Benton County, MS

Home values #

Typical home $160,056 (Aug 2026), +10.0% over one year, +7.6% over five

• 19th pct · 2,466th of 3,063 US counties · median $234,566
• 56th pct · 35th of 80 Mississippi counties · median $151,974
• 0th pct · 9th of 9 counties in the Memphis metro · median $222,493

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
• Mississippi counties: not published this period
• counties in the Memphis 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 $876 a month on $160,056 at 7.28%, against an average weekly wage worth $3,787 a month: 23.1% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $160,056 × 80% = $128,045, r = 7.28%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-01), n = 360 → $876/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $874 × 52 / 12 = $3,787) = 23% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $160,056 / ($874 × 52) = 3.5

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 #

1,115 jobs at 97 employers (2026 Q1); +5.1% jobs and -0.5% average weekly wage over the year

• 7th pct · 2,971st of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 6th pct · 77th of 82 Mississippi counties · median 6,322
• 0th pct · 9th of 9 counties in the Memphis metro · median 11,668

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 #

30 gauges · 0 flooding · 5 with quality panels averaging 88 % · 11 stale

Sites found: 30, 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 #

18 wells in 0 named aquifers:

Sites found: 18, 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 (0.20)

Σ wᵢ·termᵢ / Σ wᵢ = 0.35×0.25 + 0.2×0.12 / 0.55

Banks & federal dollars #

$59.5 m in deposits at 3 offices of 2 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 5,658, highly concentrated. $54.4 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $52.1 m, grants $2.3 m), $48,817 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 5,658 across 2 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls highly concentrated.

HHI = Σ (share %)² over 2 banks with deposits in the county = 68.1² + 31.9² = 5,658

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 $48,817 per covered job, against 1,115 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $54.4 m / 1,115 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $48,817

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 #

Benton County, MS: 17 findings, 2 at a watch level and 15 noted

1. watchBenton County, MS' average weekly wage is -0.5% against a year earlier, a watch level here: average weekly wage below the same quarter a year earlier, before inflation (BLS QCEW over-the-year percent change, as published, nominal dollars; 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 Q1.
   Show the arithmetic

   • test: jobs.yoy.avgWeeklyWage = -0.5 < 0

   BLS QCEW over-the-year percent change, as published, nominal dollars; convention chosen for this dashboard, not an official level

2. watchBenton County, MS' typical home value of $160,056 scores 19 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 57 across Mississippi counties, a gap of 37 points.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 37 = |19 across US counties - 57 across Mississippi counties|

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

3. noteBenton County, MS' covered employment was 5.1% 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

   • +5.1 % = 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. noteBenton County, MS' average weekly wage was 0.5% 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

   • -0.5 % = 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

5. noteBenton County, MS' typical home value of $160,056 ranks 9th of 9 counties in the Memphis metro, against a median of $222,493.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 0 on the 0-to-100 scale across 9 counties in the Memphis metro that published home.latest

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

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.