Mecosta County, MI

Home values #

Typical home $235,248 (Aug 2026), +7.8% over one year, +23.2% over five

• 50th pct · 1,521st of 3,063 US counties · median $234,566
• 54th pct · 38th of 83 Michigan counties · median $226,891

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 $1,174/mo (Aug 2026), +10.4% over one year; price-to-rent 16.7

• 20th pct · 1,118th of 1,399 US counties · median $1,496
• 25th pct · 30th of 40 Michigan counties · median $1,338

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 $1,288 a month on $235,248 at 7.28%, against an average weekly wage worth $3,731 a month: 34.5% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $235,248 × 80% = $188,198, r = 7.28%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-01), n = 360 → $1,288/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $861 × 52 / 12 = $3,731) = 35% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $235,248 / ($861 × 52) = 5.3
• price-to-rent = $235,248 / ($1,174 × 12) = 16.7

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 #

12,554 jobs at 727 employers (2026 Q1); +2.0% jobs and 0.0% average weekly wage over the year

• 60th pct · 1,278th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 53rd pct · 39th of 83 Michigan counties · median 12,414

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 #

29 gauges · 0 flooding · 8 with quality panels averaging 100 % · 3 stale

Sites found: 29, 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 #

11 wells in 0 named aquifers:

Sites found: 11, 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 (0.00)

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

Banks & federal dollars #

$731.7 m in deposits at 15 offices of 8 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 2,136, highly concentrated. $346.5 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $303.8 m, contracts $39.9 m), $27,601 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 2,136 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 = 34.0² + 22.9² + 15.3² + … (4 more) = 2,136

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 $27,601 per covered job, against 12,554 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $346.5 m / 12,554 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $27,601

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 #

Mecosta County, MI: 7 findings, 1 at a watch level and 6 noted

1. watchMecosta County, MI's typical asking rent is +10.4% against a year earlier, a watch level here: typical asking rent at least 8 percent above a year ago (arithmetic on Zillow ZORI; 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.yoyPct = 10.399119100577447 >= 8

   arithmetic on Zillow ZORI; convention chosen for this dashboard, not an official level

2. noteMecosta County, MI's typical asking rent rose 2.9% from $1,141 in July 2026 to $1,174 in August 2026, on Zillow ZORI.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • +2.9% = (1174.1666666666667 - 1140.6229315952862) / 1140.6229315952862 × 100
   • 1174.1666666666667 = Zillow ZORI, 2026-08
   • 1140.6229315952862 = Zillow ZORI, 2026-07

3. noteMecosta County, MI's covered employment was 2.0% 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

   • +2 % = 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

4. noteMecosta County, MI's typical home value rose 0.5% from $234,145 in July 2026 to $235,248 in August 2026, on Zillow ZHVI.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • +0.5% = (235247.5640822565 - 234144.61855481495) / 234144.61855481495 × 100
   • 235247.5640822565 = Zillow ZHVI, 2026-08
   • 234144.61855481495 = Zillow ZHVI, 2026-07

5. noteMecosta County, MI's typical home value of +7.8% ranks 299th of 3,063 US counties, against a median of +2.9%.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 90 on the 0-to-100 scale across 3063 US counties that published home.yoyPct

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

Read all 7 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.