Lamar County, MS
Housing, jobs, water, deposits and federal obligations for this county, each figure with the release it came from. Internal point 31.20, -89.51.
Assembled 2026-10-06. Read the brief.
- 60th pct · 1,200th of 3,063 US counties · median $234,566
- 93rd pct · 6th of 80 Mississippi counties · median $151,974
- counties in the Hattiesburg metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Hattiesburg metro; fewer than 5 is too few to rank.
- 60th pct · 1,200th of 3,063 US counties · median +2.9%
- 70th pct · 24th of 80 Mississippi counties · median +1.3%
- counties in the Hattiesburg metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Hattiesburg metro; fewer than 5 is too few to rank.
- 39th pct · 845th of 1,399 US counties · median $1,496
- 41st pct · 11th of 18 Mississippi counties · median $1,402
- counties in the Hattiesburg metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Hattiesburg metro; fewer than 5 is too few to rank.
- 71st pct · 909th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
- 85th pct · 13th of 82 Mississippi counties · median 6,322
- counties in the Hattiesburg metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Hattiesburg metro; fewer than 5 is too few to rank.
- 12th pct · 2,828th of 3,221 US counties · median $1,039
- 35th pct · 52nd of 82 Mississippi counties · median $903
- counties in the Hattiesburg metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Hattiesburg metro; fewer than 5 is too few to rank.
- 78th pct · 650th of 3,063 US counties · median 4.3
- 97th pct · 3rd of 80 Mississippi counties · median 3.3
- counties in the Hattiesburg metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Hattiesburg metro; fewer than 5 is too few to rank.
Typical home value divided by the average annual wage of one covered job.
A percentile here is a min-max scaling of average rank: the smallest published value in the cohort is 0 and the largest is 100, and tied values share the average of the ranks they span. It is not the share of entities below the value, so 0 means smallest, not none below. Entities that did not publish the metric are outside the cohort entirely and are counted in neither the rank nor its denominator.
Home values #
Typical home $266,430 (Aug 2026), +3.9% over one year, +25.6% over five
- 60th pct · 1,200th of 3,063 US counties · median $234,566
- 93rd pct · 6th of 80 Mississippi counties · median $151,974
- counties in the Hattiesburg metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Hattiesburg metro; fewer than 5 is too few to rank.
| Item | Value | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Lamar County, MS | $266,430 · +3.9% 1-yr |
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 $1,379/mo (Aug 2026), +2.4% over one year; price-to-rent 16.1
- 39th pct · 845th of 1,399 US counties · median $1,496
- 41st pct · 11th of 18 Mississippi counties · median $1,402
- counties in the Hattiesburg metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Hattiesburg metro; fewer than 5 is too few to rank.
| Item | Value | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Lamar County, MS | $1,379/mo · +2.4% 1-yr |
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 $1,458 a month on $266,430 at 7.28%, against an average weekly wage worth $3,701 a month: 39.4% of one job’s pay.
- payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $266,430 × 80% = $213,144, r = 7.28%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-01), n = 360 → $1,458/mo principal and interest
- wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $854 × 52 / 12 = $3,701) = 39% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
- years of wages = $266,430 / ($854 × 52) = 6.0
- price-to-rent = $266,430 / ($1,379 × 12) = 16.1
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 #
20,543 jobs at 1,649 employers (2026 Q1); -2.1% jobs and -0.4% average weekly wage over the year
- 71st pct · 909th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
- 85th pct · 13th of 82 Mississippi counties · median 6,322
- counties in the Hattiesburg metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Hattiesburg metro; fewer than 5 is too few to rank.
| Item | Value | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Lamar County, MS | 20,543 jobs · $854/wk · -2.1% YoY |
| NAICS sector | Jobs | Avg weekly wage | Location quotient | Jobs over the year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retail trade | 4,917 | $670 | 2.46 | -2.5% |
| Health care and social assistance | 3,480 | $1,007 | 1.13 | -0.5% |
| Accommodation and food services | 3,343 | $419 | 1.81 | +1.9% |
| Administrative and waste services | 959 | $785 | 0.82 | -1.6% |
| Finance and insurance | 928 | $1,690 | 1.11 | -13.8% |
| Construction | 855 | $1,081 | 0.79 | -8.9% |
| Professional and technical services | 667 | $1,154 | 0.47 | -0.1% |
| Manufacturing | 458 | $1,256 | 0.28 | -0.9% |
| Other services | 454 | $804 | 0.74 | +5.1% |
| Transportation and warehousing | 377 | $1,271 | 0.44 | -12.9% |
| Wholesale trade | 363 | $1,281 | 0.46 | -1.4% |
| Real estate and rental | 321 | $942 | 1.02 | -4.7% |
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 #
Surface water layer not loaded
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 #
Surface water layer not loaded
Sites found: 0, 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 #
No USGS monitoring wells within 75 km (or above 1,500 km)
Sites found: 0, 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 #
high (0.50)
Σ wᵢ·termᵢ / Σ wᵢ = 0.35×0.50 / 0.35
Banks & federal dollars #
$1.9 bn in deposits at 28 offices of 16 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 982, unconcentrated. $311.6 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $299.0 m, contracts $9.1 m), $15,170 per covered job
| Item | Value | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Hancock Whitney Bank | $275.3 m · 14.5% share · 2 offices | |
| The Huntington National Bank | $266.9 m · 14.0% share · 3 offices | |
| Grand Bank for Savings, FSB | $246.9 m · 13.0% share · 1 office | |
| Lamar, MS | $311.6 m FY2026 · $15,170/job | |
| MULTIPLE RECIPIENTS | $296.7 m · top recipient FY2026 |
| Institution | Deposits | Share | Offices |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hancock Whitney Bank | $275,309,000 | 14.5% | 2 |
| The Huntington National Bank | $266,941,000 | 14.0% | 3 |
| Grand Bank for Savings, FSB | $246,859,000 | 13.0% | 1 |
| Community Bank of Mississippi | $176,854,000 | 9.3% | 1 |
| Renasant Bank | $176,321,000 | 9.3% | 2 |
| Trustmark Bank | $158,463,000 | 8.3% | 2 |
| Regions Bank | $149,467,000 | 7.9% | 2 |
| The Citizens National Bank of Meridian | $122,928,000 | 6.5% | 2 |
| PriorityOne Bank | $112,769,000 | 5.9% | 4 |
| BankFirst Financial Services | $66,669,000 | 3.5% | 2 |
Deposit concentration is 982 across 16 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls unconcentrated.
