Geary County, KS

Home values #

Typical home $211,633 (Aug 2026), -2.6% over one year, +19.7% over five

• 41st pct · 1,800th of 3,063 US counties · median $234,566
• 81st pct · 20th of 105 Kansas counties · median $153,214
• counties in the Manhattan metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Manhattan metro; fewer than 5 is too few to rank.

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 $1,185/mo (Aug 2026), +1.7% over one year; price-to-rent 14.9

• 21st pct · 1,103rd of 1,399 US counties · median $1,496
• 50th pct · 10th of 19 Kansas counties · median $1,185
• counties in the Manhattan metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Manhattan metro; fewer than 5 is too few to rank.

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 $1,158 a month on $211,633 at 7.28%, against an average weekly wage worth $4,455 a month: 26.0% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $211,633 × 80% = $169,306, r = 7.28%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-01), n = 360 → $1,158/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $1,028 × 52 / 12 = $4,455) = 26% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $211,633 / ($1,028 × 52) = 4.0
• price-to-rent = $211,633 / ($1,185 × 12) = 14.9

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 #

12,548 jobs at 735 employers (2026 Q1); -0.7% jobs and +3.8% average weekly wage over the year

• 60th pct · 1,280th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 81st pct · 20th of 105 Kansas counties · median 2,554
• counties in the Manhattan metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Manhattan metro; fewer than 5 is too few to rank.

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 #

8 USGS reservoir gauges, no capacity figures to weight

Sites found: 8, 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 #

34 gauges · 0 flooding · 10 with quality panels averaging 87 % · 4 stale

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 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 #

7 wells in 0 named aquifers:

Sites found: 7, 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 (0.05)

Σ wᵢ·termᵢ / Σ wᵢ = 0.35×0.00 + 0.2×0.13 / 0.55

Banks & federal dollars #

$740.0 m in deposits at 12 offices of 7 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 3,530, highly concentrated. $399.3 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $236.3 m, contracts $98.3 m), $31,819 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 3,530 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 = 55.4² + 17.0² + 7.9² + … (4 more) = 3,530

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 $31,819 per covered job, against 12,548 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $399.3 m / 12,548 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $31,819

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 #

Geary County, KS: 13 findings, 5 at a watch level and 8 noted

1. watchGeary County, KS' typical home value is -2.6% 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 = -2.5525082534886354 < 0

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

2. watchGeary County, KS' typical asking rent is -2.0% 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 = -2.0348443876577154 <= -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. watchGeary County, KS' covered employment is -0.7% 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 = -0.7 < 0

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

4. watchGeary County, KS' typical home value of $211,633 scores 41 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 82 across Kansas counties, a gap of 40 points.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 40 = |41 across US counties - 82 across Kansas counties|

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

5. watchGeary County, KS' years of wages of 4.0 scores 43 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 77 across Kansas counties, a gap of 33 points.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 33 = |43 across US counties - 77 across Kansas 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 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.