Question: Will it help my SEO to purchase additional domains and forward them to individual pages (like area pages) within my website?
Answer: So only the 'primary' domain counts for SEO purposes - if you purchase additional domains and forward them to the website they will not count for SEO.
What we have seen useful however is if clients are running print advertising (so let's say they run a 'flyer' highlighting a specific neighborhood), then it is generally a more user-friendly format to include an URL like 'masonohiohouses.com' versus 'yourdomain.com/our-areas/mason-ohio' or something of the like
Also if doing Google or Facebook marketing to specific pages within the site - let's say you're pointing people to the 'what's my home worth' page on your website - a URL like ' whatsmymasonhomeworth.com' should get more clicks than 'yourdomain.com/whats-my-home-worth'