Orange County, TX
Housing, jobs, water, deposits and federal obligations for this county, each figure with the release it came from. Internal point 30.12, -93.89.
Assembled 2026-10-06. Read the brief.
- 33rd pct · 2,033rd of 3,063 US counties · median $234,566
- 40th pct · 146th of 243 Texas counties · median $215,660
- counties in the Beaumont-Port Arthur metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Beaumont-Port Arthur metro; fewer than 5 is too few to rank.
- 50th pct · 1,526th of 3,063 US counties · median +2.9%
- 75th pct · 61st of 243 Texas counties · median +0.0%
- counties in the Beaumont-Port Arthur metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Beaumont-Port Arthur metro; fewer than 5 is too few to rank.
- 22nd pct · 1,088th of 1,399 US counties · median $1,496
- 14th pct · 91st of 106 Texas counties · median $1,483
- counties in the Beaumont-Port Arthur metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Beaumont-Port Arthur metro; fewer than 5 is too few to rank.
- 75th pct · 805th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
- 81st pct · 47th of 254 Texas counties · median 6,022
- counties in the Beaumont-Port Arthur metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Beaumont-Port Arthur metro; fewer than 5 is too few to rank.
- 87th pct · 415th of 3,221 US counties · median $1,039
- 78th pct · 55th of 254 Texas counties · median $1,115
- counties in the Beaumont-Port Arthur metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Beaumont-Port Arthur metro; fewer than 5 is too few to rank.
- 14th pct · 2,605th of 3,063 US counties · median 4.3
- 30th pct · 170th of 243 Texas counties · median 3.6
- counties in the Beaumont-Port Arthur metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Beaumont-Port Arthur metro; fewer than 5 is too few to rank.
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 $192,405 (Aug 2026), +2.9% over one year, -1.8% over five
- 33rd pct · 2,033rd of 3,063 US counties · median $234,566
- 40th pct · 146th of 243 Texas counties · median $215,660
- counties in the Beaumont-Port Arthur metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Beaumont-Port Arthur metro; fewer than 5 is too few to rank.
| Item | Value | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Orange County, TX | $192,405 · +2.9% 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 $1,199/mo (Aug 2026), +0.6% over one year; price-to-rent 13.4
- 22nd pct · 1,088th of 1,399 US counties · median $1,496
- 14th pct · 91st of 106 Texas counties · median $1,483
- counties in the Beaumont-Port Arthur metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Beaumont-Port Arthur metro; fewer than 5 is too few to rank.
| Item | Value | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Orange County, TX | $1,199/mo · +0.6% 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 $1,053 a month on $192,405 at 7.28%, against an average weekly wage worth $5,807 a month: 18.1% of one job’s pay.
- payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $192,405 × 80% = $153,924, r = 7.28%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-01), n = 360 → $1,053/mo principal and interest
- wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $1,340 × 52 / 12 = $5,807) = 18% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
- years of wages = $192,405 / ($1,340 × 52) = 2.8
- price-to-rent = $192,405 / ($1,199 × 12) = 13.4
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 #
24,844 jobs at 1,445 employers (2026 Q1); -1.3% jobs and +2.1% average weekly wage over the year
- 75th pct · 805th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
- 81st pct · 47th of 254 Texas counties · median 6,022
- counties in the Beaumont-Port Arthur metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Beaumont-Port Arthur metro; fewer than 5 is too few to rank.
