Moving to Columbus

Columbus neighborhoods run a wide cost spread. Short North + Italian Village + Victorian Village + German Village (historic walkable urban with Brewery District-adjacent mid-rise condos) price full-service local moves at $190-$310/hour for a 2-mover crew per AMSA industry estimates due to historic-building access constraints + occasional COI. Old Town East + Olde Towne + Bexley (premium pre-war SFH) run $200-$320/hour. Dublin + New Albany + Upper Arlington (premium northern suburbs) run $180-$300/hour with HOA-managed master-planned access. Westerville + Hilliard + Gahanna run $160-$260/hour. A 3BR full-service local move runs $2,700-$4,200 Short North/Bexley, $2,600-$4,000 Dublin/New Albany, $2,200-$3,500 outer suburbs.

Intel Ohio One Campus (Licking County, 25 miles north of Columbus near New Albany) is a $28B+ investment announced 2022 with first commercial chip production targeting late 2026 per Intel public commitments. The campus will employ 3,000+ direct Intel workers + estimated 7,000+ construction roles during peak build-out per Intel Ohio One published projections. Combined with Intel-adjacent semiconductor supply-chain employers (KLA + Applied Materials + ASML + Air Products) anchoring secondary investments, the campus drives projected 25,000-35,000 corporate + construction relocations into Licking + Franklin + Delaware counties through 2027. Full-service 3BR moves into Intel-adjacent New Albany + Johnstown + Pataskala run $2,800-$4,500.

Ohio State University football (Ohio Stadium "The Shoe" — 102,000 capacity, 5th-largest US football stadium per Athletic Conference data) drives concentrated event-week capacity tightening for the 7 home weekends each fall (September-November) and Big Ten Championship game (when OSU qualifies). The Michigan-Ohio State "The Game" (last Saturday of November, alternating Columbus/Ann Arbor each year) drives the largest premium when hosted at Ohio Stadium. Carrier rates run 15-25% above off-season for moves into Campus + Short North + University District during OSU home games. Avoid scheduling moves on Game Day weekends; book 4-6 weeks ahead.

Columbus hosts dense Fortune 500 corporate headquarters: JPMorgan Chase Columbus (downtown McCoy Center + Polaris campuses — 20,000+ Columbus employees, the largest Chase US site outside NYC/Houston), Nationwide Mutual Insurance HQ (downtown — 13,000+ Columbus corporate), L Brands / Bath & Body Works (Reynoldsburg — 5,000+ corporate post-2021 Victoria's Secret split), American Electric Power HQ (downtown — 4,000+), Cardinal Health HQ (Dublin — 6,000+), and Huntington Bancshares HQ (downtown — 5,500+). Combined, these drive 12,000-18,000 corporate relocations annually per BLS Occupational Employment Statistics.

Ohio State University (Columbus main campus + 1,665 acres) hosts roughly 62,000 students per OSU Office of Enrollment Services — the largest US single-campus enrollment after Arizona State. Student move-in week (mid-to-late August through Labor Day) drives 25,000-40,000 short-haul moves into Campus + University District + Short North + Italian Village + Clintonville neighborhoods. OSU spring graduation (early-to-mid May) creates a secondary outbound peak. Carrier rates run 20-30% above off-season for the August 15-September 5 window. OSU-adjacent off-campus housing within 1-mile radius of campus tightens to <3% vacancy each August. Book binding estimates 6-8 weeks ahead.