9 Central Ohio Areas Worth a Closer Look Before You Buy (What the Data Actually Shows)

by Jared West

Central Ohio is in the middle of one of the biggest growth runs in its history. Intel’s chip plant, Ohio State’s continued expansion, and a wave of new employers moving in have made Columbus one of the hottest relocation markets in the Midwest. That growth is exactly why so many out-of-state buyers reach out to me with the same question: “Is Columbus a good place to buy?”

Here’s the honest answer: it depends entirely on what you’re optimizing for. A short commute, a quiet street, more house for your money, and proximity to a major logistics hub are all different priorities that point to different answers. What buyers don’t need is a list of towns to “avoid” based on someone’s gut feeling or a quick scroll through Zillow.

So instead, here are nine Central Ohio communities I get asked about most — with what public records, city and county planning documents, and federal sources actually say about each one. Where I couldn’t verify a claim against a real source, I left it out rather than guess.

A quick note before we start: crime data and school ratings change and are address-specific. Rather than repeat secondhand claims, I’d rather point you to the primary sources so you can check any specific address yourself — I’ve linked those at the bottom of this post, and I’m always happy to walk through them with you directly.

1. Whitehall

Whitehall sits about 6 miles east of downtown Columbus and has grown fast — population is up 11.4% since 2010, to just over 20,000 residents. The city has attracted real investment: RiteRug Flooring relocated there in 2015, the Wasserstrom Company followed in 2018, DSW has had its headquarters there since 2007, and Norton Crossing, a $50 million mixed-use development, opened in 2020. If home prices in Whitehall look lower than nearby Bexley or Gahanna, that’s a real opportunity worth evaluating on its own merits — not a red flag by itself.

2. Reynoldsburg (Brice Road corridor)

Reynoldsburg is a city of roughly 41,000 people with a long history dating to 1831. The Brice Road corridor near I-70 is a documented interstate commercial/industrial access point (Exits 110 and 110B), and ODOT has ongoing and completed interchange projects in the immediate area. That means more truck and commercial traffic than you’ll find in Reynoldsburg’s residential pockets further east — worth a drive-through at rush hour before you commit, regardless of which part of the city you’re considering.

3. South Linden

South Linden is a roughly 1,000-acre planning area on Columbus’s near-northeast side, bordering Clintonville, North Linden, and Milo Grogan, with just under 10,000 residents. It has direct transit access to downtown via COTA’s CMAX bus rapid transit line on Cleveland Avenue. The housing stock is largely Bungalow, Craftsman, and Cape Cod-style homes from the neighborhood’s early-20th-century development, and there are active civic groups (the South Linden Area Commission and the Greater Linden Business Network) working on ongoing investment in the area.

4. The Hilltop

The Hilltop is one of Columbus’s largest and oldest neighborhoods, with roughly 68,000 residents along the historic National Road (West Broad Street). It has real history — Camp Chase processed over 150,000 Union troops during the Civil War — and absorbed a wave of new residents after the catastrophic 1913 Columbus flood. General Motors was a major employer in the area through the mid-20th century. Today it’s made up of several distinct sub-neighborhoods (Westgate, Georgian Heights, Highland West, and others), each with a different feel, so it’s worth evaluating block by block rather than treating “the Hilltop” as one thing.

5. Franklinton (West Franklinton)

Franklinton gets more flood questions than any other Columbus neighborhood, and for good reason — the area flooded badly for decades before the Army Corps of Engineers completed the Franklinton Floodwall in 2004, a roughly 7-mile system of levees and concrete walls with 14 gated openings, engineered to protect against a 500-year flood event. That project, which cost an estimated $134–139 million, removed Franklinton’s FEMA floodplain designation and eliminated the mandatory flood-insurance requirement for the area. If you’re looking at a specific property in Franklinton, don’t take that on faith — pull the current flood zone determination for that exact address at FEMA’s Flood Map Service Center (msc.fema.gov) before you write an offer. It’s a five-minute check that answers the question definitively.

