DSCR Loans in Franklin County, Ohio

1.40% effective — that's Franklin County's property tax rate, and it sits above the 1.36% Ohio average. For a DSCR loan, where the ratio is rent divided by the full monthly payment including taxes, that difference isn't cosmetic. The worked math below shows exactly what it does to a real deal.

Franklin County at a glance

County seat: Columbus
Population: 1,361,536 (2025 est.)
Effective property tax rate: 1.40%
Median home value: $288,400 (ACS 2020-2024 5yr)
Median gross rent: $1,302/mo (ACS 2020-2024 5yr)

Why investors look at Franklin County

Columbus anchor — the state capital and home to Ohio State University; Ohio's most populous county and its deepest-demand growth market, with the thinnest rental yields of the state's major metros.

The tax-drag math for Franklin County

The same $100,000 of property value can generate very different tax bills depending which of Ohio's 88 counties it sits in. Franklin County is on the higher-tax end of that spread, and that shows up directly in the math below.

A $288,400 property here — Franklin County's own median home value, 20% down ($57,680), renting for $1,302/mo — financed at an observed Ohio DSCR average of 7.20% (Q2 2026)¹:

Gross rent: $1,302
Franklin County property tax ($288,400 × 1.40% ÷ 12): $336
Landlord insurance ($1220 ÷ 12): $102
Principal & interest, $230,720 loan at an observed 7.20% Ohio average¹, 30-yr fixed: $1,566
PITIA (tax + insurance + P&I): $2,004
DSCR (rent ÷ PITIA): $1,302 ÷ $2,004 = 0.65

At these countywide figures, a 0.65 lands under the 1.00 floor most DSCR programs require — see the methodology note below for why a whole-county median often understates what a targeted rental-grade property actually clears. At the statewide average tax rate of 1.36% instead of Franklin County's 1.40%, this same property's monthly tax bill would run about $327 instead of $336 — a difference of roughly $10/month that moves straight into the DSCR numerator.

This worked example deliberately uses Franklin County's own ACS-reported median home value against its ACS-reported median gross rent — a blended, whole-county pairing that includes higher-priced owner-occupied housing on the value side and apartment/multifamily rents on the rent side. That's a more conservative starting point than a matched, rental-grade single-family purchase, which is why the ratio here often reads lower than the specific submarket example on the Columbus market page — the metro page hand-picks a real submarket property instead of a countywide blend.

The county average landing under 1.00 says something about the median deal in Franklin County, not about the county as a market. Buying under the median, renting over it, or increasing the down payment are how investors make DSCR work here — the distance between that average number and an achievable one is exactly where the deal is.

¹ Ohio DSCR long-term-rental loans averaged 7.20% in Q2 2026 (Private Lender Link), inside the broader 6.5%–8.75% range lenders were publishing for DSCR product nationally. This is a market observation, not an offer — your rate depends on your DSCR, credit, LTV and loan purpose, and is set by the lender, not by us.

Cities in Franklin County

Franklin County's populated places, largest first. Each city page below carries its own population and housing facts, plus this county's tax math.

Columbus → — pop. 905,748 (spans into Delaware, Fairfield County)
Dublin → — pop. 49,328 (spans into Union, Delaware County)
Grove City → — pop. 41,252
Reynoldsburg → — pop. 41,076 (spans into Licking, Fairfield County)
Westerville → — pop. 39,190 (spans into Delaware County)
Hilliard → — pop. 37,114
Upper Arlington → — pop. 36,800
Gahanna → — pop. 35,726
Whitehall → — pop. 20,127
Worthington → — pop. 14,786
Bexley → — pop. 13,928
New Albany → — pop. 10,825 (spans into Licking County)
Canal Winchester → — pop. 9,107 (spans into Fairfield County)
Grandview Heights → — pop. 8,085
Groveport → — pop. 6,009
Obetz → — pop. 5,489

Nearby counties

A few more Central Ohio counties worth a look:

The Columbus metro connection

Franklin County hosts one of Ohio's three major metros this site covers in depth — see the Columbus DSCR market page for submarket-level rents, prices, and a separate worked example.

Get your Franklin County DSCR quote

The math above uses Franklin County's median home value. Run your own address and rent number to see where your file actually lands.

Compare DSCR quotes for a Franklin County property →

Sources for this page

Wikipedia, "List of counties in Ohio" (county seat, population, 2025 est.) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_counties_in_Ohio
SmartAsset, ACS-based estimate (effective property tax rate)
CostByCounty, "Cost of Living in Ohio by County" (median home value and rent, ACS 2020-2024 5yr) — https://costbycounty.com/ohio
Private Lender Link (Ohio DSCR rate average, Q2 2026) — https://privatelenderlink.com/region/usa/ohio/residential-long-term-rental-ohio-usa/

Last updated 2026-08-25. County tax rates and home-value figures are refreshed periodically from the sources above, each with its own as-of date.