Swain County, NC
Housing, jobs, water, deposits and federal obligations for this county, each figure with the release it came from. Internal point 35.57, -83.47.
Assembled 2026-10-06. Read the brief.
- 74th pct · 772nd of 3,063 US counties · median $234,566
- 68th pct · 32nd of 100 North Carolina counties · median $273,108
- 23rd pct · 2,351st of 3,063 US counties · median +2.9%
- 33rd pct · 67th of 100 North Carolina counties · median +1.1%
- US counties: not published this period
- North Carolina counties: not published this period
- 44th pct · 1,790th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
- 22nd pct · 78th of 100 North Carolina counties · median 16,739
- 41st pct · 1,876th of 3,221 US counties · median $1,039
- 55th pct · 45th of 100 North Carolina counties · median $984
- 81st pct · 573rd of 3,063 US counties · median 4.3
- 74th pct · 26th of 100 North Carolina counties · median 5.0
Typical home value divided by the average annual wage of one covered job.
A percentile here is a min-max scaling of average rank: the smallest published value in the cohort is 0 and the largest is 100, and tied values share the average of the ranks they span. It is not the share of entities below the value, so 0 means smallest, not none below. Entities that did not publish the metric are outside the cohort entirely and are counted in neither the rank nor its denominator.
Home values #
Typical home $324,666 (Aug 2026), +0.3% over one year, +27.0% over five
- 74th pct · 772nd of 3,063 US counties · median $234,566
- 68th pct · 32nd of 100 North Carolina counties · median $273,108
| Item | Value | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Swain County, NC | $324,666 · +0.3% 1-yr |
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
- North Carolina 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 $1,777 a month on $324,666 at 7.28%, against an average weekly wage worth $4,342 a month: 40.9% of one job’s pay.
- payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $324,666 × 80% = $259,733, r = 7.28%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-01), n = 360 → $1,777/mo principal and interest
- wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $1,002 × 52 / 12 = $4,342) = 41% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
- years of wages = $324,666 / ($1,002 × 52) = 6.2
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 #
6,532 jobs at 511 employers (2026 Q1); -0.3% jobs and +3.7% average weekly wage over the year
- 44th pct · 1,790th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
- 22nd pct · 78th of 100 North Carolina counties · median 16,739
| Item | Value | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Swain County, NC | 6,532 jobs · $1,002/wk · -0.3% YoY |
| NAICS sector | Jobs | Avg weekly wage | Location quotient | Jobs over the year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Accommodation and food services | 788 | $459 | 1.34 | +7.5% |
| Retail trade | 616 | $562 | 0.97 | -3.1% |
| Arts, entertainment and recreation | 300 | $932 | 2.79 | -6.8% |
| Transportation and warehousing | 219 | $766 | 0.80 | -11.7% |
| Construction | 155 | $1,111 | 0.45 | -18.4% |
| Administrative and waste services | 120 | $1,120 | 0.32 | +17.6% |
| Real estate and rental | 57 | $1,251 | 0.57 | -29.6% |
| Finance and insurance | 51 | $1,046 | 0.19 | -5.6% |
| Wholesale trade | 26 | $724 | 0.10 | +100.0% |
| Agriculture, forestry, fishing | withheld | |||
| Mining, oil and gas | withheld | |||
| Manufacturing | withheld |
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 #
Surface water layer not loaded
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 #
Surface water layer not loaded
Sites found: 0, 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 #
No USGS monitoring wells within 75 km (or above 1,500 km)
Sites found: 0, 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 #
moderate (0.25)
Σ wᵢ·termᵢ / Σ wᵢ = 0.35×0.25 / 0.35
Banks & federal dollars #
$632.3 m in deposits at 3 offices of 2 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 6,661, highly concentrated. $155.1 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $141.4 m, grants $13.4 m), $23,743 per covered job
| Item | Value | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| First-Citizens Bank & Trust Company | $498.3 m · 78.8% share · 2 offices | |
| United Community Bank | $133.9 m · 21.2% share · 1 office | |
| Swain, NC | $155.1 m FY2026 · $23,743/job | |
| MULTIPLE RECIPIENTS | $98.1 m · top recipient FY2026 |
| Institution | Deposits | Share | Offices |
|---|---|---|---|
| First-Citizens Bank & Trust Company | $498,345,000 | 78.8% | 2 |
| United Community Bank | $133,935,000 | 21.2% | 1 |
Deposit concentration is 6,661 across 2 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls highly concentrated.
