Columbia County, OR

Home values #

Typical home $447,641 (Aug 2026), -0.6% over one year, +8.5% over five

• 90th pct · 299th of 3,063 US counties · median $234,566
• 60th pct · 15th of 36 Oregon counties · median $432,775
• 0th pct · 7th of 7 counties in the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro metro · median $544,824

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 $1,684/mo (Aug 2026), +6.7% over one year; price-to-rent 22.1

• 65th pct · 487th of 1,399 US counties · median $1,496
• 37th pct · 16th of 25 Oregon counties · median $1,753
• 0th pct · 6th of 6 counties in the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro metro · median $1,903

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 $2,450 a month on $447,641 at 7.28%, against an average weekly wage worth $4,611 a month: 53.1% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $447,641 × 80% = $358,113, r = 7.28%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-01), n = 360 → $2,450/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $1,064 × 52 / 12 = $4,611) = 53% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $447,641 / ($1,064 × 52) = 8.1
• price-to-rent = $447,641 / ($1,684 × 12) = 22.1

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 #

12,128 jobs at 1,345 employers (2026 Q1); -1.1% jobs and -0.3% average weekly wage over the year

• 59th pct · 1,313th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 42nd pct · 21st of 36 Oregon counties · median 15,683
• 16th pct · 6th of 7 counties in the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro metro · median 173,559

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 #

158 gauges · 0 flooding · 93 with quality panels averaging 100 % · 77 stale

Sites found: 158, 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 #

12 wells in 0 named aquifers:

Sites found: 12, 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 #

$394.6 m in deposits at 5 offices of 4 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 3,458, highly concentrated. $383.6 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $371.9 m, grants $8.6 m), $31,625 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 3,458 across 4 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls highly concentrated.

HHI = Σ (share %)² over 4 banks with deposits in the county = 48.8² + 26.8² + 17.7² + … (1 more) = 3,458

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 $31,625 per covered job, against 12,128 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $383.6 m / 12,128 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $31,625

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 #

Columbia County, OR: 14 findings, 6 at a watch level and 8 noted

1. watchColumbia County, OR's years of wages of 8.1 ranks 210th of 3,063 US counties, a watch level here: years of wages in the top tenth of US counties (position among the counties that published both a ZHVI value and a QCEW average weekly wage; 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: yearsOfWages percentile = 93.17439581972567 >= 90
   • typical home value / (average weekly wage × 52); one average covered job, not a household

   position among the counties that published both a ZHVI value and a QCEW average weekly wage; not an official level

2. watchColumbia County, OR's covered employment is -1.1% 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 = -1.1 < 0

   BLS QCEW over-the-year percent change, as published; not an official level

3. watchColumbia County, OR's typical home value is -0.6% against a year earlier, a watch level here: typical home value below a year ago (arithmetic on Zillow ZHVI, county and metro files; 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: home.yoyPct = -0.5911756578155072 < 0

   arithmetic on Zillow ZHVI, county and metro files; not an official level

4. watchColumbia County, OR's typical asking rent is -1.4% 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 = -1.4173641828847272 <= -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

5. watchColumbia County, OR's average weekly wage is -0.3% against a year earlier, a watch level here: average weekly wage below the same quarter a year earlier, before inflation (BLS QCEW over-the-year percent change, as published, nominal dollars; 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 Q1.
   Show the arithmetic

   • test: jobs.yoy.avgWeeklyWage = -0.3 < 0

   BLS QCEW over-the-year percent change, as published, nominal dollars; convention chosen for this dashboard, 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.