Rust Belt no more: Manufacturing revival turns Ohio into housing hotspot

The exodus of manufacturing jobs in the Midwest that accompanied China’s rise as a global economic power earned the region the unflattering nickname of the “Rust Belt” as old plants were abandoned and population growth declined.

These events led to stagnant housing markets, an aging population and a yearning from the older generation to “make America great again” by investing in manufacturing.

While President Donald Trump has made this one of the signature policy initiatives of his time in the White House, Ohio is reviving manufacturing on its own by attracting companies that make everything from drones to semiconductors to paint.

“When there were national articles being written about Toledo and Youngstown, those areas were always pointed out as places that would never, never be back to what they were,” said Scott Williams, CEO of Ohio REALTORS. “I can’t say that they’re completely back, but there has been a great deal of investment in the state.”

The performance of Ohio’s housing markets reflects this trend. There are few towns that embody the phrase “Rust Belt” more than Toledo, as it was hit particularly hard by job flight. This pushed the median home price there below $200,000.

But that’s changed rapidly as jobs have begun to return and investors have flooded the market. For any given week at the start of 2025, the median home price in Toledo was up more than 30% year over year, according to data from Altos, although appreciation has since settled down to 9.4% annual growth.

Cleveland has a similar story. There are few major metro areas where home prices are rising faster than Cleveland, as it’s arguably the hottest market in the country. That’s been repeatedly validated by housing market reports from across the real estate industry.

Starting in 2023, Altos data shows year-over-year price gains in Cleveland consistently reaching double digits. In the first weeks of June 2025, growth dropped below 10% but is still up a hefty 8.7%.

This comes despite Cleveland’s reputation as an unattractive city in a depressed area.

“We get beat up,” said Jerry Quade, a Cleveland-based Redfin agent. “We’re the city where the river burned in the ’60s — the Cuyahoga River. Cincinnati is ‘the Queen City.’ We’re the dirty city, but we love it and so do people who move here.”

There are several reasons for Ohio’s revival. While home prices have risen considerably since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the median price in Toledo is $294,900 and Cleveland’s is $250,000 — generally affordable compared to other parts of the country.

The so-called “flight to the suburbs” that started during the pandemic can be better understood as a “flight to affordability,” and that phenomenon is still playing out in Ohio.

There are plenty of reasons that employers like setting up shop in Ohio, with an understated one being the climate.

“One of the things that was surprising to me that I never really thought about was just the lack of natural disasters,” said Allison Wiley, vice president of marketing and communications for Ohio REALTORS. “We aren’t dealing with hurricanes. We’re not getting earthquakes. We’re not getting fires. That’s very attractive to these companies and a big draw.”

But the single biggest reason for the resurgence is the state’s investment in bringing advanced manufacturing to the state. This push occurred under former Gov. John Kasich, who ironically fell victim to Trump’s populist manufacturing message during the 2016 Republican primary.

In 2011, Kasich signed a law that created JobsOhio, a quasi-state agency that works on economic development. Staffed with executives from the private sector and funded by taxes on alcohol sales, JobsOhio has lured a number of major employers to the state.

It’s been instrumental in not only bringing jobs to the state but in retaining existing ones. According to data from JobsOhio, the Buckeye State gained 16,457 jobs in 2023 and retained another 27,836 — although these numbers are lower than those of the previous three years.

Some cities that lost manufacturing pivoted to other job sectors to juice their economies, but not Ohio, which doubled down on manufacturing.

In 2023, the state added 4,552 advanced manufacturing jobs, which accounted for 27% of all new jobs. Aerospace and aviation (2,372); automotive (1,642); information technology (857); and logistics and distribution (1,215) also accounted for a good chunk of Ohio’s new jobs.

Some of the new or planned employers in Ohio include a Honda electric vehicle battery manufacturing plant, an Intel semiconductor plant, Anduril drone manufacturing and a new Cleveland headquarters for Sherwin Williams.

The flight to affordability in Ohio will inevitably drive up prices the longer it goes, and some of the planned new manufacturing plants have hit snags — Intel’s in particular. But there’s no sign Ohio will lose its momentum long term.

“It’s cyclical, and when this cycle is going to end, we don’t know,” Quade said. “But we just go with it. ‘Make hay while the sun shines,’ like my dad used to say.”