St. Bernard Parish, LA

Home values #

Typical home $213,864 (Aug 2026), +2.1% over one year, -5.5% over five

• 41st pct · 1,777th of 3,063 US counties · median $234,566
• 74th pct · 17th of 64 Louisiana counties · median $176,099
• 33rd pct · 5th of 7 counties in the New Orleans-Metairie metro · median $243,912

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 $1,420/mo (Aug 2026), +3.5% over one year; price-to-rent 12.6

• 43rd pct · 795th of 1,399 US counties · median $1,496
• 59th pct · 12th of 28 Louisiana counties · median $1,363
• 0th pct · 6th of 6 counties in the New Orleans-Metairie metro · median $1,584

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 $1,171 a month on $213,864 at 7.28%, against an average weekly wage worth $5,300 a month: 22.1% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $213,864 × 80% = $171,091, r = 7.28%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-01), n = 360 → $1,171/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $1,223 × 52 / 12 = $5,300) = 22% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $213,864 / ($1,223 × 52) = 3.4
• price-to-rent = $213,864 / ($1,420 × 12) = 12.6

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 #

10,860 jobs at 1,073 employers (2026 Q1); -1.8% jobs and +5.3% average weekly wage over the year

• 56th pct · 1,395th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 52nd pct · 31st of 64 Louisiana counties · median 10,187
• 16th pct · 6th of 7 counties in the New Orleans-Metairie metro · median 12,919

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 #

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 #

71 gauges · 0 flooding · 20 with quality panels averaging 53 % · 13 stale

Sites found: 71, 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 #

3 wells in 1 named aquifer: Coastal lowlands aquifer system

Sites found: 3, 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 #

moderate (0.33)

Σ wᵢ·termᵢ / Σ wᵢ = 0.35×0.25 + 0.2×0.47 / 0.55

Banks & federal dollars #

$816.6 m in deposits at 7 offices of 6 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 2,345, highly concentrated. $209.1 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $201.4 m, contracts $8.8 m), $19,258 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 2,345 across 6 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls highly concentrated.

HHI = Σ (share %)² over 6 banks with deposits in the county = 34.5² + 20.2² + 19.4² + … (3 more) = 2,345

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 $19,258 per covered job, against 10,860 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $209.1 m / 10,860 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $19,258

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 #

St. Bernard Parish, LA: 13 findings, 4 at a watch level and 9 noted

1. watchSt. Bernard Parish, LA's covered employment is -1.8% 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 = -1.8 < 0

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

2. watchSt. Bernard Parish, LA's price-to-rent ratio of 12.6 scores 9 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 48 across Louisiana counties, a gap of 40 points.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 40 = |9 across US counties - 48 across Louisiana counties|
   • typical home value / (typical rent × 12); Zillow ZHVI over ZORI, same month

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

3. watchSt. Bernard Parish, LA's years of wages of 3.4 scores 29 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 65 across Louisiana counties, a gap of 36 points.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 36 = |29 across US counties - 65 across Louisiana 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

4. watchSt. Bernard Parish, LA's typical home value of $213,864 scores 42 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 75 across Louisiana counties, a gap of 33 points.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 33 = |42 across US counties - 75 across Louisiana counties|

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

5. noteSt. Bernard Parish, LA's average weekly wage was 5.3% 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

   • +5.3 % = 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

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.