Shasta County, CA

Home values #

Typical home $370,245 (Aug 2026), -0.1% over one year, +5.8% over five

• 82nd pct · 549th of 3,063 US counties · median $234,566
• 22nd pct · 45th of 58 California counties · median $500,264
• counties in the Redding metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 1 counties in the Redding metro; fewer than 5 is too few to rank.

Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI), typical value of homes in the 35th to 65th percentile, smoothed and seasonally adjusted; a model estimate of value, not a sale price. Data through Zillow Research.

Rents #

Typical rent $1,701/mo (Aug 2026), +4.2% over one year; price-to-rent 18.1

• 66th pct · 468th of 1,399 US counties · median $1,496
• 12th pct · 43rd of 49 California counties · median $2,340
• counties in the Redding metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 1 counties in the Redding metro; fewer than 5 is too few to rank.

Zillow Observed Rent Index (ZORI), smoothed, all homes and multifamily; price-to-rent = typical home / (typical rent × 12).

What the typical home costs to carry #

Principal and interest of $2,027 a month on $370,245 at 7.28%, against an average weekly wage worth $5,109 a month: 39.7% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $370,245 × 80% = $296,196, r = 7.28%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-01), n = 360 → $2,027/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $1,179 × 52 / 12 = $5,109) = 40% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $370,245 / ($1,179 × 52) = 6.0
• price-to-rent = $370,245 / ($1,701 × 12) = 18.1

The wage is one covered job’s average, not a household’s income, so this is the share of a single paycheque and not a mortgage underwriting ratio.

Estimate. Principal and interest on the typical home with 20% down over 30 years at this week's Freddie Mac average rate; compared with the average weekly wage of all jobs covered by unemployment insurance in the area (BLS QCEW), which is pay per job, not household income.

Jobs & wages #

72,258 jobs at 8,956 employers (2026 Q1); +3.4% jobs and +3.6% average weekly wage over the year

• 88th pct · 387th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 49th pct · 30th of 58 California counties · median 74,865
• counties in the Redding metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 1 counties in the Redding metro; fewer than 5 is too few to rank.

BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, all ownerships, total covered employment in the quarter's third month; over-the-year changes as published. Suppressed cells stay blank.

Drought #

D0 abnormally dry

Sites found: 5, searched within 0 km of this place’s internal point. That is a disc around a point, not the area itself: sites outside the boundary are included, and sites inside it further than 0 km away are not.

US Drought Monitor current week; the highest class of any polygon containing the point.

Reservoirs #

No reservoir gauges within 150 km (or the camera is above the gauge altitude)

Sites found: 0, searched within 150 km of this place’s internal point. That is a disc around a point, not the area itself: sites outside the boundary are included, and sites inside it further than 150 km away are not.

Σ(capacity × percent full) / Σ capacity over TWDB reservoirs within 150 km. Texas only; elsewhere USGS reservoir elevation/storage is listed without a capacity to normalise by.

Stream gauges #

22 gauges · 0 flooding · 2 with quality panels averaging 100 % · 3 stale

Sites found: 22, searched within 75 km of this place’s internal point. That is a disc around a point, not the area itself: sites outside the boundary are included, and sites inside it further than 75 km away are not.

USGS latest readings screened against EPA freshwater criteria (DO ≥ 5 mg/L, pH 6.5–9, conductance, turbidity, temperature); NWS flood categories where a NWPS gauge is co-located.

Groundwater #

No USGS monitoring wells within 75 km (or above 1,500 km)

Sites found: 0, searched within 75 km of this place’s internal point. That is a disc around a point, not the area itself: sites outside the boundary are included, and sites inside it further than 75 km away are not.

USGS latest daily water levels. A single latest reading says where the table is, not which way it is moving; select a well for its 365-day trace.

Water stress #

low (0.00)

Σ wᵢ·termᵢ / Σ wᵢ = 0.35×0.00 + 0.2×0.00 / 0.55

Banks & federal dollars #

$4.5 bn in deposits at 33 offices of 11 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 1,390, moderately concentrated. $1.5 bn federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $1.3 bn, grants $140.1 m), $20,944 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 1,390 across 11 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls moderately concentrated.

HHI = Σ (share %)² over 11 banks with deposits in the county = 23.8² + 14.5² + 11.9² + … (8 more) = 1,390

FDIC Summary of Deposits: deposits at every insured office as of June 30, annual; HHI is the sum of squared county deposit shares (DOJ 1995 bank merger screen: 1000 / 1800). USAspending: obligations by place of performance for the latest complete federal fiscal year (Oct 1 to Sep 30), what agencies committed, not what they paid out; recipients are legal entities. Per-job divides obligations by BLS QCEW covered employment.

Federal obligations #

USAspending place-of-performance obligations for FY2026, by awarding agency.

That is $20,944 per covered job, against 72,258 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $1.5 bn / 72,258 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $20,944

USAspending obligations are recorded where the work is performed, so a prime award performed here is counted here even when the recipient is headquartered elsewhere. Recipients are legal entities, never people.

National context, not this county #

These are United States, single-gauge, single-state and port series. None of them is keyed to this county.

The indicator registry has no county-keyed series and no geographic selection: every entry is national, a named gauge, a single state or a port. They are here as the backdrop the county's own numbers move against, and they are never this county's readings.

What changed #

Shasta County, CA: 13 findings, 5 at a watch level and 8 noted

1. watchShasta County, CA's typical home value is -0.1% against a year earlier, a watch level here: typical home value below a year ago (arithmetic on Zillow ZHVI, county and metro files; not an official level). The previous published period is not in this table, so this is a standing level rather than a change.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • test: home.yoyPct = -0.052116246634155934 < 0

   arithmetic on Zillow ZHVI, county and metro files; not an official level

2. watchShasta County, CA's years of wages of 6.0 scores 79 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 16 across California counties, a gap of 64 points.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 64 = |79 across US counties - 16 across California counties|
   • typical home value / (average weekly wage × 52); one average covered job, not a household

   position among the entities that published this metric this period; not an official level

3. watchShasta County, CA's typical home value of $370,245 scores 82 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 23 across California counties, a gap of 59 points.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 59 = |82 across US counties - 23 across California counties|

   position among the entities that published this metric this period; not an official level

4. watchShasta County, CA's typical asking rent of $1,701 scores 67 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 13 across California counties, a gap of 54 points.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 54 = |67 across US counties - 13 across California counties|

   position among the entities that published this metric this period; not an official level

5. watchShasta County, CA's covered employment of 72,258 scores 88 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 49 across California counties, a gap of 39 points.

   Period 2026 Q1.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 39 = |88 across US counties - 49 across California counties|

   position among the entities that published this metric this period; not an official level

Read all 12 findings in the full brief

Every finding is produced by a fixed rule table and a fixed sentence for each rule. Nothing here is generated prose.