Clear Creek County, CO

Home values #

Typical home $555,375 (Aug 2026), -1.0% over one year, +8.9% over five

• 95th pct · 144th of 3,063 US counties · median $234,566
• 70th pct · 19th of 62 Colorado counties · median $450,011
• 55th pct · 5th of 10 counties in the Denver-Aurora-Centennial metro · median $544,485

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 $2,038/mo (Aug 2026), +0.0% over one year; price-to-rent 22.7

• 84th pct · 217th of 1,399 US counties · median $1,496
• 55th pct · 16th of 35 Colorado counties · median $1,975
• 50th pct · 5th of 9 counties in the Denver-Aurora-Centennial metro · median $2,038

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 $3,040 a month on $555,375 at 7.28%, against an average weekly wage worth $6,283 a month: 48.4% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $555,375 × 80% = $444,300, r = 7.28%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-01), n = 360 → $3,040/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $1,450 × 52 / 12 = $6,283) = 48% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $555,375 / ($1,450 × 52) = 7.4
• price-to-rent = $555,375 / ($2,038 × 12) = 22.7

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 #

3,537 jobs at 426 employers (2026 Q1); -0.2% jobs and +12.7% average weekly wage over the year

• 28th pct · 2,300th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 38th pct · 40th of 64 Colorado counties · median 4,853
• 11th pct · 9th of 10 counties in the Denver-Aurora-Centennial metro · median 94,239

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 #

D2 severe drought

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 #

2 USGS reservoir gauges, no capacity figures to weight

Sites found: 2, 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 #

248 gauges · 0 flooding · 40 with quality panels averaging 98 % · 110 stale

Sites found: 248, 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 #

11 wells in 0 named aquifers:

Sites found: 11, 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 #

moderate (0.32)

Σ wᵢ·termᵢ / Σ wᵢ = 0.35×0.50 + 0.2×0.02 / 0.55

Banks & federal dollars #

$32.3 m in deposits at 1 offices of 1 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 10,000, highly concentrated. $87.0 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $53.5 m, grants $33.2 m), $24,588 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 10,000 across 1 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls highly concentrated.

HHI = Σ (share %)² over 1 banks with deposits in the county = 100.0² = 10,000

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 $24,588 per covered job, against 3,537 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $87.0 m / 3,537 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $24,588

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 #

Clear Creek County, CO: 13 findings, 6 at a watch level and 7 noted

1. watchClear Creek County, CO's typical home value is -1.0% 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 = -1.0249925589919215 < 0

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

2. watchClear Creek County, CO's typical asking rent is -1.9% against the previous month, a watch level here: typical asking rent at least 1 percent below the previous month (arithmetic on the Zillow ZORI month columns; convention chosen for this dashboard, 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: rent.momPct = -1.8823155334345605 <= -1
   • month-over-month percent change = (newest month − previous month) / |previous month| × 100, from Zillow's own published month columns

   arithmetic on the Zillow ZORI month columns; convention chosen for this dashboard, not an official level

3. watchClear Creek County, CO's years of wages of 7.4 ranks 290th of 3,063 US counties, a watch level here: years of wages in the top tenth of US counties (position among the counties that published both a ZHVI value and a QCEW average weekly wage; 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: yearsOfWages percentile = 90.56172436316133 >= 90
   • typical home value / (average weekly wage × 52); one average covered job, not a household

   position among the counties that published both a ZHVI value and a QCEW average weekly wage; not an official level

4. watchClear Creek County, CO's covered employment is -0.2% against a year earlier, a watch level here: covered employment below the same quarter a year earlier (BLS QCEW over-the-year percent change, as published; 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 Q1.
   Show the arithmetic

   • test: jobs.yoy.emp = -0.2 < 0

   BLS QCEW over-the-year percent change, as published; not an official level

5. watchClear Creek County, CO's price-to-rent ratio of 22.7 scores 86 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 44 across Colorado counties, a gap of 42 points.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 42 = |86 across US counties - 44 across Colorado counties|
   • typical home value / (typical rent × 12); Zillow ZHVI over ZORI, same month

   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.