Brown County, OH

Home values #

Typical home $263,995 (Aug 2026), +2.5% over one year, +25.7% over five

• 60th pct · 1,221st of 3,063 US counties · median $234,566
• 73rd pct · 24th of 88 Ohio counties · median $219,740
• 21st pct · 12th of 15 counties in the Cincinnati metro · median $287,730

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
• Ohio counties: not published this period
• counties in the Cincinnati 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 $1,445 a month on $263,995 at 7.28%, against an average weekly wage worth $3,891 a month: 37.1% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $263,995 × 80% = $211,196, r = 7.28%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-01), n = 360 → $1,445/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $898 × 52 / 12 = $3,891) = 37% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $263,995 / ($898 × 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 #

7,949 jobs at 787 employers (2026 Q1); +0.2% jobs and +6.3% average weekly wage over the year

• 49th pct · 1,640th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 14th pct · 75th of 88 Ohio counties · median 20,657
• 42nd pct · 9th of 15 counties in the Cincinnati metro · median 14,828

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 #

78 gauges · 0 flooding · 8 with quality panels averaging 91 % · 25 stale

Sites found: 78, 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 #

42 wells in 2 named aquifers: Sand and gravel aquifers (glaciated regions), Silurian-Devonian aquifers

Sites found: 42, 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 (0.03)

Σ wᵢ·termᵢ / Σ wᵢ = 0.35×0.00 + 0.2×0.09 / 0.55

Banks & federal dollars #

$750.7 m in deposits at 14 offices of 6 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 2,195, highly concentrated. $302.3 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $275.3 m, grants $26.9 m), $38,034 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 2,195 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 = 30.3² + 29.2² + 12.5² + … (3 more) = 2,195

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 $38,034 per covered job, against 7,949 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $302.3 m / 7,949 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $38,034

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 #

Brown County, OH: 7 findings, 1 at a watch level and 6 noted

1. watchBrown County, OH's covered employment of 7,949 scores 49 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 15 across Ohio counties, a gap of 34 points.

   Period 2026 Q1.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 34 = |49 across US counties - 15 across Ohio counties|

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

2. noteBrown County, OH's average weekly wage was 6.3% 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

   • +6.3 % = 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

3. noteBrown County, OH'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

4. noteBrown County, OH's average weekly wage of $898 ranks 86th of 88 Ohio counties, against a median of $1,081.

   Period 2026 Q1.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 2 on the 0-to-100 scale across 88 Ohio counties that published jobs.avgWeeklyWage

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

5. noteBrown County, OH's average weekly wage of $898 ranks 14th of 15 counties in the Cincinnati metro, against a median of $1,184.

   Period 2026 Q1.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 7 on the 0-to-100 scale across 15 counties in the Cincinnati metro that published jobs.avgWeeklyWage

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

Read all 7 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.