6. Urbancrest

Urbancrest is a small village (just over 1,000 residents) bordering both Columbus and Grove City, first settled in 1889 and incorporated in 1948. It sits near the broader Rickenbacker logistics corridor (see Obetz and Lockbourne below), though I didn’t find a specific, citable source tying warehouse development directly to Urbancrest itself — if industrial proximity is a concern, it’s worth driving the area at different times of day to see truck traffic patterns firsthand.

7. Lockbourne

Lockbourne is a tiny historic village (about 235 residents) that gave its name to Rickenbacker International Airport, originally Lockbourne Air Force Base. Rickenbacker sees very little commercial passenger traffic — it functions primarily as a cargo and logistics hub, roughly 10 miles south of downtown Columbus. If you’re considering property near Lockbourne, cargo flight noise (including overnight operations) is a legitimate, verifiable factor to check in person, not a rumor.

8. Obetz

Obetz is a village of about 5,500 people that has become the center of one of the largest logistics operations in the Midwest. Rickenbacker’s operators describe it as an “inland port” — a roughly 1,600-acre multimodal air, rail, and truck logistics complex that includes Norfolk Southern’s intermodal terminal (processing several hundred thousand containers a year) and Foreign Trade Zone status dating to 1987. JobsOhio and regional economic development groups have announced real, recent job growth tied to this corridor, including a 105-job expansion by BBI Transportation and a 400-job distribution center from Le Tote. For some buyers, proximity to this level of logistics infrastructure is a plus (jobs, growth, investment); for others prioritizing a quiet residential feel, it’s worth weighing against that growth.

9. Circleville

Circleville, the Pickaway County seat about 25 miles south of Columbus, is a genuinely distinct small city — not a Columbus suburb. It’s nicknamed “Roundtown” for its original 1810 circular street plan (built around ancient Hopewell earthworks) and is home to Ohio’s largest DuPont specialty-film plant, PACCAR truck manufacturing, and the well-known annual Pumpkin Show. If you’re commuting into Columbus daily, budget real time for US-23 — but if your job is remote or local to Pickaway County, Circleville offers small-town character and more house for your money than you’ll typically find closer to the city.

One honest note on Marion

Marion, Ohio comes up in relocation searches, but it’s important to be clear: Marion is not a Columbus suburb. It’s a separate city and county seat about 50 miles north of Columbus, home to major employers like Whirlpool (roughly 2,900 employees, the largest clothes-dryer plant in the world), Nucor Steel, and Wyandot Snacks. If you’re planning to commute into Columbus daily from Marion, that’s a meaningfully long drive on US-23 — factor that into your decision the same way you would any long-distance commute, and check current typical drive times yourself on Google Maps rather than relying on a rule of thumb.

How to check the rest yourself

For anything address-specific — crime data, school ratings, current flood zone status — go straight to the primary source rather than a secondhand ranking:

Crime data: your local police department’s public crime map, or the FBI Crime Data Explorer (cde.ucr.cjis.gov)
School ratings: GreatSchools.org, or the Ohio Department of Education’s report cards (reportcard.education.ohio.gov)
Flood zone status: FEMA’s Flood Map Service Center (msc.fema.gov/portal/search)

I check these for clients on every property we look at together, and I’m happy to walk you through any of these areas — or any others in Central Ohio — in more depth based on what actually matters for your move: commute, budget, lifestyle, and long-term resale.

Thinking about relocating to Columbus or Central Ohio? Schedule a consultation or start your home search and let’s figure out which of these areas — or the dozens of others in Central Ohio — actually fits what you need.

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Sources used in this post: Wikipedia (Whitehall, Reynoldsburg, Hilltop, Lockbourne, Obetz, Marion, Circleville, Urbancrest — citing U.S. Census and other primary sources), U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts, City of Columbus South Linden Land Use Plan, Franklin County Economic Development & Planning (Urbancrest Community Plan), Ohio Department of Transportation project database, Columbus Monthly, Burgess & Niple, Airport Improvement magazine, JobsOhio, and Columbus Region economic development press releases. Population and drive-distance figures should be treated as most-recent-available estimates, not live data.