Cherokee County, OK
Housing, jobs, water, deposits and federal obligations for this county, each figure with the release it came from. Internal point 35.90, -95.00.
Assembled 2026-10-07. Read the brief.
- 42nd pct · 1,770th of 3,063 US counties · median $234,566
- 77th pct · 18th of 77 Oklahoma counties · median $169,041
- 93rd pct · 205th of 3,063 US counties · median +2.9%
- 97th pct · 3rd of 77 Oklahoma counties · median +4.0%
- 14th pct · 1,202nd of 1,399 US counties · median $1,496
- 23rd pct · 21st of 27 Oklahoma counties · median $1,304
- 69th pct · 977th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
- 80th pct · 16th of 77 Oklahoma counties · median 7,282
- 33rd pct · 2,137th of 3,221 US counties · median $1,039
- 47th pct · 41st of 77 Oklahoma counties · median $968
- 49th pct · 1,541st of 3,063 US counties · median 4.3
- 84th pct · 13th of 77 Oklahoma counties · median 3.4
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 $214,941 (Aug 2026), +8.9% over one year, +31.3% over five
- 42nd pct · 1,770th of 3,063 US counties · median $234,566
- 77th pct · 18th of 77 Oklahoma counties · median $169,041
| Item | Value | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Cherokee County, OK | $214,941 · +8.9% 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 #
Typical rent $1,086/mo (Aug 2026), +5.0% over one year; price-to-rent 16.5
- 14th pct · 1,202nd of 1,399 US counties · median $1,496
- 23rd pct · 21st of 27 Oklahoma counties · median $1,304
| Item | Value | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Cherokee County, OK | $1,086/mo · +5.0% 1-yr |
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 $1,177 a month on $214,941 at 7.28%, against an average weekly wage worth $4,186 a month: 28.1% of one job’s pay.
- payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $214,941 × 80% = $171,953, r = 7.28%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-01), n = 360 → $1,177/mo principal and interest
- wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $966 × 52 / 12 = $4,186) = 28% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
- years of wages = $214,941 / ($966 × 52) = 4.3
- price-to-rent = $214,941 / ($1,086 × 12) = 16.5
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 #
18,705 jobs at 955 employers (2026 Q1); +2.3% jobs and +4.4% average weekly wage over the year
- 69th pct · 977th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
- 80th pct · 16th of 77 Oklahoma counties · median 7,282
| Item | Value | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Cherokee County, OK | 18,705 jobs · $966/wk · +2.3% YoY |
| NAICS sector | Jobs | Avg weekly wage | Location quotient | Jobs over the year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retail trade | 1,673 | $634 | 0.92 | +0.7% |
| Accommodation and food services | 1,530 | $353 | 0.91 | -0.2% |
| Health care and social assistance | 1,245 | $834 | 0.44 | -1.6% |
| Agriculture, forestry, fishing | 590 | $777 | 4.37 | -8.7% |
| Construction | 464 | $1,187 | 0.47 | -12.8% |
| Finance and insurance | 348 | $1,333 | 0.46 | -0.3% |
| Real estate and rental | 325 | $763 | 1.13 | +3.8% |
| Manufacturing | 302 | $912 | 0.20 | +7.9% |
| Professional and technical services | 210 | $1,146 | 0.16 | +0.0% |
| Other services | 187 | $621 | 0.33 | +2.7% |
| Educational services | 143 | $745 | 0.36 | -5.3% |
| Wholesale trade | 139 | $1,026 | 0.19 | +32.4% |
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 #
D2 severe 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 #
high (0.50)
Σ wᵢ·termᵢ / Σ wᵢ = 0.35×0.50 / 0.35
Banks & federal dollars #
$974.5 m in deposits at 12 offices of 6 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 2,372, highly concentrated. $271.1 m federal obligations in FY2026 (grants $196.9 m, contracts $74.0 m), $14,493 per covered job
| Item | Value | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Local Bank | $324.8 m · 33.3% share · 3 offices | |
| Armstrong Bank | $258.2 m · 26.5% share · 2 offices | |
| BancFirst | $172.3 m · 17.7% share · 2 offices | |
| Cherokee, OK | $271.1 m FY2026 · $14,493/job | |
| MULTIPLE RECIPIENTS | $287.9 m · top recipient FY2026 |
| Institution | Deposits | Share | Offices |
|---|---|---|---|
| Local Bank | $324,836,000 | 33.3% | 3 |
| Armstrong Bank | $258,188,000 | 26.5% | 2 |
| BancFirst | $172,275,000 | 17.7% | 2 |
| Arvest Bank | $133,417,000 | 13.7% | 2 |
| First State Bank | $74,084,000 | 7.6% | 2 |
| Carson Community Bank | $11,710,000 | 1.2% | 1 |
Deposit concentration is 2,372 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 = 33.3² + 26.5² + 17.7² + … (3 more) = 2,372
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 | $229,365,973 |
| Department of Transportation | $73,102,001 |
| Department of Defense | $64,498,408 |
| Department of Housing and Urban Development | $58,990,681 |
| Department of Health and Human Services | $49,721,146 |
| Department of Veterans Affairs | $45,699,647 |
| Department of Education | $26,892,866 |
| Department of Agriculture | $19,253,311 |
| Department of the Interior | $10,256,197 |
| Department of Labor | $9,934,751 |
| Department of Justice | $3,599,268 |
| National Science Foundation | $1,746,123 |
That is $14,493 per covered job, against 18,705 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.
per job = FY2026 obligations $271.1 m / 18,705 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $14,493
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 | 3.00 | 2026-10-06 | -50.0% |
| Shanghai to Los Angeles container rate · $ per 40 ft box | 7,848.00 | 2026-09-01 | +14.9% |
| 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 #
Cherokee County, OK: 16 findings, 5 at a watch level and 11 noted
watchCherokee County, OK's typical asking rent is -3.4% 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 = -3.3855323653847984 <= -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
watchCherokee County, OK's typical asking rent fell 3.4% from $1,124 in July 2026 to $1,086 in August 2026, on Zillow ZORI.
Period 2026-08.Show the arithmetic
- -3.4% = (1086.111111111111 - 1124.1702590740947) / 1124.1702590740947 × 100
- 1086.111111111111 = Zillow ZORI, 2026-08
- 1124.1702590740947 = Zillow ZORI, 2026-07
watchCherokee County, OK's price-to-rent ratio of 16.5 scores 44 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 92 across Oklahoma counties, a gap of 49 points.
Period 2026-08.Show the arithmetic
- 49 = |44 across US counties - 92 across Oklahoma counties|
- typical home value / (typical rent × 12); Zillow ZHVI over ZORI, same month
position among the entities that published this metric this period; not an official level
watchCherokee County, OK's typical home value of $214,941 scores 42 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 78 across Oklahoma counties, a gap of 35 points.
Period 2026-08.Show the arithmetic
- 35 = |42 across US counties - 78 across Oklahoma counties|
position among the entities that published this metric this period; not an official level
watchCherokee County, OK's years of wages of 4.3 scores 50 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 84 across Oklahoma counties, a gap of 35 points.
Period 2026-08.Show the arithmetic
- 35 = |50 across US counties - 84 across Oklahoma counties|
- typical home value / (average weekly wage × 52); one average covered job, not a household
position among the entities that published this metric this period; not an official level
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.