Benton County, MO

Home values #

Typical home $197,948 (Aug 2026), +1.6% over one year, +4.5% over five

• 36th pct · 1,951st of 3,063 US counties · median $234,566
• 35th pct · 73rd of 113 Missouri counties · median $224,499

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
• Missouri counties: 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 $1,084 a month on $197,948 at 7.28%, against an average weekly wage worth $3,410 a month: 31.8% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $197,948 × 80% = $158,359, r = 7.28%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-01), n = 360 → $1,084/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $787 × 52 / 12 = $3,410) = 32% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $197,948 / ($787 × 52) = 4.8

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 #

3,832 jobs at 569 employers (2026 Q1); +2.9% jobs and +4.5% average weekly wage over the year

• 30th pct · 2,241st of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 39th pct · 70th of 115 Missouri counties · median 4,996

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 #

2 USGS reservoir gauges, no capacity figures to weight

Sites found: 2, 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 #

24 gauges · 0 flooding · 1 with quality panels averaging 100 % · 5 stale

Sites found: 24, 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 #

16 wells in 2 named aquifers: Ozark Plateaus aquifer system, Other aquifers

Sites found: 16, 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 (0.16)

Σ wᵢ·termᵢ / Σ wᵢ = 0.35×0.25 + 0.2×0.00 / 0.55

Banks & federal dollars #

$522.3 m in deposits at 6 offices of 5 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 2,285, highly concentrated. $205.5 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $195.7 m, grants $8.6 m), $53,623 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 2,285 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 = 31.5² + 23.0² + 21.7² + … (2 more) = 2,285

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 $53,623 per covered job, against 3,832 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $205.5 m / 3,832 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $53,623

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, MO: 7 findings, 7 noted

1. noteBenton County, MO's average weekly wage was 4.5% 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

   • +4.5 % = 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

2. noteBenton County, MO's covered employment was 2.9% 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

   • +2.9 % = 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

3. noteBenton County, MO's typical home value rose 0.4% from $197,214 in July 2026 to $197,948 in August 2026, on Zillow ZHVI.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • +0.4% = (197948.17848798 - 197214.15401181483) / 197214.15401181483 × 100
   • 197948.17848798 = Zillow ZHVI, 2026-08
   • 197214.15401181483 = Zillow ZHVI, 2026-07

4. noteBenton County, MO's average weekly wage of $787 ranks 3,048th of 3,221 US counties, against a median of $1,039.

   Period 2026 Q1.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 5 on the 0-to-100 scale across 3221 US counties that published jobs.avgWeeklyWage

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

5. noteBenton County, MO's momentum index of 0.62 ranks 308th of 3,221 US counties, against a median of 0.23.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 90 on the 0-to-100 scale across 3221 US counties that published momentum
   • momentum = Σ wᵢ · clip(changeᵢ / scaleᵢ, −1, 1) / Σ wᵢ over the terms present; weights and scales: home value 1-yr change 0.3 (±10%), rent 1-yr change 0.15 (±10%), jobs over-the-year change 0.3 (±3%), avg weekly wage over-the-year change 0.25 (±6%)

   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.