Isle of Wight County, VA

Home values #

Typical home $388,414 (Aug 2026), +2.7% over one year, +15.3% over five

• 84th pct · 474th of 3,063 US counties · median $234,566
• 71st pct · 38th of 133 Virginia counties · median $307,999
• 47th pct · 10th of 18 counties in the Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk metro · median $389,478

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 $2,142/mo (Aug 2026), n/a over one year; price-to-rent 15.1

• 88th pct · 160th of 1,399 US counties · median $1,496
• 83rd pct · 14th of 79 Virginia counties · median $1,757
• 83rd pct · 3rd of 13 counties in the Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk metro · median $2,064

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 $2,126 a month on $388,414 at 7.28%, against an average weekly wage worth $7,072 a month: 30.1% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $388,414 × 80% = $310,731, r = 7.28%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-01), n = 360 → $2,126/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $1,632 × 52 / 12 = $7,072) = 30% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $388,414 / ($1,632 × 52) = 4.6
• price-to-rent = $388,414 / ($2,142 × 12) = 15.1

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 #

9,480 jobs at 929 employers (2026 Q1); -3.6% jobs and -1.7% average weekly wage over the year

• 53rd pct · 1,495th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 48th pct · 69th of 133 Virginia counties · median 9,944
• 35th pct · 12th of 18 counties in the Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk metro · median 18,007

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: 0, 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 #

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 (0.00)

Σ wᵢ·termᵢ / Σ wᵢ = 0.35×0.00 / 0.35

Banks & federal dollars #

$515.2 m in deposits at 5 offices of 4 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 5,014, highly concentrated. $349.0 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $346.9 m, contracts $1.0 m), $36,811 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 5,014 across 4 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls highly concentrated.

HHI = Σ (share %)² over 4 banks with deposits in the county = 67.6² + 15.2² + 14.4² + … (1 more) = 5,014

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 $36,811 per covered job, against 9,480 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $349.0 m / 9,480 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $36,811

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 #

Isle of Wight County, VA: 15 findings, 1 at an alert level, 3 at a watch level and 11 noted

1. alertIsle of Wight County, VA's covered employment is -3.6% 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 = -3.6 <= -3

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

2. watchIsle of Wight County, VA's covered employment is -3.6% 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 = -3.6 < 0

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

3. watchIsle of Wight County, VA's average weekly wage is -1.7% against a year earlier, a watch level here: average weekly wage below the same quarter a year earlier, before inflation (BLS QCEW over-the-year percent change, as published, nominal dollars; 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.avgWeeklyWage = -1.7 < 0

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

4. watchIsle of Wight County, VA's momentum index is -0.34, 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 = -0.34037360503421005 <= -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

5. noteIsle of Wight County, VA's covered employment was 3.6% 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

   • -3.6 % = 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.