Baker County, FL

Home values #

Typical home $315,090 (Aug 2026), +3.9% over one year, +21.3% over five

• 72nd pct · 841st of 3,063 US counties · median $234,566
• 53rd pct · 32nd of 67 Florida counties · median $307,929
• 25th pct · 4th of 5 counties in the Jacksonville metro · median $336,192

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 #

Zillow publishes no rent index for this area (ZORI covers about 1,400 counties)

• US counties: not published this period
• Florida counties: not published this period
• counties in the Jacksonville metro: not published this period

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 $1,725 a month on $315,090 at 7.28%, against an average weekly wage worth $3,930 a month: 43.9% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $315,090 × 80% = $252,072, r = 7.28%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-01), n = 360 → $1,725/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $907 × 52 / 12 = $3,930) = 44% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $315,090 / ($907 × 52) = 6.7

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 #

7,529 jobs at 533 employers (2026 Q1); +0.3% jobs and +1.1% average weekly wage over the year

• 47th pct · 1,685th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 25th pct · 50th of 67 Florida counties · median 43,443
• 0th pct · 5th of 5 counties in the Jacksonville metro · median 57,315

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 #

80 gauges · 1 flooding · 26 with quality panels averaging 74 % · 25 stale

Sites found: 80, 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 #

34 wells in 3 named aquifers: Floridan aquifer system, Surficial aquifer system, Intermediate aquifer system

Sites found: 34, 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 (0.09)

Σ wᵢ·termᵢ / Σ wᵢ = 0.35×0.00 + 0.2×0.26 / 0.55

Banks & federal dollars #

$329.2 m in deposits at 3 offices of 3 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 3,496, highly concentrated. $174.2 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $166.4 m, grants $5.5 m), $23,140 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 3,496 across 3 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls highly concentrated.

HHI = Σ (share %)² over 3 banks with deposits in the county = 43.7² + 28.5² + 27.7² = 3,496

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 $23,140 per covered job, against 7,529 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $174.2 m / 7,529 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $23,140

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 #

Baker County, FL: 8 findings, 1 at a watch level and 7 noted

1. watchBaker County, FL's typical home value of +3.9% scores 60 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 92 across Florida counties, a gap of 32 points.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 32 = |60 across US counties - 92 across Florida counties|

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

2. noteBaker County, FL's average weekly wage was 1.1% higher than the same quarter a year earlier in 2026 Q1, on BLS QCEW's published over-the-year change.

   Period 2026 Q1.
   Show the arithmetic

   • +1.1 % = BLS QCEW over-the-year percent change for 2026 Q1, as published
   • the newest QCEW file carries no year-earlier level, so no move from one level to another is printed

   BLS QCEW over-the-year percent change, as published

3. noteBaker County, FL's covered employment was 0.3% higher than the same quarter a year earlier in 2026 Q1, on BLS QCEW's published over-the-year change.

   Period 2026 Q1.
   Show the arithmetic

   • +0.3 % = BLS QCEW over-the-year percent change for 2026 Q1, as published
   • the newest QCEW file carries no year-earlier level, so no move from one level to another is printed

   BLS QCEW over-the-year percent change, as published

4. noteBaker County, FL's typical home value of +3.9% ranks 1st of 5 counties in the Jacksonville metro, against a median of -0.5%.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 100 on the 0-to-100 scale across 5 counties in the Jacksonville metro that published home.yoyPct

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

5. noteBaker County, FL's average weekly wage of $907 ranks 5th of 5 counties in the Jacksonville metro, against a median of $1,211.

   Period 2026 Q1.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 0 on the 0-to-100 scale across 5 counties in the Jacksonville metro that published jobs.avgWeeklyWage

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

Read all 8 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.