Whether or not future renters or homebuyers are aware, central Ohio’s tech boom may prove to be a double-edged sword, exacerbating the region’s growing housing crisis. 

In January 2022, Intel — one of the largest semiconductor manufacturers in the world — announced plans to invest over $20 billion into constructing two chip factories in Licking County, Ohio. Currently, Intel’s primary locations are in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Oregon. 

Economic prosperity in regions where Intel is located has grown tenfold, and its contribution to the U.S.’s GDP was $25.9 billion in 2019 alone. Intel’s announcement marked the single largest private sector investment in the history of Ohio, and the project is expected to add approximately $2.8 billion to Ohio’s economic growth, according to the company. 

Intel is expected to bring in about 3,000 new hires for the company and over 7,000 construction jobs. Originally planned to be completed in 2025, Intel recently announced a delay of the project into late 2026 due to a slow chip market.

Other tech hubs like Google, Meta and Amazon have also established relatively new roots in the Columbus region. Jobs and investment from all of these tech businesses will expand Columbus’s population considerably.

All these new residents need places to live in what is already considered one of the nation’s fastest-growing housing markets, worsening fears of gentrification and displacement among minority communities in central Ohio.

According to Carlie Boos, the executive director at the Affordable Housing Alliance of Central Ohio, Columbus’ rapid development poses a risk to everyone unless the city takes drastic steps for development. 

“The underlying truth is that we are growing rapidly through tech, through industry, through innovation, through education, through all of these different sectors and as a combined wave. We’re just not keeping up on housing,” Boos said. “I don’t think that there’s any neighborhood that gets out safe. I think that every single one of our communities is in a really significant risk right now.”

Another significant factor of Columbus’ housing crisis was the city “never quite recover[ing]” from the 2008 housing crash, Jason Reece, an associate professor of city and regional planning at the Knowlton School of Architecture and an expert on the intersection of social equality and regional planning, said.

Intel executives did not respond to a request for comment about their new plants’ impact, but Columbus development officials say it’s not Intel’s fault. 

Kenny McDonald, the president and CEO of the Columbus Partnership team, a nonprofit conglomerate of Columbus businesses and CEOs, said supply and demand are at the core of the issue and not to blame the arriving companies.

“Intel and Google and others that have really just arrived, and at this point, have very modest job growth [and] are absolutely not the root of our housing affordability issues. It really is a supply and demand issue more than anything,” McDonald said. “I will say that the announcement of these major projects create an anticipation that there’s going to be additional growth. And that we want to make sure that we’re constantly communicating what that growth is, where those workers are going to need to live.”

Considerable economic pledges have also been made, with Gov. Mike DeWine promising a $90 million investment into infrastructure and development surrounding the Intel plants. Intel itself has also pledged $100 million to Ohio’s educational institutions.

On the surface, it seems that Central Ohio should be thriving with its newfound influx of jobs, investment and money. 

New Albany development officials drive into Intel’s construction site.

Credit: Caleb Blake | Photo Editor

Stephanie Moulton, a professor with expertise in housing policy and finance at Ohio State’s John Glenn College of Public Affairs, said the arrival of tech companies like Intel will contribute to economic productivity in the region. Still, it will also undoubtedly bring about problems with housing supply and community planning due to a historical lack of housing within the region. 

“Intel might bring in higher-wage workers, which is fabulous. You might worry about the populations that are here, that are not able to purchase homes, or that are in rental housing, where the house prices tend to go up, when you have a limited housing supply in an area, and you have an increase in demand, you’re gonna see prices go up, obviously,” Moulton said. “And so one of the worries is that individuals in Columbus or in our surrounding communities like Licking County where Intel is going to be created, that the average wages of those individuals are going to be much lower than the wages of Intel workers, and the house price appreciation that’s going to happen.”

Competition and prices will likely increase on rental properties in Columbus.

Credit: Caleb Blake | Photo Editor

“We’ve had a long history of students kind of overpaying for lower quality housing, particularly in the University District,” Reece said. “It’s hard to anticipate the growth that we’re going to see, will that still persist? Will other investors come in and try to buy up properties? And also, I think we will benefit to a degree by the expansion of residential options on campus that we’ve seen built in the last decade.”

