Mahoning Valley Housing Age and Ohio Bathroom Code: The Numbers

Last reviewed 2026-07-25. Journalists, researchers, and community groups are welcome to cite any figure on this page with attribution and a link.

Every figure on this page is copied from a published source and linked at the bottom. The page exists because the most useful fact about a Mahoning Valley bathroom remodel is not a price, it is the year the house was built - and the Census Bureau publishes that at the municipal level, for free, for every place and township in the valley. Youngstown city's median year of construction is 1951. The United States figure is 1980. That twenty-nine-year gap is measurable rather than anecdotal, and it is the reason a bathroom quote written here reads differently from one written in a Sun Belt suburb.

The rest of the page collects the code and permit figures that follow from that age: what the Residential Code of Ohio requires in a bathroom, quoted from the Ohio Administrative Code; what Youngstown, Mahoning County and the surrounding townships charge and require; and how much of the city's housing sits on the wrong side of the federal lead rule's 1978 line. Where a number is arithmetic on published counts rather than a published number itself, the text says so. Nothing here is estimated or interpolated.

How old is the Mahoning Valley's housing stock?

The American Community Survey publishes a median year of construction for every place and county subdivision, and the table below is assembled from six of those queries: places and county subdivisions in Mahoning County, places in Trumbull County, places in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, plus the Ohio and national figures. Read down the right-hand column and the valley's history is legible. Youngstown city and Struthers city both read 1951. Lowellville village reads 1938. Canfield township, out on the county's western edge, reads 1989 - a fifty-one-year spread inside a single county. New Castle, across the Pennsylvania line, reads 1944, older than any city in either Ohio county listed here.

U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2023 5-Year Estimates, Table B25035 (Median Year Structure Built). Township rows are county subdivisions; city and village rows are census places.

What does Youngstown's year-built breakdown look like in full?

Table B25035 gives a median. Table B25034 gives the whole distribution, and for Youngstown the distribution is more useful than the median. The city has 29,395 housing units. The 1939-or-earlier bucket alone holds 11,019 of them, better than a third of everything in the city. The 1950s bucket holds 6,754, the largest single decade on the list. Everything built since 1990 - four census buckets covering thirty-four years - adds up to 2,139 units, or 7.3 percent of the stock. The unit counts below are as published. The share column is arithmetic on those counts and is rounded to one decimal.

U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2023 5-Year Estimates, Table B25034 (Year Structure Built), Youngstown city, Ohio. Shares are computed from the published counts and may not sum to 100 percent because of rounding.

What does the Residential Code of Ohio require in a bathroom?

The Residential Code of Ohio is adopted as Chapter 4101:8 of the Ohio Administrative Code, and each rule is readable free of charge on the state's codes site. Every provision below took effect July 1, 2019, and Mahoning County's residential permitting handout confirms that county plan review works from the 2019 Residential Code of Ohio with amendments. Two lines in this table matter disproportionately in old housing: the six-foot-eight ceiling minimum, which a bathroom carved out of stair or attic space in a prewar house can fail outright, and the prohibition on discharging exhaust into an attic, which is a common shortcut when running duct all the way outdoors is awkward.

Ohio Administrative Code rules 4101:8-3-01 (Building planning), 4101:8-15-01 (Exhaust systems) and 4101:8-29-01 (Water supply and distribution), all effective July 1, 2019. Values quoted as published.

Who issues the permit, and what does it cost?

Jurisdiction in the Mahoning Valley is split, and the split is published. Inside Youngstown, section 1311.08 of the codified ordinances requires a permit for any project with an estimated cost greater than five hundred dollars ($500.00), and exempts minor interior repairs and alterations that do not affect structure, electrical, stairways, ingress or egress, lighting, HVAC or the building's use. Outside the city, Mahoning County's residential permitting handout lists a zoning permit from the township, city or village as a prerequisite, routes plumbing to the Board of Health and building to Building Inspection as two separate desks, and states that plan review usually takes about one to two working days.

The county's published fee schedule carries the dollar figures. A minimum permit fee of $125.00 applies where the construction cost index value is 20,000 or less. A minor alterations permit with certificate of occupancy is $222.50. Residential inspection, reinspection or safety hazard visits are $25.00 each, resubmissions are $90.00, and a six-month plan approval or permit extension is $100.00, with two extensions permitted. On top of all of it, the schedule applies a 1% state assessment fee to residential plan approvals and permits, based on the total of all charges. Township and municipal zoning fees are set locally and sit outside this schedule entirely.

How much of this housing falls under the federal lead rule?

The EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting rule covers housing and child-occupied facilities built before 1978, and requires that anyone paid to perform work that disturbs paint in them be certified. Census buckets do not break at 1978, so the exact count of pre-1978 Youngstown housing units is not directly published. Two figures bracket it. 23,566 units, 80.2 percent of the city's stock, were built in 1969 or earlier. 26,559 units, 90.4 percent, were built in 1979 or earlier. The true pre-1978 number sits between those two, and both are arithmetic on the published B25034 counts rather than published figures in their own right.

The rule's interior exemption is narrow. Minor repair and maintenance activities that disturb six square feet or less of paint per room inside fall outside it - and pulling a vanity off a plaster wall or opening a wall to move a drain clears six square feet immediately, so in practice the exemption rarely reaches a bathroom remodel in housing this old. EPA also requires the firm to hold certification, not only the individual doing the work. For a homeowner, the useful takeaway is that lead-safe containment belongs in the schedule and the quote from the beginning, rather than surfacing later as an upcharge.

Sources & Methodology

Every figure above was taken from the primary sources below (accessed 2026-07-25). Where a number is derived (arithmetic on published figures) or covers a broader period or area, the text says so.

1. U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 5-Year Table B25035, Mahoning County places — Median year structure built for Youngstown, Canfield city, Poland village, Struthers, Campbell, Sebring and Lowellville.
2. U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 5-Year Table B25035, Mahoning County subdivisions — Median year structure built for Boardman, Austintown, Canfield and Poland townships.
3. U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 5-Year Table B25035, Trumbull County places — Median year structure built for Niles, Warren, Girard and Hubbard.
4. U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 5-Year Table B25035, Lawrence County Pennsylvania places — Median year structure built for New Castle city, Pennsylvania.
5. U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 5-Year Table B25035, Ohio — Statewide median year structure built for Ohio.
6. U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 5-Year Table B25035, United States — National median year structure built used as the comparison figure.
7. U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 5-Year Table B25034, Youngstown city — Full year-structure-built distribution for Youngstown and the 29,395 unit total.
8. Ohio Administrative Code Rule 4101:8-3-01, Building planning — Ceiling height minimums in Section 305.1 and the tub and shower wall surface rule in Section 307.2.
9. Ohio Administrative Code Rule 4101:8-15-01, Exhaust systems — Bathroom exhaust rates in Table 1505.4.4 and the discharge prohibition in Section 1505.2.
10. Ohio Administrative Code Rule 4101:8-29-01, Water supply and distribution — Section 2903 and its deletion in favor of Section 603 of the Plumbing Code.
11. Youngstown Codified Ordinances Section 1311.08, When permits not required — The five hundred dollar permit threshold and the list of exempt minor interior repairs.
12. Mahoning County Building Department Fee Schedule — Minimum permit fee, minor alterations permit, inspection, resubmission and extension fees and the 1% state assessment.
13. Mahoning County Residential Permitting Process — The zoning permit prerequisite, the plumbing and building split, and the one to two working day plan review.
14. U.S. EPA Renovation, Repair and Painting Program: Contractors — The pre-1978 scope, the firm certification requirement and the six square feet per room interior exemption.