: in December 2025 HUD recommended that housing authorities “Stop issuing new vouchers (except HUD-VASH and new FYI vouchers)” to keep 2026 costs inside their funding. Fewer new voucher holders may be searching while that lasts, so ask the housing authority whether it is issuing.
| Akron voucher basics | As read September 28, 2026 |
|---|---|
| Main voucher agency | Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority (AMHA) |
| Two-bedroom payment standard | Published by ZIP, effective January 1, 2026; see its schedule |
| Payment standards set by | ZIP code (HUD requires Small Area FMRs here) |
| HUD FY2027 two-bedroom Fair Market Rent, from October 1, 2026 (Akron, OH MSA) | $1,231; FY2026: $1,268 |
| Ohio source-of-income law | No statewide law |
| Local rule | Akron’s city council passed an ordinance in May 2021 barring housing discrimination based on lawful source of income, including housing assistance, as News 5 Cleveland reported; I did not read the ordinance, so whether it exempts an owner-occupied building is not confirmed |
FHA loan limits in Akron (2026)
FHA, the Federal Housing Administration, is the loan program that lets an owner-occupant buy a two-to-four-unit building with 3.5% down. It caps how large a loan it will insure, county by county. Summit County, OH sits at the national floor for 2026, so the standard limits apply. The cap rises with the number of units, which matters for house hacking: a duplex gets a higher limit than a single-family house.
| Property size | 2026 FHA limit, Summit County |
|---|---|
| 1 unit | $541,287 |
| 2 units (duplex) | $693,050 |
| 3 units | $837,700 |
| 4 units | $1,041,125 |
The FHA limit was one of the seven checks every listing here was screened against. The checks that removed listings in Akron were the neighborhood violent-crime ceiling, the abandoned-property ceiling and the rental-yield ceiling; the FHA limit does not appear among them. At these price points, listings fall out on condition, neighborhood or yield long before they approach the two-unit cap.
Source: HUD Mortgagee Letter 2025-23, limits effective for FHA case numbers assigned on or after January 1, 2026. Re-read from hud.gov on September 2, 2026.
What a failed screen does not mean for Akron buyers
It does not mean nobody should buy in Akron, and it does not mean the city is a bad place to live. The screen asks one narrow question: can a first-time owner-occupant buy a two-to-four-unit building here, with an FHA loan at 6.71% (Freddie Mac PMMS, week of September 3, 2026), live in one unit, rent the others, and carry a payment that fits local incomes with a cost of owning near or below renting, in a neighborhood that passes a safety and abandonment check.
The way around it: a local buyer with cash, a renovation budget, a contractor, or knowledge of a specific block can beat any screen. This one is built for someone who has none of those things yet. Rates, prices and listings all move, and the screen is re-run when the data is refreshed.
What this page does not tell you
- Flood insurance is not modeled anywhere in this analysis. Budget for it separately.
- Condition is screened statistically, not inspected. A cheap building can still be a money pit.
- The rent figure is a market benchmark, not a signed lease. Verify achievable rent on the specific unit.
- An FHA owner-occupant loan requires you to live in one of the units for at least a year.
- Accessory dwelling unit rules for Akron are not sourced on this page yet.
Ready to start looking?
If your numbers work and you’re ready to actually shop for a duplex, here are local agents and brokerages that work with investment and small-multifamily buyers in the Akron area. I don’t know them personally and I’m not endorsing anyone, so treat it as a starting point for your first few calls, not a ranking. A good fit will be comfortable with two-to-four-unit listings and can point you toward Ohio’s OHFA for owner-occupant buyers.
Showcase Home Group
eXp Realty, Ohio
An eXp Realty team with a dedicated multifamily search for Akron and the surrounding area, working with duplex, triplex, and investment buyers.
A starting point, not an endorsement. I don’t know these agents personally and I’m not vouching for any of them. No referral fees, nobody paid to be included, and this list can change.
Are you one of these agents? Feel free to add VanToVault to your resources page, and email hello@vantovault.com so I can keep your listing accurate.
Run your own numbers for Akron
Starts on the median surviving deal in this report. Move any slider to see what changes.
Cash to close is separate: down, before closing costs. Taxes and insurance scale with price at this metro’s modeled rate. The rent allowance is , the figure used for Akron throughout this report.
Next step
These are Akron averages. The specific building you are looking at will not match them — its price, its rent, its payment and the assistance you qualify for are all particular to it.
The First-Property Bundle is how you run that building: six calculators including the house-hack analyzer, the playbook, and a 15-minute workflow for finding the down payment assistance in your own county.
This page stays free either way.
Keep comparing: first-time buyer programs in Ohio, and the duplex numbers for Columbus and Dayton.
Where these numbers come from
- Listing prices and counts: active two-to-four-unit listings (Realtor.com, Movoto), screened for price floor, FHA county limit, price per square foot, gross yield, neighborhood violent crime, abandoned-property share and home-value trend.
