Ballard County, KY

Home values #

Typical home $140,757 (Aug 2026), -8.7% over one year, +19.1% over five

• 12th pct · 2,690th of 3,063 US counties · median $234,566
• 23rd pct · 92nd of 120 Kentucky counties · median $181,373
• 25th pct · 4th of 5 counties in the Paducah metro · median $142,471

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
• Kentucky counties: not published this period
• counties in the Paducah 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 $770 a month on $140,757 at 7.28%, against an average weekly wage worth $5,373 a month: 14.3% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $140,757 × 80% = $112,606, r = 7.28%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-01), n = 360 → $770/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $1,240 × 52 / 12 = $5,373) = 14% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $140,757 / ($1,240 × 52) = 2.2

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 #

1,832 jobs at 209 employers (2026 Q1); -6.7% jobs and -1.1% average weekly wage over the year

• 14th pct · 2,746th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 14th pct · 103rd of 120 Kentucky counties · median 5,237
• 25th pct · 4th of 5 counties in the Paducah metro · median 2,869

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 · 2 with quality panels averaging 95 % · 9 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 #

9 wells in 0 named aquifers:

Sites found: 9, 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 + 0.2×0.05 / 0.55

Banks & federal dollars #

$199.6 m in deposits at 5 offices of 3 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 5,442, highly concentrated. $58.4 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $53.0 m, grants $5.1 m), $31,866 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 5,442 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 = 70.4² + 19.5² + 10.0² = 5,442

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 $31,866 per covered job, against 1,832 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $58.4 m / 1,832 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $31,866

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 #

Ballard County, KY: 20 findings, 2 at an alert level, 4 at a watch level and 14 noted

1. alertBallard County, KY's typical home value is -8.7% against a year earlier, an alert level here: typical home value at least 5 percent below a year ago (arithmetic on Zillow ZHVI, county and metro files; 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: home.yoyPct = -8.742547755237867 <= -5

   arithmetic on Zillow ZHVI, county and metro files; convention chosen for this dashboard, not an official level

2. alertBallard County, KY's covered employment is -6.7% against a year earlier, an alert level here: covered employment at least 3 percent below the same quarter a year earlier (BLS QCEW over-the-year percent change, as published; 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 Q1.
   Show the arithmetic

   • test: jobs.yoy.emp = -6.7 <= -3

   BLS QCEW over-the-year percent change, as published; convention chosen for this dashboard, not an official level

3. watchBallard County, KY's typical home value is -8.7% 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 = -8.742547755237867 < 0

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

4. watchBallard County, KY's covered employment is -6.7% 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 = -6.7 < 0

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

5. watchBallard County, KY's average weekly wage is -1.1% against a year earlier, a watch level here: average weekly wage below the same quarter a year earlier, before inflation (BLS QCEW over-the-year percent change, as published, nominal dollars; 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 Q1.
   Show the arithmetic

   • test: jobs.yoy.avgWeeklyWage = -1.1 < 0

   BLS QCEW over-the-year percent change, as published, nominal dollars; convention chosen for this dashboard, 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.