Wharton County, TX

Home values #

Typical home $249,311 (Aug 2026), +1.8% over one year, +5.2% over five

• 55th pct · 1,369th of 3,063 US counties · median $234,566
• 65th pct · 85th of 243 Texas counties · median $215,660

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 $1,301/mo (Aug 2026), n/a over one year; price-to-rent 16.0

• 30th pct · 966th of 1,399 US counties · median $1,496
• 22nd pct · 82nd of 106 Texas counties · median $1,483

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 $1,365 a month on $249,311 at 7.28%, against an average weekly wage worth $4,424 a month: 30.8% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $249,311 × 80% = $199,449, r = 7.28%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-01), n = 360 → $1,365/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $1,021 × 52 / 12 = $4,424) = 31% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $249,311 / ($1,021 × 52) = 4.7
• price-to-rent = $249,311 / ($1,301 × 12) = 16.0

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 #

15,607 jobs at 1,138 employers (2026 Q1); -4.9% jobs and 0.0% average weekly wage over the year

• 65th pct · 1,108th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 72nd pct · 71st of 254 Texas counties · median 6,022

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 #

D1 moderate 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 #

93 % of conservation capacity, weighted over 6 TWDB reservoirs

Sites found: 10, 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 #

50 gauges · 0 flooding · 6 with quality panels averaging 52 % · 3 stale

Sites found: 50, 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 (0.24)

Σ wᵢ·termᵢ / Σ wᵢ = 0.35×0.25 + 0.3×0.07 + 0.2×0.48 / 0.85

Banks & federal dollars #

$1.7 bn in deposits at 18 offices of 9 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 2,883, highly concentrated. $318.0 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $240.6 m, grants $77.4 m), $20,376 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 2,883 across 9 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls highly concentrated.

HHI = Σ (share %)² over 9 banks with deposits in the county = 46.1² + 20.0² + 16.1² + … (6 more) = 2,883

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 $20,376 per covered job, against 15,607 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $318.0 m / 15,607 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $20,376

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 #

Wharton County, TX: 13 findings, 1 at an alert level, 3 at a watch level and 9 noted

1. alertWharton County, TX's covered employment is -4.9% 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 = -4.9 <= -3

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

2. watchWharton County, TX's covered employment is -4.9% 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 = -4.9 < 0

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

3. watchWharton County, TX's momentum index is -0.29, 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 = -0.2909054343674932 <= -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. watchWharton County, TX's typical home value of +1.8% scores 37 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 68 across Texas counties, a gap of 31 points.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 31 = |37 across US counties - 68 across Texas counties|

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

5. noteWharton County, TX's covered employment was 4.9% 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

   • -4.9 % = 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 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.