Carter County, KY

Home values #

Typical home $155,617 (Aug 2026), -6.1% over one year, +29.8% over five

• 17th pct · 2,515th of 3,063 US counties · median $234,566
• 37th pct · 75th of 120 Kentucky counties · median $181,373
• 57th pct · 4th of 8 counties in the Huntington-Ashland metro · median $153,214

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 Huntington-Ashland 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 $852 a month on $155,617 at 7.28%, against an average weekly wage worth $3,523 a month: 24.2% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $155,617 × 80% = $124,494, r = 7.28%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-01), n = 360 → $852/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $813 × 52 / 12 = $3,523) = 24% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $155,617 / ($813 × 52) = 3.7

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 #

5,496 jobs at 678 employers (2026 Q1); -2.8% jobs and +1.2% average weekly wage over the year

• 39th pct · 1,940th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 56th pct · 53rd of 120 Kentucky counties · median 5,237
• 14th pct · 7th of 8 counties in the Huntington-Ashland metro · median 11,177

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 #

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 #

46 gauges · 0 flooding · 4 with quality panels averaging 94 % · 9 stale

Sites found: 46, 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 #

19 wells in 1 named aquifer: Sand and gravel aquifers (glaciated regions)

Sites found: 19, 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 + 0.2×0.06 / 0.55

Banks & federal dollars #

$508.7 m in deposits at 8 offices of 4 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 4,070, highly concentrated. $192.6 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $171.4 m, grants $12.1 m), $35,046 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 4,070 across 4 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls highly concentrated.

HHI = Σ (share %)² over 4 banks with deposits in the county = 47.0² + 42.3² + 7.7² + … (1 more) = 4,070

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 $35,046 per covered job, against 5,496 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $192.6 m / 5,496 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $35,046

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 #

Carter County, KY: 15 findings, 1 at an alert level, 3 at a watch level and 11 noted

1. alertCarter County, KY's typical home value is -6.1% 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 = -6.130450743353929 <= -5

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

2. watchCarter County, KY's typical home value is -6.1% 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 = -6.130450743353929 < 0

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

3. watchCarter County, KY's covered employment is -2.8% 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 = -2.8 < 0

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

4. watchCarter County, KY's momentum index is -0.49, a watch level here: momentum index in the cooling band (the cooling band of the momentum index computed here, score at or below -0.25; 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: momentum = -0.48695708505955043 <= -0.25
   • momentum = Σ wᵢ · clip(changeᵢ / scaleᵢ, −1, 1) / Σ wᵢ over the terms present; weights and scales: home value 1-yr change 0.3 (±10%), rent 1-yr change 0.15 (±10%), jobs over-the-year change 0.3 (±3%), avg weekly wage over-the-year change 0.25 (±6%)

   the cooling band of the momentum index computed here, score at or below -0.25; convention chosen for this dashboard, not an official level

5. noteCarter County, KY's covered employment was 2.8% lower 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

   • -2.8 % = 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

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.