| Item | Value | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Orange County, TX | 24,844 jobs · $1,340/wk · -1.3% YoY |
| NAICS sector | Jobs | Avg weekly wage | Location quotient | Jobs over the year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manufacturing | 4,377 | $2,534 | 2.19 | -10.9% |
| Retail trade | 3,450 | $752 | 1.42 | +2.5% |
| Construction | 2,898 | $1,551 | 2.23 | +12.6% |
| Accommodation and food services | 2,297 | $402 | 1.03 | -6.9% |
| Health care and social assistance | 1,504 | $731 | 0.40 | -2.0% |
| Professional and technical services | 1,356 | $1,653 | 0.79 | -11.2% |
| Transportation and warehousing | 974 | $1,604 | 0.93 | +34.2% |
| Other services | 748 | $1,074 | 1.01 | -10.2% |
| Administrative and waste services | 678 | $1,185 | 0.48 | +1.3% |
| Finance and insurance | 585 | $1,332 | 0.58 | +7.5% |
| Wholesale trade | 531 | $1,889 | 0.56 | -6.8% |
| Real estate and rental | 289 | $1,174 | 0.76 | +18.0% |
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 #
Surface water layer not loaded
Sites found: 5, 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.
| Site | Reading | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| B. A. Steinhagen Lake | 96 % full · 69k ac-ft | 80 km |
| Sam Rayburn Reservoir | 64 % full · 2,857k ac-ft | 106 km |
| Livingston Reservoir | 90 % full · 1,604k ac-ft | 121 km |
| Lake Houston | 100 % full · 132k ac-ft | 122 km |
| Toledo Bend Reservoir | 86 % full · 2,236k ac-ft | 123 km |
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 #
low (0.10)
Σ wᵢ·termᵢ / Σ wᵢ = 0.35×0.00 + 0.3×0.22 / 0.65
Banks & federal dollars #
$1.2 bn in deposits at 13 offices of 8 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 2,962, highly concentrated. $518.0 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $504.4 m, grants $10.3 m), $20,850 per covered job
| Item | Value | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| First Financial Bank | $591.9 m · 49.3% share · 3 offices | |
| Bridge City State Bank | $196.0 m · 16.3% share · 2 offices | |
| Wells Fargo Bank, National Association | $138.6 m · 11.5% share · 1 office | |
| Orange, TX | $518.0 m FY2026 · $20,850/job |
| Institution | Deposits | Share | Offices |
|---|---|---|---|
| First Financial Bank | $591,862,000 | 49.3% | 3 |
| Bridge City State Bank | $195,992,000 | 16.3% | 2 |
| Wells Fargo Bank, National Association | $138,554,000 | 11.5% | 1 |
| First State Bank of Texas | $81,457,000 | 6.8% | 2 |
| Stellar Bank | $67,819,000 | 5.7% | 2 |
| JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association | $67,135,000 | 5.6% | 1 |
| PNC Bank, National Association | $54,621,000 | 4.6% | 1 |
| First National Bank Texas | $2,757,000 | 0.2% | 1 |
Deposit concentration is 2,962 across 8 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls highly concentrated.
HHI = Σ (share %)² over 8 banks with deposits in the county = 49.3² + 16.3² + 11.5² + … (5 more) = 2,962
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 #
That is $20,850 per covered job, against 24,844 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.
per job = FY2026 obligations $518.0 m / 24,844 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $20,850
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 | 6.00 | 2026-09-22 | -14.3% |
| Shanghai to Los Angeles container rate · $ per 40 ft box | 6,830.00 | 2026-08-01 | +7.4% |
| 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 #
Orange County, TX: 8 findings, 2 at a watch level and 6 noted
watchOrange County, TX's covered employment is -1.3% 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 = -1.3 < 0
BLS QCEW over-the-year percent change, as published; not an official level
watchOrange County, TX's typical asking rent is -2.2% 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 = -2.2190351426637847 <= -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
noteOrange County, TX's typical asking rent fell 2.2% from $1,226 in July 2026 to $1,199 in August 2026, on Zillow ZORI.
Period 2026-08.Show the arithmetic
- -2.2% = (1198.8240740740741 - 1226.0301131443887) / 1226.0301131443887 × 100
- 1198.8240740740741 = Zillow ZORI, 2026-08
- 1226.0301131443887 = Zillow ZORI, 2026-07
noteOrange County, TX's average weekly wage was 2.1% 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
- +2.1 % = 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
noteOrange County, TX's covered employment was 1.3% 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
- -1.3 % = 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
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.