Payette County, ID

Home values #

Typical home $415,423 (Aug 2026), +3.8% over one year, +14.0% over five

• 87th pct · 380th of 3,063 US counties · median $234,566
• 59th pct · 18th of 43 Idaho counties · median $396,924

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 $1,620/mo (Aug 2026), n/a over one year; price-to-rent 21.4

• 60th pct · 554th of 1,399 US counties · median $1,496
• 45th pct · 12th of 21 Idaho counties · median $1,659

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 $2,274 a month on $415,423 at 7.28%, against an average weekly wage worth $4,390 a month: 51.8% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $415,423 × 80% = $332,339, r = 7.28%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-01), n = 360 → $2,274/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $1,013 × 52 / 12 = $4,390) = 52% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $415,423 / ($1,013 × 52) = 7.9
• price-to-rent = $415,423 / ($1,620 × 12) = 21.4

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 #

7,091 jobs at 877 employers (2026 Q1); -0.5% jobs and +0.8% average weekly wage over the year

• 46th pct · 1,728th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 58th pct · 19th of 44 Idaho counties · median 4,800

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 #

43 gauges · 0 flooding · 14 with quality panels averaging 96 % · 10 stale

Sites found: 43, 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 #

2 wells in 0 named aquifers:

Sites found: 2, 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 (0.02)

Σ wᵢ·termᵢ / Σ wᵢ = 0.35×0.00 + 0.2×0.04 / 0.55

Banks & federal dollars #

$526.9 m in deposits at 8 offices of 7 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 2,620, highly concentrated. $205.1 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $172.5 m, grants $28.8 m), $28,926 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 2,620 across 7 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls highly concentrated.

HHI = Σ (share %)² over 7 banks with deposits in the county = 45.0² + 16.9² + 10.6² + … (4 more) = 2,620

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 $28,926 per covered job, against 7,091 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $205.1 m / 7,091 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $28,926

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 #

Payette County, ID: 11 findings, 5 at a watch level and 6 noted

1. watchPayette County, ID's years of wages of 7.9 ranks 231st 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 = 92.48856956237753 >= 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

2. watchPayette County, ID's typical asking rent is -1.5% 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 = -1.5097228833939458 <= -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. watchPayette County, ID's covered employment is -0.5% 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 = -0.5 < 0

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

4. watchPayette County, ID's price-to-rent ratio of 21.4 scores 80 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 35 across Idaho counties, a gap of 45 points.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 45 = |80 across US counties - 35 across Idaho 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

5. watchPayette County, ID's years of wages of 7.9 scores 92 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 55 across Idaho counties, a gap of 38 points.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 38 = |92 across US counties - 55 across Idaho 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

Read all 11 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.