- Rents: the one-bedroom figure is the average of Zumper and Apartment List metro asking rents (May to July 2026; RentCafe stands in for Zumper in Cleveland and Scranton, and is Buffalo's only series, August 31, 2026); the model scales it per ZIP by HUD FY2026 Small Area Fair Market Rents relative to the metro FMR. The two-bedroom figure is the HUD FY2026 SAFMR median across the ZIPs where surviving listings sit, with Zumper's two-bedroom asking rent as a second reading. Six metros carry a single one-bedroom series (Bakersfield, Buffalo, Rochester, Scranton, Syracuse, Youngstown).
- Local economy: unemployment is the BLS metro rate where one is published and the state rate otherwise; rental vacancy is the Census Housing Vacancy Survey state rate for every metro; median household income is ACS 2024 one-year (B19013); population is the Census Vintage 2025 metro-area estimate.
- Neighborhood safety screen: violent crime by ZIP, CrimeGrade.org, anchored to FBI city-level rates (Table 8, 2019).
- Mortgage rate: 30-year fixed, Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: 6.71% is the rate used throughout this analysis. The rate chart re-runs the same screen at each rate.
- Loan terms and mortgage insurance: FHA 3.5% minimum down payment and MIP schedule, HUD Handbook 4000.1. Income guidelines: FHA 31% / 43% qualifying ratios, same handbook. Area median income and the 80% limit: HUD FY2026 Income Limits (Section 8), huduser.gov.
- Property taxes: county effective property-tax rates. Insurance: state average premiums, scaled to price.
- Down payment assistance: state and local program terms, checked for two-to-four-unit eligibility.
- All of it, as one file: the open data page (CC BY 4.0).
- The Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority (AMHA), landlord page and payment standards; read September 28, 2026.
- HUD, Designated Small Area Fair Market Rent (SAFMR) Areas (last updated August 2024): "The following 65 metro areas are designated as mandatory SAFMR areas by HUD."
- Code of Federal Regulations, 24 CFR 982.503 (payment standard basic range), 982.505 (the monthly payment), 982.507 (reasonable rent), 982.508 (the 40% limit at move-in) and 982.305 (inspection before the lease); read September 28, 2026.
- HUD, Notice PIH 2026-18 (July 15, 2026), NSPIRE administrative procedures for voucher programs.
- Source-of-income law: Ohio Revised Code 4112.02 (codes.ohio.gov, effective April 6, 2023); News 5 Cleveland report; 42 U.S.C. §3604(a); read September 28, 2026.
- NAHRO, HUD Recommends PHAs Cease Issuing New Vouchers (December 23, 2025).
- HUD, FY2026 Fair Market Rents (revised), Akron, OH MSA (METRO10420M10420); read September 28, 2026. FY2027 figures: HUD, FY2027 Fair Market Rents, Akron, OH MSA (METRO10420M10420), effective October 1, 2026; read September 29, 2026.
Figures reflect the Foothold model run at the 6.71% model rate (Freddie Mac PMMS, week of September 3, 2026) on listings from June to August 2026, and are estimates for comparison, not an appraisal or a loan quote. Verify the numbers on any specific building before making an offer.
Questions people ask about buying a duplex in Akron
How much does a duplex cost in Akron?
A duplex in Akron costs $169,900 at the entry level (25th percentile) and $199,900 at the median, measured across the 15 two-to-four-unit listings that passed the 2026 Foothold screen out of 82 found. Both are list prices.
What is the average rent in Akron in 2026?
Average rent in Akron is about $779 a month for a one-bedroom, the average of Zumper and Apartment List asking rents for mid-2026, and about $1,175 for a two-bedroom on HUD FY2026 small-area fair market rents, the median across the ZIPs in this report.
Is it cheaper to own a duplex than to rent in Akron?
Owning the median surviving two-to-four-unit and renting the other unit costs about $1,386 a month all-in, against about $779 to rent comparable space, so renting is about $607 a month cheaper before equity.
Can you still buy a duplex in Akron with an FHA loan?
A two-to-four-unit building in Akron can be bought with an FHA loan at 3.5% down like anywhere else; there were 82 of them listed when this ran. The Foothold screen removed 67 of them on neighborhood, price or yield checks, which is a statement about the listings on the market, not about the loan.
Why is Akron not on the Foothold Index?
A metro makes the Foothold Index only if its median surviving deal costs no more than renting plus 10%, the payment fits inside a 48.5% debt-to-income ceiling, and enough listings survive to rank. Akron had 15 survivors of 82, and the median one runs $607 a month behind renting, far past that 10%.[S1]
Next step
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Sources
- [S1] Van to Vault, read 24 September 2026: “A metro is then ranked only if its median surviving deal costs no more than renting plus 10%, and the payment fits inside a 48.5% debt to income ceiling.” vantovault.com.
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Your numbers
What would a duplex in Akron cost you each month?
The calculator opens at this page's entry price, $169,900, with $779 rent from the other unit and a 6.71% rate. Put in your own price, rent and down payment to see what moves.
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