Region · Census East North Central division · Midwest
East North Central rental markets
The Great Lakes industrial Midwest. 5 states and 347 ranked cities, summarized by the median Overall across those cities.
The honest read
East North Central ranks #6 of 9 U.S. regions for rental investing, with a median Overall of 45.8/100 across its ranked cities, below the national median. 5 states make up this division.
A region grade is the median of its ranked cities, a screen for where to look, not underwriting. Open any city below for its full shown-math breakdown, or run a specific deal through the cap rate and cash-flow calculators.
Where it ranks, factor by factor
Every value is the median across the 347 ranked cities in this region. The national rank compares all 9 regions on that one factor; the engine already flips inverted factors (affordability, low unemployment) so a better rank always means a better market. Each factor sits in one of the model’s three categories (Cash Flow, Growth, or Stability); this is a representative summary, and the full thirteen-factor breakdown is on each city’s page. Full methodology.
| Factor | Category | Region value | National rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross rent yield | Cash Flow | 7.7% | not measured |
| Rent growth | Growth | 4.9% | not measured |
| Home value growth | Growth | 5.3% | not measured |
| Population growth | Growth | 0.1% | not measured |
| Job growth | Growth | 0.4% | not measured |
| Price-to-income | Cash Flow | 3.9× | not measured |
| Unemployment | Stability | 3.8% | not measured |
| Rental demand | Stability | 41% renters · 502.7% vacancy | not measured |
| Income growth | Growth | 5.5% | not measured |
States in the East North Central division
Ranked by median Overall across each state's ranked cities. Each links to its full state analysis, and from there to its cities.
Data as of: Zillow ZHVI/ZORI through the latest monthly release · Census ACS 5-yr 2019–2023 · Census PEP July 2024 · BLS LAUS county 2023 annual. Generated 2026-09-01. Methodology & limitations · underwrite any specific deal with the free calculators.