DSCR Loans in Guernsey County, Ohio
A rental property in Guernsey County carries a lighter tax bill than most of Ohio: 1.01% effective, against a 1.36% statewide average. That gap works in a borrower's favor on a DSCR calculation, so we've worked it below on a property at the county's own median value.
01
Guernsey County at a glance
- County seat
- Cambridge
- Population
- 38,379 (2025 est.)
- Effective property tax rate
- 1.01%
- Median home value
- $157,700 (ACS 2020-2024 5yr)
- Median gross rent
- $864/mo (ACS 2020-2024 5yr)
02
Why investors look at Guernsey County
Cambridge sits at the I-70/I-77 interchange; a legacy glass-and-pottery manufacturing base.
03
The tax-drag math for Guernsey County
Property tax is the single input most Ohio rental-market content skips, and it's the one that varies most by county — from under 1% to over 2.3% across the state's 88 counties. In Guernsey County it runs below the statewide middle.
A $157,700 property here — Guernsey County's own median home value, 20% down ($31,540), renting for $864/mo — financed at an observed Ohio DSCR average of 7.20% (Q2 2026)¹:
- Gross rent
- $864
- Guernsey County property tax ($157,700 × 1.01% ÷ 12)
- $133
- Landlord insurance ($1220 ÷ 12)
- $102
- Principal & interest, $126,160 loan at an observed 7.20% Ohio average¹, 30-yr fixed
- $856
- PITIA (tax + insurance + P&I)
- $1,091
- DSCR (rent ÷ PITIA)
- $864 ÷ $1,091 = 0.79
At these countywide figures, a 0.79 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 Guernsey County's lower 1.01%, this same property's monthly tax bill would run about $179 instead of $133 — Guernsey County's below-average rate is worth roughly $46/month here.
This worked example deliberately uses Guernsey 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. Run your own address and rent number through the DSCR calculator for a property-specific result instead of this countywide blend.
0.79 on the county median isn't a verdict on Guernsey County — it's a description of the middle of the market. Below-median purchase price, above-median rent, or a larger down payment are the three levers that move a specific deal back over 1.00; the gap between the average and the achievable is the opportunity, not a warning.
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.
04
Cities in Guernsey County
The cities and villages below are Guernsey County's largest — each has its own page with local facts and a link back here for the full tax-drag math.
- Cambridge → — pop. 10,089
05
06
Get your Guernsey County DSCR quote
Every county in Ohio has its own tax rate, and that rate is one input a lender's DSCR calculation actually uses. See what a specific Guernsey County property quotes at.
07
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
- taxbycounty.com (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.