Summit County Rental Market & Inventory Performance Analysis

Most communities that invest in affordable housing track what they build. Few track how it performs after move-in. Are deed-restricted units staying occupied by the households they’re meant to serve? Are rents holding at affordable levels? Summit County needed those answers — and was asking a harder question: whether its housing investments were helping people build lives, not just find shelter.

The study examined the rental market in two phases: Phase I analyzed inventory, pricing, and supply gaps; Phase II surveyed 370 renter households to understand lived experiences. The findings exposed a gap the market data alone couldn’t show. Hispanic and Latino renters earn half the median income of non-Hispanic renters while paying comparable housing costs — 86% are cost-burdened, compared with 49% of non-Hispanic renters. Forty-five percent of all renters moved in the past five years, and 58% of those moves were involuntary.

Building units is the beginning, not the end.

Western Spaces conducted the rental market study and inventory performance analysis, examining the county’s affordable and workforce rental portfolio against broader market conditions. The study treated public housing investment the way a private investor would treat a real estate fund: with ongoing performance metrics, not just construction milestones.