Forest, Ohio.
Typical home $128,395 (-10.2% in a year).
Property tax and schools in Forest
Forest’s own tax page → what a home here pays, who charges it, its levies and ballot, and its schools.
Forest is in Hardin County, where its property tax is set. Its homes there are in the Riverdale Local school district. Check your own bill.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$341 (+103%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $14,582 -10%
- $142,978$128,395 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $12,339 +11%
- $116,056$128,395 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Forest$674
- Ohio$1,291
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 34 years.
Typical home values in Forest, OH fell 10.2% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Forest, Hardin County, Ohio
Forest is a village of 1,350 people in Hardin County. 74% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 26% are rented. Unemployment in Hardin County was 3.6% in August 2026, and the county had 0.6% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Hardin County work in manufacturing, then schools and health care.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Forest is a village where most homes are lived in by their owners, and the people living there are about the age of the typical American. Incomes in Hardin County run below the national picture, and fewer adults here hold a four-year degree than in many places. Winters are cold, with highs hovering around freezing in January and a fair amount of snow, while July turns warm, and rain and melted snow fall through the year.
Work. Residents work mainly in manufacturing, in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, and in restaurants, hotels and entertainment. Across Hardin County, some of the largest workplaces are Graphic Packaging International, Ohio Northern University and Kenton City Schools. Unemployment in the county is lower than it was a year ago, though the county has slightly fewer jobs than it did the year before. Most people travel a moderate distance to work, and very few work from home.
Things to do. For time outdoors, Van Buren State Park, a protected area, and Van Buren Lake, a reservoir, are both a longer drive away, as is the Great Miami River. For something indoors, the Hancock Historical Museum and the Mazza Museum of International Art from Picture Books are museums, also a longer drive away.
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- 520households
- 12%of adults have a degree
- 12%below the poverty line
- 22 mintypical commute
- 3%work from home
What people in Hardin County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Hardin County had 7,632 jobs in 2025, 0.6% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 33° and lows near 18°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 64°. About 26 inches of snow and 38 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Kenton weather station, 12 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Hardin County
- Graphic Packaging InternationalPaper and paperboard785
- Ohio Northern UniversityUniversity or college596
- Kenton City SchoolsSchool district308FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters263
- Precision Strip, Inc. Kenton199
- Vancrest of AdaSkilled nursing facilities160
- Ada TechnologiesTransmissions and parts, automotive, truck, and bus, manufacturing133
- Hardin Memorial HospitalCritical access hospital132FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 22 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 2,585 people in all across the county; Forest has one of its own. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24), school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- LightningRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- HailRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
- Cold wavesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Forest’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, very low. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Hardin County.
Forest home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Forest$128,395
- Ohio$245,982
- United States$366,157
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Forest4
Zip codes with a Forest address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Forest — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zillow publishes no zip-level series with this city on the address.