Why Hilliard's Newest Homes Are Its Most Expensive, and What Could Change That
November 5, 2026
November 5, 2026
In September 2026, Hilliard's median sale price was $515,000, up 22.3% from a year earlier, according to the Columbus REALTORS local market update. The same report puts the year-to-date median through September at $432,500, which is down 5.9%. Both numbers are accurate, and they describe a city where the price you see depends a lot on which homes happened to close that month.
Hilliard's own rules help explain why new homes sit at the top of that range. The city builds new homes mostly at its western edge, under conservation zoning that keeps lots large and requires most of the land to stay open. The zoning changes that would allow smaller homes closer to downtown are still a draft. If you're comparing Hilliard with other Central Ohio suburbs, those two facts explain more about your budget than any monthly median.
Fischer Homes' Clover Meadows shows how the edge works. Hilliard City Council unanimously approved the rezoning on June 8, 2026, for 79 single-family homes on an 80-acre parcel on the east side of Elliott Road, about 2,000 feet north of Scioto Darby Road, as the Hilliard Beacon reported. The land was rezoned to the Hilliard Conservation District, which limits density to one unit per acre. Under the developer's agreement, 35 of the 80 acres go to Columbus and Franklin County Metro Parks. A Fischer Homes representative told Council the homes would sell from the high $600,000s, with some in the $900,000s.
These are Hilliard's local rules, and they go further than the regional standard. In 2023, Council adopted a policy requiring that 70% of the land in new developments stay open space. The City of Hilliard notes that this is higher than the 50% standard used by other members of the Big Darby Accord. M/I Homes' Hill Farm II follows the same pattern. When NBC4 covered the March 2025 approval, it described a 300-home extension with 186 of its 265 acres set aside as open space.
That open space has now been collected into one park. On Sept. 28, 2026, Council unanimously approved transferring 333 acres to Metro Parks to expand Homestead Metro Park, according to the Columbus Dispatch. The city says the land came together through development agreements with M/I Homes for Hill Farm and Hill Farm II, Fischer Homes for Clover Meadows, and Pulte Homes and Rockford Homes for Tarlton Meadows.
"By prioritizing open space as our community grows, we have created an opportunity to permanently preserve hundreds of acres of land and expand access to nature for generations to come." Assistant City Manager Dan Ralley, in the City of Hilliard's announcement
For a buyer, this means a new home at Hilliard's edge comes with a lot of land around it and a regional park next to the subdivision. The price reflects that.
The city's 2026 Hilliard Housing Study shows the results. It puts the median price of new-construction homes at $571,780 and estimates that a household needs at least $169,000 in income to buy one. It says new homes have sold for about $570,000 on average since 2023.
The same study says most of Hilliard's yearly demand for homes falls between $135,000 and $265,000. It also found that only 1% of recent for-sale listings were priced within reach of households earning less than $67,000. The income needed to buy a typical Hilliard home without being cost-burdened rose from $47,000 in 2015 to $113,000.
The study also points to a knock-on effect. Most of Hilliard's homes are large detached houses with three or more bedrooms, yet more than half of its households are one or two people. When smaller households compete for big houses, prices rise for everyone. When people who want to downsize can't find a smaller home, their four-bedroom houses stay off the market. Franklin County's ownership vacancy rate is 0.8%. The study cites 1.5% as the level a healthy market usually needs.
When new homes cluster at the top of the price range and resale homes cover a broad middle, the median moves with whichever group closes more sales that month. September 2026 had 40 closed sales, the same number as September 2025, yet the median moved more than $90,000.
| Hilliard, Columbus REALTORS data | September 2026 | Year to date through September 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Closed sales | 40 | 357, up 9.8% |
| Median sale price | $515,000, up 22.3% | $432,500, down 5.9% |
| Average price per square foot | $238.19, up 8.1% | $233.95, up 2.3% |
| Median list price of new listings | $521,937, up 30.5% | $454,950, down 1.6% |
| Days on market until sale | 24 | 24 |
| Percent of original list price received | 97.7% | 99.0% |
The year-to-date price per square foot, up 2.3%, is the steadiest number in that table, and it points to a market that is rising slowly. The report itself warns that percent changes "can sometimes look extreme due to small sample size." Supply has loosened. At the end of September 2026 there were 92 homes for sale, up 37.3% from a year earlier, which works out to 2.4 months of supply. For comparison, all of Central Ohio had a $334,250 median and 2.6 months of supply that month.
