Rent in Cleveland's suburbs is rising faster than almost anywhere in the country

Typical rent in Maple Heights, southeast of Cleveland, was $1,561 a month in August 2026, up 13.4% from a year earlier, according to RentDataNow data built on the Zillow Observed Rent Index. That ranks 12th among the 1,761 US cities with at least 20,000 residents that we track. Shaker Heights is 26th, up 11.0% to $1,708, and Parma is 52nd, up 9.3% to $1,346. Typical rent nationally rose 2.6%.

Cleveland itself is climbing too, but more slowly. Typical rent in the city is $1,391, up 4.9%. Every suburb on the list below is at or near its record high.

The zip code data points the same way. In Parma's 44129, typical rent is up 13.1%, to $1,256, and in 44134, on the city's south side, it's up 7.3%, to $1,664. Euclid's 44132, along the lakefront, is up 15.3%, to $1,391. In 44130, which covers Parma Heights and parts of Parma and Middleburg Heights, the increase is smaller, 3.6%, to $1,272. University Heights' 44118 is up 8.7%, to $1,558.

Small-city rent indexes swing more than big-city ones because they rest on fewer listings, so a single year can overstate a trend. The pattern here holds across several neighboring cities and zip codes at once, though, and it builds on five years in which rent in most of these suburbs rose by more than 40%.

Incomes haven't kept that pace. The median household in Maple Heights earned $53,414 in the Census Bureau's 2020-2024 survey, up 19.3% over five years, so a year of typical rent, $18,732, now equals about 35% of it. In Parma, where the median household earned $69,295, typical rent takes about 23%. Shaker Heights' median household earned $104,073, the highest of the cities in the table.

Renters feel it more than those household medians suggest. The median renter household in Maple Heights earned $44,229, so a year of today's typical rent there would take about 42% of it. In Parma, renters earned a median $51,084, and 43.5% of renter households already spent 30% or more of their income on housing. That share was 56.7% in Parma Heights and 53.2% in Cleveland.

Anyone moving now pays more than the neighbors who signed years ago. The Census median gross rent in Parma, which includes utilities and averages the years 2020 to 2024, was $1,087, about $259 below today's typical asking rent. In Maple Heights it was $1,338, about $223 below. Over the past eight years, Parma rent has usually been lowest in April and highest in June, though the swing is under 1%.

The west side's priciest suburbs are steadier. Typical rent is $1,898 in Westlake, up 3.0%, and $1,844 in North Olmsted, up 4.0%. For more on why Cleveland's low rents aren't as cheap as they look, see the catch with Cleveland's cheap rent and how Cleveland rent rose 51%.

Sources

• RentDataNow city and zip code rent data, anchored to the Zillow Observed Rent Index, August 2026; rankings cover US cities with at least 20,000 residents and a full year of data
• US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2020-2024, for median household income, plus renter income, median gross rent, and the share of renters spending 30% or more on housing