Rhea County, TN

Home values #

Typical home $264,794 (Aug 2026), +4.1% over one year, +25.7% over five

• 60th pct · 1,216th of 3,063 US counties · median $234,566
• 56th pct · 42nd of 95 Tennessee counties · median $259,021

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 $1,083/mo (Aug 2026), n/a over one year; price-to-rent 20.4

• 13th pct · 1,206th of 1,399 US counties · median $1,496
• 10th pct · 41st of 46 Tennessee counties · median $1,490

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 $1,449 a month on $264,794 at 7.28%, against an average weekly wage worth $4,567 a month: 31.7% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $264,794 × 80% = $211,836, r = 7.28%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-01), n = 360 → $1,449/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $1,054 × 52 / 12 = $4,567) = 32% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $264,794 / ($1,054 × 52) = 4.8
• price-to-rent = $264,794 / ($1,083 × 12) = 20.4

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 #

12,114 jobs at 617 employers (2026 Q1); -1.8% jobs and +3.1% average weekly wage over the year

• 59th pct · 1,315th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 61st pct · 37th of 95 Tennessee counties · median 8,576

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 #

2 USGS reservoir gauges, no capacity figures to weight

Sites found: 2, 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 #

58 gauges · 0 flooding · 5 with quality panels averaging 96 % · 25 stale

Sites found: 58, 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 #

8 wells in 0 named aquifers:

Sites found: 8, 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 (0.01)

Σ wᵢ·termᵢ / Σ wᵢ = 0.35×0.00 + 0.2×0.04 / 0.55

Banks & federal dollars #

$667.8 m in deposits at 8 offices of 5 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 2,624, highly concentrated. $231.3 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $229.1 m, grants $2.0 m), $19,096 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 2,624 across 5 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls highly concentrated.

HHI = Σ (share %)² over 5 banks with deposits in the county = 34.9² + 31.5² + 14.4² + … (2 more) = 2,624

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 $19,096 per covered job, against 12,114 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $231.3 m / 12,114 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $19,096

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 #

Rhea County, TN: 7 findings, 1 at a watch level and 6 noted

1. watchRhea County, TN's covered employment is -1.8% 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 = -1.8 < 0

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

2. noteRhea County, TN's average weekly wage was 3.1% 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

   • +3.1 % = 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. noteRhea County, TN's covered employment was 1.8% 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

   • -1.8 % = 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. noteRhea County, TN's typical asking rent rose 0.4% from $1,079 in July 2026 to $1,083 in August 2026, on Zillow ZORI.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • +0.4% = (1083.3333333333333 - 1078.6873714666694) / 1078.6873714666694 × 100
   • 1083.3333333333333 = Zillow ZORI, 2026-08
   • 1078.6873714666694 = Zillow ZORI, 2026-07

5. noteRhea County, TN's typical asking rent of $1,083 ranks 41st of 46 Tennessee counties, against a median of $1,490.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 10 on the 0-to-100 scale across 46 Tennessee counties that published rent.latest

   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.