If the edge is limited to about one home per acre, the obvious place for smaller and lower-priced homes is the older core. The housing study explains why that hasn't happened. In the R-3 Moderate Density Residential district, duplexes are allowed as a conditional use, but more than 75% of R-3 lots are smaller than the minimum size required for one. The study says that means duplexes already standing in those neighborhoods could not be built today.
Infrastructure is the second limit. Downtown Hilliard's sewer system runs at about 90% of capacity during heavy rain, and some lead water service lines are still in place. The study says the same constraints affect parts of the Cemetery Road, Heritage Trail and Leap Road areas. Construction costs are also high, and small infill projects can't reach the economies of scale that large apartment buildings do.
The study's answer is a target of 350 new housing units a year through 2050, with townhomes, duplexes, small apartment buildings and apartments above storefronts in the mix. It notes that Hilliard has added about 328 households a year since 2010, so that pace isn't new for the city.
The city's proposed Chapter 1116 zoning changes would create new districts for Downtown Hilliard, the Gateway District along the Cemetery Road and Leap Road corridors, and the Heritage Trail corridor. Among the goals the city lists is making it easier to build duplexes, triplexes and quads. The city describes the changes as "not a development proposal." This builds on the Chapter 1116 zoning for the I-270 corridor that the city adopted in 2025.
The schedule set the draft for Council's Committee of the Whole on Monday, Nov. 9, followed by:
So the zoning for more varied homes near downtown won't be considered for adoption until 2027. Any homes built under it would come after that.
At the edge, the regional standards are moving toward tighter rules. The City of Columbus paused the Big Darby Accord amendment process in April 2026. According to the Hilliard Herald, Columbus directed its staff to apply the stronger draft standards on an interim basis while the pause continues. The March 2026 draft calls for stream setbacks of at least 150 feet from the top of the bank on each side, and wider setbacks for larger drainage areas. Clover Meadows already shows the effect. Before approval, Fischer Homes revised its site plan to keep every lot at least 150 feet from the nearest headwater of Clover Groff Run.
Hilliard's Big Darby page says its own zoning in the watershed stays at 1 to 1.5 units per acre, and its 70% residential open-space requirement still applies. The Hilliard Herald reports that Columbus confirmed 1,331 more sewer units for Hilliard's part of the watershed in February 2025, after the city's original 2,000-unit allotment had been used. The edge has room to keep growing, under the same low-density rules that apply to Clover Meadows.
With the rules in mind, the budget question gets simpler:
When you look at a single month's median, check the price per square foot and the year-to-date numbers next to it. In a 40-sale month, a handful of higher-priced closings can move the median sharply.
Is Clover Meadows approved? Yes. Hilliard City Council unanimously approved the rezoning and the developer's agreement on June 8, 2026.
Has the Chapter 1116 code for Downtown Hilliard been adopted? No. It's a draft. The public open house is Nov. 17, and the city expects the Planning and Zoning Commission and Council to consider the revised code in early 2027.
Where is the expanded Homestead Metro Park land? It's in the Big Darby Creek watershed on Hilliard's west side, assembled from the Hill Farm, Hill Farm II, Clover Meadows and Tarlton Meadows agreements. The city says the parcels are connected by shared-use paths.
If you're deciding between a new home at Hilliard's edge and a resale home closer to downtown, Home Connections Group can line up recent sales from both, compare price per square foot, and show you what your budget covers in each part of the city. Let's Get You Home.
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