Kent, Ohio.
Typical home $249,564 (+4.7% in a year), asking rent $1,702 (+7.6%). Akron, OH metro.
Property tax and schools in Kent
Kent’s own tax page → what a home here pays, who charges it, its levies and ballot, and its schools.
Kent is in Portage County, where its property tax is set. Its homes there are in 2 school districts: Field Local and Kent City. Check your own bill.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$725 (+124%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $11,120 +5%
- $238,444$249,564 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $58,697 +31%
- $190,867$249,564 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.
- Kent$1,310
- Ohio$1,291
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 13 years.
Typical home values in Kent, OH rose 4.7% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Kent, OH rose 7.6% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Kent runs $139/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $290 in Oct 2023.
That is $1,841 a month against $1,702 rent: a $1,310 mortgage payment, plus $264 property tax and $267 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Kent
The owning line is the typical home's monthly payment at that month's rate, plus property tax and insurance & upkeep; the renting line is the typical asking rent; the grey line is the mortgage payment on its own. Same homes, same months, both ways of paying for a roof.
- Owning all in$1,841
- Renting$1,702
- Mortgage only$1,310
Property tax · $264/mo 1.27% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Portage County, OH
Insurance & upkeep · $267/mo insurance, maintenance and repairs together, from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey — the national figure for mortgaged homeowners, scaled to this market's home value. BLS publishes the three bundled and they cannot be split.
Both are priced off the same month's home value, so they rise with the market. Neither is a quote — a specific home's bill depends on its assessment, its age and its insurer.
Living in Kent, Portage County, Ohio
Kent is a city of 28,215 people in Portage County. Half its households earn more than $42,964 a year and half less, against $75,766 across Portage County; 27% of its people live below the poverty line. 41% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 59% are rented. Unemployment in Kent was 3.7% in August 2026, and Portage County had 0.4% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then restaurants and hotels.
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. Kent is a small city with a young population, far younger than most of the country, and most homes here are rented rather than lived in by their owners. Incomes run well below the county's, and a good share of residents live in poverty. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while July brings warm summer days and rain or melted snow falls through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by restaurants, hotels and entertainment, shops, and professional and business services. Kent City Schools is among the largest workplaces in town, alongside manufacturers such as Enterprise Plastics and Kent Adhesive Products Co. A large share of adults hold a four-year degree, the daily commute is fairly short, and a fair number of people work from home.
Things to do. In or beside town, the Tom S. Cooperrider-Kent Bog State Nature Preserve is a protected area for walking, and Kent Stage is a theatre. A short drive away, the Akron Art Museum offers a museum visit. For a longer trip, Cuyahoga Valley National Park is a national park a longer drive away.
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- 10,069households
- 47%of adults have a degree
- 27%below the poverty line
- 21 mintypical commute
- 16%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Portage County had 56,790 jobs in 2025, 0.4% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 34° and lows near 17°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 60°. About 45 inches of snow and 43 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Ravenna South weather station, 4 miles away (NOAA).
Largest employers in Kent
- Kent State University
- Davey Tree Expert Co, Inc
- Kent City Board of Education
- City of Kent
- Smithers-Oasis Company
- Land-O-Lakes
- Klaben Ford Lincoln Mercury
- Mac Trailer Enterprises
From the City of Kent’s annual financial report for 2024, its schedule of principal employers (its source: “City of Kent Department of Budget & Finance - Income Tax Division”), as Ohio’s Auditor of State publishes it: the report. It gives no employee counts or ranks; they are in its order.
Natural hazards
- HailRelatively moderate
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Kent’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 Portage County and the Akron, OH metro.
Kent home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Kent$249,564
- Ohio$245,982
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 5 Kent listings, and the typical home goes pending in 10 days — the market is cooling.
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
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Kent21.82%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Kent10
- United States24
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Kent88
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Kent37
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Kent$246,160
- United States$371,553
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Kent100.82%
Zip codes with a Kent address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Kent — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.