Isanti County, MN

Home values #

Typical home $342,620 (Aug 2026), +2.5% over one year, +15.3% over five

• 78th pct · 669th of 3,063 US counties · median $234,566
• 80th pct · 18th of 87 Minnesota counties · median $276,116
• 14th pct · 13th of 15 counties in the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington metro · median $388,061

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 $1,486/mo (Aug 2026), n/a over one year; price-to-rent 19.2

• 48th pct · 718th of 1,399 US counties · median $1,496
• 62nd pct · 15th of 38 Minnesota counties · median $1,295
• 15th pct · 12th of 14 counties in the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington metro · median $1,686

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 $1,875 a month on $342,620 at 7.28%, against an average weekly wage worth $4,320 a month: 43.4% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $342,620 × 80% = $274,096, r = 7.28%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-01), n = 360 → $1,875/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $997 × 52 / 12 = $4,320) = 43% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $342,620 / ($997 × 52) = 6.6
• price-to-rent = $342,620 / ($1,486 × 12) = 19.2

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 #

10,880 jobs at 970 employers (2026 Q1); -1.2% jobs and +0.3% average weekly wage over the year

• 56th pct · 1,394th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 59th pct · 36th of 87 Minnesota counties · median 7,739
• 21st pct · 12th of 15 counties in the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington metro · median 39,512

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 #

D2 severe 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 #

52 gauges · 0 flooding · 27 with quality panels averaging 97 % · 27 stale

Sites found: 52, 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 #

49 wells in 0 named aquifers:

Sites found: 49, 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 = 0.35×0.50 + 0.2×0.03 / 0.55

Banks & federal dollars #

$589.2 m in deposits at 9 offices of 5 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 2,264, highly concentrated. $294.6 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $269.1 m, grants $23.8 m), $27,076 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 2,264 across 5 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls highly concentrated.

HHI = Σ (share %)² over 5 banks with deposits in the county = 27.0² + 25.6² + 25.2² + … (2 more) = 2,264

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 $27,076 per covered job, against 10,880 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $294.6 m / 10,880 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $27,076

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 #

Isanti County, MN: 12 findings, 3 at a watch level and 9 noted

1. watchIsanti County, MN's covered employment is -1.2% 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 = -1.2 < 0

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

2. watchIsanti County, MN's typical asking rent is -1.6% against the previous month, a watch level here: typical asking rent at least 1 percent below the previous month (arithmetic on the Zillow ZORI month columns; 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.momPct = -1.608616566302551 <= -1
   • month-over-month percent change = (newest month − previous month) / |previous month| × 100, from Zillow's own published month columns

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

3. watchIsanti County, MN's price-to-rent ratio of 19.2 scores 68 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 38 across Minnesota counties, a gap of 30 points.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 30 = |68 across US counties - 38 across Minnesota 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

4. noteIsanti County, MN's typical asking rent fell 1.6% from $1,511 in July 2026 to $1,486 in August 2026, on Zillow ZORI.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • -1.6% = (1486.25 - 1510.5489404989742) / 1510.5489404989742 × 100
   • 1486.25 = Zillow ZORI, 2026-08
   • 1510.5489404989742 = Zillow ZORI, 2026-07

5. noteIsanti County, MN's covered employment was 1.2% 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

   • -1.2 % = 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

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.