Chautauqua County, NY

Home values #

Typical home $181,706 (Aug 2026), +5.0% over one year, +37.8% over five

• 28th pct · 2,177th of 3,063 US counties · median $234,566
• 11th pct · 55th of 62 New York counties · median $256,722

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 $1,041/mo (Aug 2026), +13.7% over one year; price-to-rent 14.5

• 10th pct · 1,249th of 1,399 US counties · median $1,496
• 2nd pct · 48th of 49 New York counties · median $1,531

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 $995 a month on $181,706 at 7.28%, against an average weekly wage worth $4,602 a month: 21.6% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $181,706 × 80% = $145,365, r = 7.28%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-01), n = 360 → $995/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $1,062 × 52 / 12 = $4,602) = 22% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $181,706 / ($1,062 × 52) = 3.3
• price-to-rent = $181,706 / ($1,041 × 12) = 14.5

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 #

45,244 jobs at 3,125 employers (2026 Q1); +0.4% jobs and +1.0% average weekly wage over the year

• 82nd pct · 555th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 60th pct · 25th of 62 New York counties · median 32,139

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 #

D0 abnormally dry

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 #

1 USGS reservoir gauges, no capacity figures to weight

Sites found: 1, 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 #

29 gauges · 0 flooding · 5 with quality panels averaging 100 % · 2 stale

Sites found: 29, 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 #

19 wells in 0 named aquifers:

Sites found: 19, 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 (0.00)

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

Banks & federal dollars #

$2.2 bn in deposits at 33 offices of 8 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 1,778, moderately concentrated. $929.2 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $827.5 m, contracts $63.8 m), $20,537 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 1,778 across 8 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls moderately concentrated.

HHI = Σ (share %)² over 8 banks with deposits in the county = 25.8² + 19.4² + 16.1² + … (5 more) = 1,778

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 $20,537 per covered job, against 45,244 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $929.2 m / 45,244 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $20,537

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 #

Chautauqua County, NY: 11 findings, 4 at a watch level and 7 noted

1. watchChautauqua County, NY's typical asking rent is +13.7% against a year earlier, a watch level here: typical asking rent at least 8 percent above a year ago (arithmetic on Zillow ZORI; 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 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • test: rent.yoyPct = 13.72437396988532 >= 8

   arithmetic on Zillow ZORI; convention chosen for this dashboard, not an official level

2. watchChautauqua County, NY's typical asking rent rose 4.2% from $999 in July 2026 to $1,041 in August 2026, on Zillow ZORI.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • +4.2% = (1040.7777777777778 - 999.2657266612171) / 999.2657266612171 × 100
   • 1040.7777777777778 = Zillow ZORI, 2026-08
   • 999.2657266612171 = Zillow ZORI, 2026-07

3. watchChautauqua County, NY's average weekly wage of $1,062 scores 55 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 10 across New York counties, a gap of 45 points.

   Period 2026 Q1.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 45 = |55 across US counties - 10 across New York counties|

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

4. watchChautauqua County, NY's typical home value of +5.0% scores 73 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 36 across New York counties, a gap of 36 points.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 36 = |73 across US counties - 36 across New York counties|

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

5. noteChautauqua County, NY's average weekly wage was 1.0% 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

   • +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 11 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.