Bowie County, TX

Home values #

Typical home $197,356 (Aug 2026), +1.3% over one year, +4.0% over five

• 35th pct · 1,961st of 3,063 US counties · median $234,566
• 42nd pct · 141st of 243 Texas counties · median $215,660
• counties in the Texarkana metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Texarkana metro; fewer than 5 is too few to rank.

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 $1,243/mo (Aug 2026), +1.4% over one year; price-to-rent 13.2

• 25th pct · 1,045th of 1,399 US counties · median $1,496
• 18th pct · 87th of 106 Texas counties · median $1,483
• counties in the Texarkana metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Texarkana metro; fewer than 5 is too few to rank.

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 $1,080 a month on $197,356 at 7.28%, against an average weekly wage worth $4,602 a month: 23.5% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $197,356 × 80% = $157,885, r = 7.28%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-01), n = 360 → $1,080/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $1,062 × 52 / 12 = $4,602) = 23% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $197,356 / ($1,062 × 52) = 3.6
• price-to-rent = $197,356 / ($1,243 × 12) = 13.2

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 #

42,004 jobs at 2,416 employers (2026 Q1); -0.2% jobs and +2.5% average weekly wage over the year

• 81st pct · 584th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 84th pct · 40th of 254 Texas counties · median 6,022
• counties in the Texarkana metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Texarkana metro; fewer than 5 is too few to rank.

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 #

D3 extreme 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 #

85 % of conservation capacity, weighted over 14 TWDB reservoirs

Sites found: 15, 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 #

21 gauges · 0 flooding · 3 with quality panels averaging 92 % · 1 stale

Sites found: 21, 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 #

3 wells in 0 named aquifers:

Sites found: 3, 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 #

moderate (0.38)

Σ wᵢ·termᵢ / Σ wᵢ = 0.35×0.75 + 0.3×0.15 + 0.2×0.08 / 0.85

Banks & federal dollars #

$2.1 bn in deposits at 29 offices of 16 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 1,221, moderately concentrated. $825.0 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $586.8 m, contracts $174.4 m), $19,642 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 1,221 across 16 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls moderately concentrated.

HHI = Σ (share %)² over 16 banks with deposits in the county = 21.6² + 16.0² + 14.9² + … (13 more) = 1,221

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 $19,642 per covered job, against 42,004 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $825.0 m / 42,004 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $19,642

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 #

Bowie County, TX: 8 findings, 3 at a watch level and 5 noted

1. watchBowie County, TX's typical asking rent is -1.5% 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 = -1.525267149127746 <= -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

2. watchBowie County, TX's covered employment is -0.2% 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 = -0.2 < 0

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

3. watchBowie County, TX's typical home value of +1.3% scores 32 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 64 across Texas counties, a gap of 32 points.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 32 = |32 across US counties - 64 across Texas counties|

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

4. noteBowie County, TX's average weekly wage was 2.5% 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

   • +2.5 % = 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. noteBowie County, TX's typical asking rent fell 1.5% from $1,262 in July 2026 to $1,243 in August 2026, on Zillow ZORI.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • -1.5% = (1242.7243589743591 - 1261.9728157641318) / 1261.9728157641318 × 100
   • 1242.7243589743591 = Zillow ZORI, 2026-08
   • 1261.9728157641318 = Zillow ZORI, 2026-07

Read all 8 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.