CINCYCASHFLOWTHE CINCINNATI INVESTOR COMMUNITY

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What Actually Sold in Cincinnati Multifamily in Q2 2026

81 apartment buildings traded hands in Greater Cincinnati last quarter. Only 27 of them show a price.

Stat card on Q2 2026 Cincinnati multifamily sales: 81 properties and 2,546 units traded, with a median of about $78k per unit.

We pulled every 5+ unit sale we could find across the Cincinnati MSA for the second quarter, straight from the county deed records for Hamilton, Butler, Clermont, Campbell, and Kenton counties. 81 apartment properties changed hands, totaling 2,546 units. Only 27 of those 81 sales show a price in the public record. The other 54 either used an exempt deed or entity transfer, or were still working through the county portals as of July 22.

The transparency gap

Stacked bar chart of April to June 2026 Cincinnati multifamily sales by month, split by price disclosed, undisclosed or still being researched: only 27 of 81 sales show a price.

31 of the quarter's 81 sales used an exempt deed. The quarter's largest buys sit in that pile, and none of them show a price.

Why would a seller do that? Exempt conveyances cover things like entity-to-entity transfers and 1031 drop-and-swaps. Sell the LLC instead of the building and the county records a deed with no price on it. There is no conveyance fee and no public comp.

The clean comps

Strip out the court-ordered transfers, quitclaims, and nominal-dollar deals from the 27 priced sales, and 22 clean arms-length comps remain.

MeasureResult
Median$77,583 per unit
Range$29k in Mt Auburn to $136k in Clifton

The workhorse middle of the market, Norwood, Northside, Reading, and Sharonville, cleared in the high $70s to low $80s a door.

Who is buying

Six repeat buyers took down 14 buildings and 569 units, 22% of all the units that traded. Group the deeds by the mailing address on them and the pattern is easy to read: the entity names differ per LLC, and the mailbox does not. Two of the six route to out-of-state addresses.

Out-of-town capital is quietly assembling Cincinnati portfolios, at sizes the public record never prices.

What to do with a market where a third of the tape is visible

Two things. First, underwrite on income, because the comp you cannot see was never going to price your deal anyway. Second, treat the dark trades as relationship intel: the brokers who moved those 569 units know exactly what they cleared at, and that is a phone call.

If small properties are the game here, the next question is what your mix should look like. Read why unit mix is the most underrated decision in a portfolio. For rents, see Cincinnati rents in September 2026.

Educational only, and not investment advice or an offer of any kind. Real estate carries risk, including the loss of principal. Do your own diligence.

Originally published in the Cincy Cash Flow Report on July 23, 2026.

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