Merrick County, NE

Home values #

Typical home $230,293 (Aug 2026), +3.5% over one year, +32.9% over five

• 48th pct · 1,575th of 3,063 US counties · median $234,566
• 62nd pct · 34th of 89 Nebraska counties · median $218,486
• counties in the Grand Island metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Grand Island metro; fewer than 5 is too few to rank.

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
• Nebraska counties: not published this period
• counties in the Grand Island metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Grand Island metro; fewer than 5 is too few to rank.

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 $1,261 a month on $230,293 at 7.28%, against an average weekly wage worth $4,268 a month: 29.5% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $230,293 × 80% = $184,234, r = 7.28%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-01), n = 360 → $1,261/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $985 × 52 / 12 = $4,268) = 30% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $230,293 / ($985 × 52) = 4.5

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 #

2,385 jobs at 271 employers (2026 Q1); +5.1% jobs and +4.8% average weekly wage over the year

• 19th pct · 2,591st of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 57th pct · 40th of 93 Nebraska counties · median 2,151
• counties in the Grand Island metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Grand Island metro; fewer than 5 is too few to rank.

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 #

No drought class at this point (USDM covers the United States only)

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 #

22 gauges · 0 flooding · 1 with quality panels averaging 83 % · 7 stale

Sites found: 22, 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 #

15 wells in 0 named aquifers:

Sites found: 15, 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 (0.06)

Σ wᵢ·termᵢ / Σ wᵢ = 0.35×0.00 + 0.2×0.17 / 0.55

Banks & federal dollars #

$290.2 m in deposits at 6 offices of 4 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 3,147, highly concentrated. $62.8 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $54.6 m, grants $8.1 m), $26,342 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 3,147 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 = 46.9² + 19.9² + 16.8² + … (1 more) = 3,147

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 $26,342 per covered job, against 2,385 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $62.8 m / 2,385 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $26,342

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 #

Merrick County, NE: 6 findings, 1 at a watch level and 5 noted

1. watchMerrick County, NE's covered employment of 2,385 scores 20 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 58 across Nebraska counties, a gap of 38 points.

   Period 2026 Q1.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 38 = |20 across US counties - 58 across Nebraska counties|

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

2. noteMerrick County, NE's 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

3. noteMerrick County, NE's average weekly wage was 4.8% 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

   • +4.8 % = 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. noteMerrick County, NE's momentum index of 0.71 ranks 175th of 3,221 US counties, against a median of 0.23.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 95 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

5. noteMerrick County, NE's covered employment of +5.1% ranks 187th of 3,221 US counties, against a median of -0.2%.

   Period 2026 Q1.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 94 on the 0-to-100 scale across 3221 US counties that published jobs.yoy.emp

   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.