HHI = Σ (share %)² over 2 banks with deposits in the county = 78.8² + 21.2² = 6,661
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.
| Awarding agency | Obligations |
|---|---|
| Social Security Administration | $86,524,459 |
| Department of the Interior | $43,087,846 |
| Department of Veterans Affairs | $11,095,654 |
| Department of Housing and Urban Development | $4,746,585 |
| Department of Education | $4,383,203 |
| Department of Agriculture | $2,869,125 |
| Department of Transportation | $1,779,634 |
| Department of Health and Human Services | $1,302,026 |
| Railroad Retirement Board | $281,624 |
| Federal Communications Commission | $134,321 |
| Environmental Protection Agency | $45,719 |
| Equal Employment Opportunity Commission | $33,000 |
That is $23,743 per covered job, against 6,532 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.
per job = FY2026 obligations $155.1 m / 6,532 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $23,743
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.
| Series | Latest | As of | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mississippi River at Memphis, stage · ft | not published | not published | |
| Mississippi River at St. Louis, stage · ft | not published | not published | |
| Ohio River at Louisville, stage · ft | 12.69 | 2026-10-05 | +3.3% |
| Missouri River at St. Joseph, stage · ft | not published | not published | |
| Colorado River below Hoover Dam, flow (Hoover releases) · ft³/s | 5,170.00 | 2026-02-05 | -25.3% |
| Texas reservoirs, statewide percent full · % | 72.60 | 2026-10-06 | +0.0% |
| Laredo truck crossings, monthly · trucks | 258,700.00 | 2026-08-01 | -0.4% |
| Los Angeles + Long Beach container volume, annual · TEU | 10,513,167.00 | 2023-01-01 | -13.5% |
| Containerships waiting for a berth, all US ports · ships | 6.00 | 2026-09-22 | -14.3% |
| Shanghai to Los Angeles container rate · $ per 40 ft box | 6,830.00 | 2026-08-01 | +7.4% |
| US diesel retail price · $ per gallon | unavailable | not published | |
| WTI crude oil, spot · $ per barrel | 96.16 | 2026-09-29 | -3.2% |
| 30-year fixed mortgage rate · % | 7.28 | 2026-10-01 | +3.6% |
| Housing starts, annual rate · thousands of units | 1,275.00 | 2026-08-01 | -2.6% |
| Building permits, annual rate · thousands of units | 1,403.00 | 2026-08-01 | -2.1% |
| Case-Shiller US home price index · index, Jan 2000 = 100 | 337.31 | 2026-07-01 | +0.1% |
| Unemployment rate · % | 4.20 | 2026-09-01 | +2.4% |
| US goods and services trade balance, monthly · $ millions | -105,572.00 | 2026-08-01 | -13.7% |
| Retail sales excluding food services, monthly · $ millions | 646,347.00 | 2026-08-01 | +1.1% |
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 #
Swain County, NC: 4 findings, 1 at a watch level and 3 noted
watchSwain County, NC's covered employment is -0.3% 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 = -0.3 < 0
BLS QCEW over-the-year percent change, as published; not an official level
noteSwain County, NC's average weekly wage was 3.7% 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
- +3.7 % = 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
noteSwain County, NC's covered employment was 0.3% 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
- -0.3 % = 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
noteThe next Zillow ZHVI typical home value (monthly) covering Swain County, NC 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
Every finding is produced by a fixed rule table and a fixed sentence for each rule. Nothing here is generated prose.