HHI = Σ (share %)² over 16 banks with deposits in the county = 14.5² + 14.0² + 13.0² + … (13 more) = 982
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.
| Awarding agency | Obligations |
|---|---|
| Social Security Administration | $260,668,266 |
| Department of Veterans Affairs | $38,135,046 |
| Department of Homeland Security | $5,196,546 |
| Department of Transportation | $2,516,439 |
| Railroad Retirement Board | $1,684,150 |
| Department of Agriculture | $1,340,926 |
| Department of Health and Human Services | $1,130,130 |
| Department of Housing and Urban Development | $635,911 |
| Department of Defense | $185,546 |
| Federal Communications Commission | $170,509 |
| General Services Administration | $10,861 |
| Small Business Administration | $0 |
That is $15,170 per covered job, against 20,543 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.
per job = FY2026 obligations $311.6 m / 20,543 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $15,170
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.
| Series | Latest | As of | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mississippi River at Memphis, stage · ft | not published | not published | |
| Mississippi River at St. Louis, stage · ft | not published | not published | |
| Ohio River at Louisville, stage · ft | 12.69 | 2026-10-05 | +3.3% |
| Missouri River at St. Joseph, stage · ft | not published | not published | |
| Colorado River below Hoover Dam, flow (Hoover releases) · ft³/s | 5,170.00 | 2026-02-05 | -25.3% |
| Texas reservoirs, statewide percent full · % | 72.60 | 2026-10-06 | +0.0% |
| Laredo truck crossings, monthly · trucks | 258,700.00 | 2026-08-01 | -0.4% |
| Los Angeles + Long Beach container volume, annual · TEU | 10,513,167.00 | 2023-01-01 | -13.5% |
| Containerships waiting for a berth, all US ports · ships | 6.00 | 2026-09-22 | -14.3% |
| Shanghai to Los Angeles container rate · $ per 40 ft box | 6,830.00 | 2026-08-01 | +7.4% |
| US diesel retail price · $ per gallon | unavailable | not published | |
| WTI crude oil, spot · $ per barrel | 96.16 | 2026-09-29 | -3.2% |
| 30-year fixed mortgage rate · % | 7.28 | 2026-10-01 | +3.6% |
| Housing starts, annual rate · thousands of units | 1,275.00 | 2026-08-01 | -2.6% |
| Building permits, annual rate · thousands of units | 1,403.00 | 2026-08-01 | -2.1% |
| Case-Shiller US home price index · index, Jan 2000 = 100 | 337.31 | 2026-07-01 | +0.1% |
| Unemployment rate · % | 4.20 | 2026-09-01 | +2.4% |
| US goods and services trade balance, monthly · $ millions | -105,572.00 | 2026-08-01 | -13.7% |
| Retail sales excluding food services, monthly · $ millions | 646,347.00 | 2026-08-01 | +1.1% |
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 #
Lamar County, MS: 10 findings, 4 at a watch level and 6 noted
watchLamar County, MS' covered employment is -2.1% 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 = -2.1 < 0
BLS QCEW over-the-year percent change, as published; not an official level
watchLamar County, MS' average weekly wage is -0.4% 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 = -0.4 < 0
BLS QCEW over-the-year percent change, as published, nominal dollars; convention chosen for this dashboard, not an official level
watchLamar County, MS' price-to-rent ratio of 16.1 scores 40 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 82 across Mississippi counties, a gap of 43 points.
Period 2026-08.Show the arithmetic
- 43 = |40 across US counties - 82 across Mississippi 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
watchLamar County, MS' typical home value of $266,430 scores 61 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 94 across Mississippi counties, a gap of 33 points.
Period 2026-08.Show the arithmetic
- 33 = |61 across US counties - 94 across Mississippi counties|
position among the entities that published this metric this period; not an official level
noteLamar County, MS' covered employment was 2.1% 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
- -2.1 % = 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
Read all 10 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.