Oswego County, NY

Home values #

Typical home $211,243 (Aug 2026), +8.1% over one year, +37.6% over five

• 40th pct · 1,811th of 3,063 US counties · median $234,566
• 22nd pct · 48th of 62 New York counties · median $256,722
• counties in the Syracuse metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Syracuse 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 #

Typical rent $1,367/mo (Aug 2026), +13.2% over one year; price-to-rent 12.9

• 37th pct · 870th of 1,399 US counties · median $1,496
• 29th pct · 35th of 49 New York counties · median $1,531
• counties in the Syracuse metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Syracuse 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 $1,156 a month on $211,243 at 7.28%, against an average weekly wage worth $5,776 a month: 20.0% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $211,243 × 80% = $168,994, r = 7.28%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-01), n = 360 → $1,156/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $1,333 × 52 / 12 = $5,776) = 20% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $211,243 / ($1,333 × 52) = 3.0
• price-to-rent = $211,243 / ($1,367 × 12) = 12.9

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 #

32,736 jobs at 2,292 employers (2026 Q1); +0.9% jobs and +2.9% average weekly wage over the year

• 78th pct · 692nd of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 50th pct · 31st of 62 New York counties · median 32,139
• counties in the Syracuse metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Syracuse 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 #

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 #

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 #

83 gauges · 0 flooding · 13 with quality panels averaging 100 % · 37 stale

Sites found: 83, 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 #

20 wells in 0 named aquifers:

Sites found: 20, 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 #

$1.7 bn in deposits at 24 offices of 6 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 2,578, highly concentrated. $773.9 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $738.0 m, grants $18.7 m), $23,640 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 2,578 across 6 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls highly concentrated.

HHI = Σ (share %)² over 6 banks with deposits in the county = 42.6² + 17.4² + 13.7² + … (3 more) = 2,578

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 $23,640 per covered job, against 32,736 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $773.9 m / 32,736 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $23,640

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 #

Oswego County, NY: 12 findings, 3 at a watch level and 9 noted

1. watchOswego County, NY's typical asking rent is +13.2% 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 = 13.170963482640424 >= 8

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

2. watchOswego County, NY's typical asking rent is -4.2% against the previous month, a watch level here: typical asking rent at least 1 percent below the previous month (arithmetic on the Zillow ZORI month columns; 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.momPct = -4.215728083982839 <= -1
   • month-over-month percent change = (newest month − previous month) / |previous month| × 100, from Zillow's own published month columns

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

3. watchOswego County, NY's typical asking rent fell 4.2% from $1,427 in July 2026 to $1,367 in August 2026, on Zillow ZORI.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • -4.2% = (1367.2222222222224 - 1427.3974159567567) / 1427.3974159567567 × 100
   • 1367.2222222222224 = Zillow ZORI, 2026-08
   • 1427.3974159567567 = Zillow ZORI, 2026-07

4. noteOswego County, NY's average weekly wage 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

5. noteOswego County, NY's covered employment was 0.9% 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

   • +0.9 % = 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

Read all 12 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.