Amy Riegel, the executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio, said students are a population that is at higher risk when it comes to finding affordable housing because of high demand and typically lower tenant protections. 

“I think that it is just another factor that makes college less affordable and harder to achieve for so many people within our communities,” Riegel said. “And it also adds risk levels to student housing that may create unsafe circumstances based upon overcrowding, or people rooming in areas of a home that just aren’t fit for a person to be staying in.”

Riegel said students graduating from Ohio State and other universities may struggle to find affordable housing even with a high-paying job that Intel could provide. 

“I talk to individuals on a regular basis, who are younger, who are coming out of their higher education. They have great jobs, like really good stable jobs, and they can barely afford an apartment, let alone really being able to put into perspective owning a home,” Riegel said. “And so we see that housing in central Columbus, or Central Ohio, is becoming more and more expensive and harder to find.”

Riegel, who lives in a college neighborhood in Dayton, said after a certain point, it becomes less profitable for landlords to rent to college students and more advantageous to rent to high-earning adults and families who want the benefits of being near a college campus like Ohio State. 

“If you get to the point, which I think Columbus’ numbers are probably approaching that region, or level, where a landlord renting to an everyday nonstudent would actually receive more rent continuously than renting to a student,” Riegel said. “And when you see those economics flip, it means that universities are kind of caught off guard because it takes universities a long time to build housing and to address adjustments in the market. And so it could leave students having to live further from campus, students to overcrowd in two units and students to pay way more.”

Despite this possibility, Riegel said she has been impressed by Ohio State’s construction efforts, such as building dorms and university housing upwards and condensing the university through higher-density housing instead of sprawling into other areas.

“What we’re starting to see is those areas are being the word that many might use as gentrified,” Thomas said. “And as you can imagine, as the property value goes up, because different types of people move in, they begin to do different types of improvements on the homes and all of those things. When those property values go up, sometimes people who were in the neighborhood originally are priced out of their market. And so usually, that’s through income tax increases. And that becomes a little challenging [for] them.”

In spite of the issues development brings, Thomas said leaders in Columbus are making an effort to address them on the government and nonprofit levels, as well as within private corporations. Updating zoning codes is a major step in the right direction for housing development. The Columbus Housing Strategy, implemented by Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther, aims to double the supply of housing in the region and since 2019, over $250 million has been authorized for housing bond packages and other affordable housing initiatives. 

“Our city leaders knew this was going to be a challenge from the beginning,” Thomas said. “And it’s almost like they understand that we have to perform while we’re transforming. So they’re doing really great work.”

Rapid development requires conscious work on the side of all counterparts involved, including businesses, government and non-profits.

Credit: Molly Goheen | Managing Editor for Digital Content

Boos said the housing crisis needs to be solved if Columbus wants to retain its reputation as a welcoming and affordable Midwestern city.

“It’s Midwestern to be able to buy a home when you’re 28,” Boos said. “And to build wealth and to raise a family and to have the security to maybe start a small business. When you start seeing single-family starter homes selling for $400,000-$500,000, that Midwestern identity is going to evaporate really quickly. And that doesn’t matter if you’re in Hilliard, or Reynoldsburg, or Upper Arlington or Granville, it’s going to be everywhere unless we act as a region to get ahead of it.”

Riegel mentioned the diversity of Ohio is part of what makes it such an appealing state. With rural, suburban and urban areas, Ohio and Columbus appeal to a wide variety of people but need the reputation of affordability to remain so.

To help solve the housing crisis, Columbus needs to come together, recognize its diversity and realize it is a community issue, Boos said.

“I think we need to understand that even if I’m housing secure, I am actively losing out because other people don’t have enough housing,” Boos said. “So yes, get in the game, do the thing. fight for what’s right, because you believe it’s right. But also, we need to understand that we will all grow, we will all get stronger, and we will all directly benefit if we can solve this thing.”

Words by Phoebe Helms

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