Gasoline prices in the Midwest jumped 35.5% from September 2025 to September 2026, and overall consumer prices in the region rose 4.2%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

And the prices keep rising. A gallon of gasoline costs almost 30 cents more on Oct. 23 than it did on Oct. 22, according to figures from AAA.

Those increases are reaching Ohio households that already carry more credit card debt, miss more payments and file for bankruptcy more often than a year earlier, according to federal court records, credit analysts and state housing researchers.

Energy costs across the Midwest rose 22% over the same 12 months, BLS data shows. Electricity was up 8.8%. Shelter costs climbed 4.4%, and food prices rose 2.6%.

With price increases like that, more Ohioans are falling behind. 

Debt piles up

The average Ohioan with credit card debt carried a $6,417 balance as of early 2026, according to LendingTree. Nationally, the average interest rate on cards accruing interest reached 22.36% in the third quarter of 2026, according to Federal Reserve data cited by LendingTree.

The state's credit card delinquency rate was rising at the fifth-fastest pace in the country as of late 2025, the Ohio Capital Journal reported, citing a WalletHub analysis. That study found 28.65% of Ohio credit card payments were overdue in 2025, up from 19.66% the year before.

Younger residents are struggling most. 

In the first quarter of 2025, 17.1% of Ohioans ages 18 to 34 held cards more than 90 days delinquent, the Ohio Capital Journal reported.

Housing costs outpace pay

The median home sale price in the Columbus region reached $340,000 in 2025, up from $235,000 five years earlier, according to the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission, as reported by Columbus CEO. MORPC also reported that the median household income had roughly half the homebuying power in 2024 that it had in 2012.

Renters face the same climb. The Ohio Housing Finance Agency found that the inflation-adjusted median rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Ohio rose 22% from December 2019 to December 2024, reaching $1,174 a month, Columbus CEO reported.

"You cannot grow a thriving regional economy if teachers, nurses and firefighters cannot afford to live here," Joe Garrity, MORPC's chief strategy officer, told Columbus CEO.

The gap shows up in paychecks. MIT's Living Wage Calculator estimates a single adult in Ohio needs $21 an hour to cover basic expenses. Ohio's minimum wage is $11 an hour.

Bankruptcies rise

Ohio recorded 26,110 personal bankruptcy filings in the 12 months ending March 31, 2026, up 5.4% from 24,777 the year before, according to a SmartAsset study of federal court records. That is about 220 filings per 100,000 residents.

Rising household debt could lead to more defaults and higher interest rates for all borrowers, Lucia Dunn, an Ohio State University economics professor, told Newsweek.

The strain reaches beyond Ohio. The Urban Institute's American Affordability Tracker found that 49% of people in American families lack the resources to cover essential expenses. The tracker named Columbus among previously low-cost regions where housing, health care and grocery costs are rising faster than elsewhere.

What debt settlement offers, and its limits

Some struggling borrowers turn to debt settlement, in which a company negotiates with creditors to resolve unsecured debt for less than the full balance, according to the Association for Consumer Debt Relief, an industry group.

An EY analysis commissioned by the association found that clients who reached at least one settlement saved an average of $6,370 after fees. The study covered about 4.3 million clients enrolled between 2016 and 2022. Participating companies supplied the data, which EY said it did not independently verify.

The savings figure does not represent every enrollee’s experience. About 24% of clients left their programs without settling at least half of their enrolled debt, the report found.

Ohio does not appear in the report’s state-level tables, so those findings do not provide an Ohio-specific picture of settlement outcomes or establish whether services are available in the state.