New Kent County, VA

Home values #

Typical home $449,496 (Aug 2026), +3.8% over one year, +26.4% over five

• 90th pct · 293rd of 3,063 US counties · median $234,566
• 81st pct · 26th of 133 Virginia counties · median $307,999
• 81st pct · 4th of 17 counties in the Richmond metro · median $352,207

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 $1,877/mo (Jul 2026), n/a over one year; price-to-rent 20.0

• 77th pct · 313th of 1,399 US counties · median $1,496
• 56th pct · 35th of 79 Virginia counties · median $1,757
• 70th pct · 4th of 11 counties in the Richmond metro · median $1,801

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 $2,460 a month on $449,496 at 7.28%, against an average weekly wage worth $4,372 a month: 56.3% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $449,496 × 80% = $359,597, r = 7.28%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-01), n = 360 → $2,460/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $1,009 × 52 / 12 = $4,372) = 56% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $449,496 / ($1,009 × 52) = 8.6
• price-to-rent = $449,496 / ($1,877 × 12) = 20.0

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 #

6,317 jobs at 591 employers (2026 Q1); +0.4% jobs and +5.1% average weekly wage over the year

• 43rd pct · 1,820th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 41st pct · 78th of 133 Virginia counties · median 9,944
• 31st pct · 12th of 17 counties in the Richmond metro · median 9,487

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 #

No drought class at this point (USDM covers the United States only)

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 #

No reservoir gauges within 150 km (or the camera is above the gauge altitude)

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 #

46 gauges · 0 flooding · 14 with quality panels averaging 96 % · 11 stale

Sites found: 46, 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 #

147 wells in 0 named aquifers:

Sites found: 147, 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 #

$355.6 m in deposits at 2 offices of 1 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 10,000, highly concentrated. $226.8 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $218.1 m, grants $8.4 m), $35,909 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 10,000 across 1 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls highly concentrated.

HHI = Σ (share %)² over 1 banks with deposits in the county = 100.0² = 10,000

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 $35,909 per covered job, against 6,317 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $226.8 m / 6,317 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $35,909

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 #

New Kent County, VA: 8 findings, 1 at a watch level and 7 noted

1. watchNew Kent County, VA's years of wages of 8.6 ranks 169th of 3,063 US counties, a watch level here: years of wages in the top tenth of US counties (position among the counties that published both a ZHVI value and a QCEW average weekly wage; 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: yearsOfWages percentile = 94.51338994121488 >= 90
   • typical home value / (average weekly wage × 52); one average covered job, not a household

   position among the counties that published both a ZHVI value and a QCEW average weekly wage; not an official level

2. noteNew Kent County, VA's average weekly wage was 5.1% 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

   • +5.1 % = 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. noteNew Kent County, VA's typical home value rose 0.5% from $447,258 in July 2026 to $449,496 in August 2026, on Zillow ZHVI.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • +0.5% = (449496.48923208023 - 447257.8976117228) / 447257.8976117228 × 100
   • 449496.48923208023 = Zillow ZHVI, 2026-08
   • 447257.8976117228 = Zillow ZHVI, 2026-07

4. noteNew Kent County, VA's covered employment was 0.4% 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

   • +0.4 % = 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. notetypical asking rent (rent.latest) and typical asking rent (rent.momPct) for New Kent County, VA could not be lined up against the previous published period this run, so no change is printed for them.

   Show the arithmetic

   • not comparable this run: rent.latest, rent.momPct

   the two newest month columns in the published file are not the two this table carries

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.