Webster County, MO

Home values #

Typical home $269,934 (Aug 2026), +5.3% over one year, +26.6% over five

• 61st pct · 1,171st of 3,063 US counties · median $234,566
• 82nd pct · 21st of 113 Missouri counties · median $224,499
• 50th pct · 3rd of 5 counties in the Springfield metro · median $269,934

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
• counties in the Springfield 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 $1,478 a month on $269,934 at 7.28%, against an average weekly wage worth $3,922 a month: 37.7% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $269,934 × 80% = $215,947, r = 7.28%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-01), n = 360 → $1,478/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $905 × 52 / 12 = $3,922) = 38% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $269,934 / ($905 × 52) = 5.7

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 #

8,629 jobs at 965 employers (2026 Q1); +0.2% jobs and +4.4% average weekly wage over the year

• 51st pct · 1,562nd of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 64th pct · 42nd of 115 Missouri counties · median 4,996
• 25th pct · 4th of 5 counties in the Springfield metro · median 9,637

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 #

D3 extreme 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 · 0 with quality panels · 6 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 #

17 wells in 1 named aquifer: Ozark Plateaus aquifer system

Sites found: 17, 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 (0.75)

Σ wᵢ·termᵢ / Σ wᵢ = 0.35×0.75 / 0.35

Banks & federal dollars #

$636.9 m in deposits at 11 offices of 7 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 2,160, highly concentrated. $3.6 m federal obligations in FY2026 (grants $2.1 m, contracts $1.5 m), $416 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 2,160 across 7 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls highly concentrated.

HHI = Σ (share %)² over 7 banks with deposits in the county = 30.5² + 28.4² + 15.1² + … (4 more) = 2,160

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 $416 per covered job, against 8,629 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $3.6 m / 8,629 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $416

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 #

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

1. watchWebster County, MO's average weekly wage of $905 scores 20 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 51 across Missouri counties, a gap of 31 points.

   Period 2026 Q1.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 31 = |20 across US counties - 51 across Missouri counties|

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

2. noteWebster County, MO's average weekly wage was 4.4% 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

   • +4.4 % = 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. noteWebster County, MO's typical home value rose 0.3% from $269,250 in July 2026 to $269,934 in August 2026, on Zillow ZHVI.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • +0.3% = (269933.6688760779 - 269250.1002840965) / 269250.1002840965 × 100
   • 269933.6688760779 = Zillow ZHVI, 2026-08
   • 269250.1002840965 = Zillow ZHVI, 2026-07

4. noteWebster County, MO's covered employment was 0.2% 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

   • +0.2 % = 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

5. noteThe next Zillow ZHVI typical home value (monthly) covering Webster County, MO is due between 2026-10-14 and 2026-10-21, estimated from the publisher's past release pattern.

   Show the arithmetic

   • window = 2026-10-14 to 2026-10-21, estimated from the publisher's past release pattern

   estimated from the publisher's past release pattern; not an announced date

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.