Calhoun County, IL

Home values #

Typical home $204,150 (Aug 2026), +6.5% over one year, +14.1% over five

• 38th pct · 1,891st of 3,063 US counties · median $234,566
• 77th pct · 24th of 102 Illinois counties · median $158,585
• 35th pct · 10th of 15 counties in the St. Louis metro · median $223,520

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
• Illinois counties: not published this period
• counties in the St. Louis 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 $1,117 a month on $204,150 at 7.28%, against an average weekly wage worth $3,159 a month: 35.4% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $204,150 × 80% = $163,320, r = 7.28%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-01), n = 360 → $1,117/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $729 × 52 / 12 = $3,159) = 35% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $204,150 / ($729 × 52) = 5.4

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 #

733 jobs at 90 employers (2026 Q1); +0.8% jobs and +2.7% average weekly wage over the year

• 4th pct · 3,078th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 0th pct · 101st of 102 Illinois counties · median 7,611
• 0th pct · 15th of 15 counties in the St. Louis metro · median 12,995

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 #

D1 moderate 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 #

1 USGS reservoir gauges, no capacity figures to weight

Sites found: 1, 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 #

68 gauges · 0 flooding · 3 with quality panels averaging 87 % · 15 stale

Sites found: 68, 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 #

17 wells in 3 named aquifers: Cambrian-Ordovician aquifer system, Mississippi River Valley alluvial aquifer, Ozark Plateaus aquifer system

Sites found: 17, 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 (0.21)

Σ wᵢ·termᵢ / Σ wᵢ = 0.35×0.25 + 0.2×0.13 / 0.55

Banks & federal dollars #

$163.3 m in deposits at 5 offices of 2 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 5,054, highly concentrated. $33.3 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $32.2 m, grants $986,583), $45,374 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 5,054 across 2 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls highly concentrated.

HHI = Σ (share %)² over 2 banks with deposits in the county = 55.2² + 44.8² = 5,054

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 $45,374 per covered job, against 733 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $33.3 m / 733 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $45,374

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 #

Calhoun County, IL: 12 findings, 1 at a watch level and 11 noted

1. watchCalhoun County, IL's typical home value of $204,150 scores 38 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 77 across Illinois counties, a gap of 39 points.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 39 = |38 across US counties - 77 across Illinois counties|

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

2. noteCalhoun County, IL's average weekly wage was 2.7% 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

   • +2.7 % = 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. noteCalhoun County, IL's typical home value rose 1.7% from $200,685 in July 2026 to $204,150 in August 2026, on Zillow ZHVI.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • +1.7% = (204150.1872527599 - 200684.9491713864) / 200684.9491713864 × 100
   • 204150.1872527599 = Zillow ZHVI, 2026-08
   • 200684.9491713864 = Zillow ZHVI, 2026-07

4. noteCalhoun County, IL's covered employment was 0.8% 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

   • +0.8 % = 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

5. noteCalhoun County, IL's average weekly wage of $729 ranks 102nd of 102 Illinois counties, against a median of $1,061.

   Period 2026 Q1.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 0 on the 0-to-100 scale across 102 Illinois counties that published jobs.avgWeeklyWage

   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.