Edgefield County, SC

Home values #

Typical home $283,498 (Aug 2026), +1.1% over one year, +20.2% over five

• 65th pct · 1,059th of 3,063 US counties · median $234,566
• 68th pct · 15th of 46 South Carolina counties · median $218,959
• 83rd pct · 2nd of 7 counties in the Augusta-Richmond County metro · median $246,304

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
• South Carolina counties: not published this period
• counties in the Augusta-Richmond County 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 $1,552 a month on $283,498 at 7.28%, against an average weekly wage worth $4,563 a month: 34.0% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $283,498 × 80% = $226,798, r = 7.28%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-01), n = 360 → $1,552/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $1,053 × 52 / 12 = $4,563) = 34% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $283,498 / ($1,053 × 52) = 5.2

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 #

5,885 jobs at 473 employers (2026 Q1); -3.0% jobs and +1.2% average weekly wage over the year

• 41st pct · 1,884th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 22nd pct · 36th of 46 South Carolina counties · median 18,411
• 16th pct · 6th of 7 counties in the Augusta-Richmond County metro · median 7,442

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 #

14 USGS reservoir gauges, no capacity figures to weight

Sites found: 14, 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 #

102 gauges · 0 flooding · 5 with quality panels averaging 95 % · 58 stale

Sites found: 102, 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 #

41 wells in 0 named aquifers:

Sites found: 41, 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 (0.02)

Σ wᵢ·termᵢ / Σ wᵢ = 0.35×0.00 + 0.2×0.05 / 0.55

Banks & federal dollars #

$166.7 m in deposits at 3 offices of 2 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 7,075, highly concentrated. $240.1 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $218.3 m, contracts $20.3 m), $40,794 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 7,075 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 = 82.2² + 17.8² = 7,075

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 $40,794 per covered job, against 5,885 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $240.1 m / 5,885 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $40,794

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 #

Edgefield County, SC: 10 findings, 1 at an alert level, 2 at a watch level and 7 noted

1. alertEdgefield County, SC's covered employment is -3.0% against a year earlier, an alert level here: covered employment at least 3 percent below the same quarter a year earlier (BLS QCEW over-the-year percent change, as published; 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.emp = -3 <= -3

   BLS QCEW over-the-year percent change, as published; convention chosen for this dashboard, not an official level

2. watchEdgefield County, SC's covered employment is -3.0% 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 = -3 < 0

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

3. watchEdgefield County, SC's momentum index is -0.26, a watch level here: momentum index in the cooling band (the cooling band of the momentum index computed here, score at or below -0.25; 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: momentum = -0.2558247736736923 <= -0.25
   • momentum = Σ wᵢ · clip(changeᵢ / scaleᵢ, −1, 1) / Σ wᵢ over the terms present; weights and scales: home value 1-yr change 0.3 (±10%), rent 1-yr change 0.15 (±10%), jobs over-the-year change 0.3 (±3%), avg weekly wage over-the-year change 0.25 (±6%)

   the cooling band of the momentum index computed here, score at or below -0.25; convention chosen for this dashboard, not an official level

4. noteEdgefield County, SC's covered employment was 3.0% 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

   • -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

5. noteEdgefield County, SC's average weekly wage was 1.2% 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

   • +1.2 % = 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

Read all 10 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.