Hancock County, IN

Home values #

Typical home $331,055 (Aug 2026), +2.1% over one year, +25.3% over five

• 76th pct · 733rd of 3,063 US counties · median $234,566
• 93rd pct · 7th of 92 Indiana counties · median $234,055
• 60th pct · 5th of 11 counties in the Indianapolis-Carmel-Greenwood metro · median $314,850

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 $1,752/mo (Aug 2026), +2.1% over one year; price-to-rent 15.7

• 69th pct · 421st of 1,399 US counties · median $1,496
• 91st pct · 4th of 37 Indiana counties · median $1,174
• 66th pct · 4th of 10 counties in the Indianapolis-Carmel-Greenwood metro · median $1,590

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 $1,812 a month on $331,055 at 7.28%, against an average weekly wage worth $5,139 a month: 35.3% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $331,055 × 80% = $264,844, r = 7.28%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-01), n = 360 → $1,812/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $1,186 × 52 / 12 = $5,139) = 35% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $331,055 / ($1,186 × 52) = 5.4
• price-to-rent = $331,055 / ($1,752 × 12) = 15.7

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 #

30,783 jobs at 2,203 employers (2026 Q1); +4.3% jobs and +1.5% average weekly wage over the year

• 77th pct · 713th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 75th pct · 23rd of 92 Indiana counties · median 12,958
• 40th pct · 7th of 11 counties in the Indianapolis-Carmel-Greenwood metro · median 39,851

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 #

No drought class at this point (USDM covers the United States only)

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 #

117 gauges · 0 flooding · 12 with quality panels averaging 97 % · 25 stale

Sites found: 117, 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 #

44 wells in 0 named aquifers:

Sites found: 44, 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 (0.01)

Σ wᵢ·termᵢ / Σ wᵢ = 0.35×0.00 + 0.2×0.03 / 0.55

Banks & federal dollars #

$1.7 bn in deposits at 15 offices of 7 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 2,561, highly concentrated. $567.9 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $549.8 m, grants $17.4 m), $18,449 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 2,561 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 = 43.5² + 14.6² + 14.1² + … (4 more) = 2,561

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 $18,449 per covered job, against 30,783 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $567.9 m / 30,783 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $18,449

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 #

Hancock County, IN: 10 findings, 10 noted

1. noteHancock County, IN's covered employment was 4.3% 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

   • +4.3 % = 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

2. noteHancock County, IN's average weekly wage was 1.5% 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

   • +1.5 % = 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. noteHancock County, IN's typical asking rent rose 1.4% from $1,727 in July 2026 to $1,752 in August 2026, on Zillow ZORI.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • +1.4% = (1751.620339402948 - 1727.1055787693847) / 1727.1055787693847 × 100
   • 1751.620339402948 = Zillow ZORI, 2026-08
   • 1727.1055787693847 = Zillow ZORI, 2026-07

4. noteHancock County, IN's typical home value of $331,055 ranks 7th of 92 Indiana counties, against a median of $234,055.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 93 on the 0-to-100 scale across 92 Indiana counties that published home.latest

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

5. noteHancock County, IN's covered employment of +4.3% ranks 7th of 92 Indiana counties, against a median of -0.8%.

   Period 2026 Q1.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 93 on the 0-to-100 scale across 92 Indiana counties that published jobs.yoy.emp

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

Read all 10 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.