Shaker Heights (44120) Yields 13.8% in Cleveland, Far Above the Inner Suburbs

Note on the 44120 leader: ZIP 44120 covers two distinct areas, the Moreland and Buckeye-Shaker neighborhoods (Cleveland city, lower-priced housing stock) and the southwestern fringe of Shaker Heights municipality. The $125k median reflects the mixed stock, not the prestigious Shaker Heights Country Club / Lomond / Sussex areas, which sit in ZIP 44122 with substantially higher prices and lower yields.

Yields across 52 suburbs in Cleveland (Cuyahoga County) range from 13.8% in Shaker Heights (44120) down to roughly 2.5% in the eastern hills and outer commuter belt. That spread of more than 11 percentage points is wider than the gap between short-term rental and long-term rental at the city level, which means WHERE you buy in Cleveland matters more than HOW you rent it out. The pattern is consistent: the inner-ring eastern suburbs and select industrial-edge ZIPs lead on gross yield, while the affluent eastern hills and western lakefront trail. This ranking shows the leaders and explains the geography behind the numbers.

Shaker Heights (44120) Tops the Yield Ranking at 13.8%

The five highest-yielding suburbs in the Cleveland metro all sit at entry prices well below the city median of $213,500, with rents that hold up disproportionately well relative to those prices. Here is the top five by long-term rental gross yield, ranked by long-term rental gross yield.

Gross yields = annual income / sale price. Based on 3-bed house medians. The dashboard shows every property type and bedroom count.

Inner-Ring Eastern Suburbs Drive the High-Yield Story

Shaker Heights (44120) leads at 13.8% because of an unusual combination: a historically prestigious housing stock that the broader market has repriced downward, paired with rents anchored by proximity to University Circle, the Cleveland Clinic, and the rapid transit Blue and Green lines into downtown. Buyers can enter at roughly $125,000 for a 3-bed house, which is about 40% below the metro median of $213,500, while monthly rent of $1,440 reflects strong demand from medical professionals, university staff, and commuting downtown workers. This is the classic suburban-balance pattern: enough demand to keep occupancy high, but priced like an outer suburb.

Maple Heights (44137) and Garfield Heights (44125) share the inner-ring east-side profile. Both are dense, transit-accessible, post-industrial communities where housing prices reset hard during the 2008 to 2012 downturn and never fully recovered, but where rental demand from working households, hospital staff, and reverse commuters into the eastern suburbs has stayed firm. Downtown/Campus District (44115) is a different animal: as the downtown ZIP, it leans toward apartments and small condos; the high yield reflects a thin sample of for-sale houses in a ZIP dominated by rentals serving downtown workers and hospital interns. It is more of a long-term rental play given the steady tenant pool, while Shaker Heights (44120) and Maple Heights (44137) are likely to perform even better on short-term rental thanks to medical-tourism and Cleveland Clinic visitor demand.

Cuyahoga Heights/Industrial Valley (44127) is the outlier in the top five. Entry pricing of around $85,070 is the lowest of any suburb on the list, and rent of $896 keeps the gross yield at 12.6%. This is industrial-edge territory: the housing stock is small and older, the tenant pool is narrower, and vacancy risk is meaningfully higher than in the inner-ring east-side suburbs. The yield is real on paper but should be discounted for the thinner rental market.

Cheaper Doesn't Mean Worse, but It Does Mean Different

The inverse relationship between price and yield is sharper in Cleveland than in most US metros because the price spread is unusually wide. The top suburb enters at $125,000, the metro median sits at $213,500, and the most expensive suburbs cross $751,990. An investor entering at $125,000 in Shaker Heights (44120) versus $213,500 at the city median faces a very different capital-risk profile: the cheaper property carries more rental risk per dollar invested, but it also requires far less capital and produces stronger cash yield from day one.

The premium suburbs trade yield for capital preservation and tenant quality. Buyers in those areas pay for school districts, larger lots, and historically lower turnover, not for income. That trade-off is real, but it is a growth and stability bet, not a cash-flow bet, and the gross yield numbers reflect it honestly.

Premium Cleveland Suburbs Yield Less but Trade on Liquidity

For context, here is how some of Cleveland's most in-demand and recognisable suburbs compare. These are established neighborhoods where investors typically accept lower yields in exchange for capital growth, lower vacancy risk, and easier exit liquidity.

High-demand suburbs for context. Same methodology as the yield ranking above.

These suburbs yield less on long-term rental because buyers price in school quality, lot size, lifestyle amenity, and the expectation of capital growth, none of which produce monthly cash flow. For some of these suburbs, especially those near downtown, the Cleveland Clinic, or weekend-tourism corridors, the short-term rental strategy can lift effective yield meaningfully, though that depends on local zoning and registration rules. Always verify whether short-term rentals are permitted in the specific ZIP before underwriting on those numbers.

What the Ranking Doesn't Show

A yield is rent divided by price, and a high yield can mean depressed prices rather than strong rents. Several of the top-five Cleveland suburbs sit in that category: rents have held up because demand is real, but prices are low because buyer interest from owner-occupiers and out-of-state investors has been thin. That can compress further before it recovers, or it can re-rate quickly when an institutional buyer enters the area. Either way, the yield number does not predict which.

The ranking also doesn't capture capital growth, vacancy risk, or property-condition variance. A 13.8% gross yield in Shaker Heights (44120) typically comes with older housing stock that needs more capital expenditure than a newer suburban build, and the medians can lag by 6 to 12 months in suburbs with thin transaction volume. Treat the ranking as the starting point for a shortlist, not the finishing line.

View Cleveland in the dashboard → Free preview · every bedroom count and property type

Cleveland's Top Suburbs Beat the National Median by a Wide Margin

The Cleveland metro median gross yield of 7.4% sits well above the US national median of 5.3%, and the top-ranked suburb at 13.8% is roughly 2.5 times the national figure. Even the bottom of the inner-ring east-side suburbs comfortably clears the national average. Ohio's median of 5.2% sits close to the national figure, and Cuyahoga County is firmly at the top end of the state's distribution. For investors comparing markets, Cleveland's suburb-level yield range is one of the wider and higher in the country, which is exactly why suburb selection within it matters so much. See the data sources behind these numbers.

For comparable analyses in nearby markets, Cleveland's 11.3% Short-Term Rental Yield Hides a Thin Net Return covers the same question from the short-term rental angle for Cleveland investors weighing gross versus net returns.

Data reflects market conditions as of April 2026. Cleveland sits within Cuyahoga County, where Permit required ($70) in Cleveland. Cleveland requires annual short-term rentals registration ($70/unit) with the Department of Building & Housing, including interior/exterior inspections. 3% city Transient Occupancy Tax plus Cuyahoga County 5.5% bed tax. Airbnb auto-collects county tax; hosts remit city TOT monthly. Verify current short-term rental registration rules in the specific ZIP before underwriting on short-term yields.

This information is for educational purposes only and should not be considered financial or legal advice. Regulations and market conditions change frequently. Verify current rules with local authorities before making investment decisions.