Washington County, MO

Home values #

Typical home $195,488 (Aug 2026), +6.5% over one year, +13.5% over five

• 35th pct · 1,981st of 3,063 US counties · median $234,566
• 33rd pct · 76th 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 $1,070 a month on $195,488 at 7.28%, against an average weekly wage worth $3,527 a month: 30.3% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $195,488 × 80% = $156,390, r = 7.28%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-01), n = 360 → $1,070/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $814 × 52 / 12 = $3,527) = 30% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $195,488 / ($814 × 52) = 4.6

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 #

4,945 jobs at 813 employers (2026 Q1); -2.2% jobs and +4.2% average weekly wage over the year

• 36th pct · 2,032nd of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 49th pct · 59th 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 #

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 #

31 gauges · 0 flooding · 6 with quality panels averaging 100 % · 3 stale

Sites found: 31, 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 #

26 wells in 1 named aquifer: Ozark Plateaus aquifer system

Sites found: 26, 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 #

$402.5 m in deposits at 7 offices of 4 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 4,484, highly concentrated. $156.6 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $140.1 m, grants $15.9 m), $31,671 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 4,484 across 4 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls highly concentrated.

HHI = Σ (share %)² over 4 banks with deposits in the county = 62.4² + 19.7² + 13.7² + … (1 more) = 4,484

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 $31,671 per covered job, against 4,945 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $156.6 m / 4,945 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $31,671

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 #

Washington County, MO: 6 findings, 1 at a watch level and 5 noted

1. watchWashington County, MO's covered employment is -2.2% 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 = -2.2 < 0

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

2. noteWashington County, MO's average weekly wage was 4.2% 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

   • +4.2 % = 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

3. noteWashington County, MO's covered employment was 2.2% 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

   • -2.2 % = 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. noteWashington County, MO's typical home value rose 0.5% from $194,453 in July 2026 to $195,488 in August 2026, on Zillow ZHVI.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • +0.5% = (195487.91883290783 - 194453.3945720245) / 194453.3945720245 × 100
   • 195487.91883290783 = Zillow ZHVI, 2026-08
   • 194453.3945720245 = Zillow ZHVI, 2026-07

5. noteWashington County, MO's average weekly wage of $814 ranks 2,966th of 3,221 US counties, against a median of $1,039.

   Period 2026 Q1.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 8 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

Read all 6 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.