West Baton Rouge Parish, LA

Home values #

Typical home $250,761 (Aug 2026), +2.0% over one year, +17.7% over five

• 55th pct · 1,353rd of 3,063 US counties · median $234,566
• 88th pct · 8th of 64 Louisiana counties · median $176,099
• 66th pct · 4th of 10 counties in the Baton Rouge metro · median $230,516

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 $1,341/mo (Aug 2026), +5.8% over one year; price-to-rent 15.6

• 34th pct · 913th of 1,399 US counties · median $1,496
• 44th pct · 16th of 28 Louisiana counties · median $1,363
• 25th pct · 4th of 5 counties in the Baton Rouge metro · median $1,516

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 $1,373 a month on $250,761 at 7.28%, against an average weekly wage worth $5,577 a month: 24.6% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $250,761 × 80% = $200,609, r = 7.28%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-01), n = 360 → $1,373/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $1,287 × 52 / 12 = $5,577) = 25% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $250,761 / ($1,287 × 52) = 3.7
• price-to-rent = $250,761 / ($1,341 × 12) = 15.6

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 #

13,212 jobs at 883 employers (2026 Q1); -2.4% jobs and +1.8% average weekly wage over the year

• 61st pct · 1,228th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 63rd pct · 24th of 64 Louisiana counties · median 10,187
• 55th pct · 5th of 10 counties in the Baton Rouge metro · median 9,323

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 #

134 gauges · 0 flooding · 4 with quality panels averaging 81 % · 20 stale

Sites found: 134, 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 #

10 wells in 1 named aquifer: Coastal lowlands aquifer system

Sites found: 10, 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 (0.23)

Σ wᵢ·termᵢ / Σ wᵢ = 0.35×0.25 + 0.2×0.19 / 0.55

Banks & federal dollars #

$566.9 m in deposits at 8 offices of 6 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 3,974, highly concentrated. $331.0 m federal obligations in FY2026 (contracts $173.0 m, direct payments $140.7 m), $25,055 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 3,974 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 = 59.8² + 13.1² + 10.0² + … (3 more) = 3,974

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 $25,055 per covered job, against 13,212 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $331.0 m / 13,212 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $25,055

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 #

West Baton Rouge Parish, LA: 11 findings, 4 at a watch level and 7 noted

1. watchWest Baton Rouge Parish, LA's covered employment is -2.4% 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 = -2.4 < 0

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

2. watchWest Baton Rouge Parish, LA's price-to-rent ratio of 15.6 scores 35 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 100 across Louisiana counties, a gap of 65 points.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 65 = |35 across US counties - 100 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. watchWest Baton Rouge Parish, LA's years of wages of 3.7 scores 38 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 81 across Louisiana counties, a gap of 43 points.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 43 = |38 across US counties - 81 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. watchWest Baton Rouge Parish, LA's typical home value of $250,761 scores 56 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 89 across Louisiana counties, a gap of 33 points.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 33 = |56 across US counties - 89 across Louisiana counties|

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

5. noteWest Baton Rouge Parish, LA's covered employment was 2.4% 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

   • -2.4 % = 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 11 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.