Cowlitz County, WA

Home values #

Typical home $418,072 (Aug 2026), +0.2% over one year, +10.7% over five

• 87th pct · 371st of 3,063 US counties · median $234,566
• 44th pct · 22nd of 39 Washington counties · median $433,836
• counties in the Longview-Kelso metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 1 counties in the Longview-Kelso 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 $1,443/mo (Aug 2026), +0.6% over one year; price-to-rent 24.1

• 44th pct · 771st of 1,399 US counties · median $1,496
• 7th pct · 27th of 29 Washington counties · median $1,767
• counties in the Longview-Kelso metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 1 counties in the Longview-Kelso 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 $2,288 a month on $418,072 at 7.28%, against an average weekly wage worth $5,971 a month: 38.3% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $418,072 × 80% = $334,457, r = 7.28%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-01), n = 360 → $2,288/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $1,378 × 52 / 12 = $5,971) = 38% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $418,072 / ($1,378 × 52) = 5.8
• price-to-rent = $418,072 / ($1,443 × 12) = 24.1

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 #

40,775 jobs at 2,701 employers (2026 Q1); -0.7% jobs and +3.7% average weekly wage over the year

• 81st pct · 598th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 65th pct · 14th of 39 Washington counties · median 18,771
• counties in the Longview-Kelso metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 1 counties in the Longview-Kelso 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 #

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 #

4 USGS reservoir gauges, no capacity figures to weight

Sites found: 4, 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 #

96 gauges · 0 flooding · 31 with quality panels averaging 100 % · 36 stale

Sites found: 96, 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 #

2 wells in 0 named aquifers:

Sites found: 2, 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 + 0.2×0.00 / 0.55

Banks & federal dollars #

$956.8 m in deposits at 8 offices of 6 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 2,019, highly concentrated. $951.2 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $806.0 m, contracts $103.4 m), $23,327 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 2,019 across 6 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls highly concentrated.

HHI = Σ (share %)² over 6 banks with deposits in the county = 30.3² + 19.3² + 16.5² + … (3 more) = 2,019

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 $23,327 per covered job, against 40,775 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $951.2 m / 40,775 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $23,327

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 #

Cowlitz County, WA: 11 findings, 5 at a watch level and 6 noted

1. watchCowlitz County, WA's price-to-rent ratio of 24.1 ranks 116th of 1,399 US counties, a watch level here: price-to-rent in the top tenth of US counties (position among the counties that published both ZHVI and ZORI this month; 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: priceToRent percentile = 91.77396280400572 >= 90
   • typical home value / (typical rent × 12); Zillow ZHVI over ZORI, same month

   position among the counties that published both ZHVI and ZORI this month; not an official level

2. watchCowlitz County, WA's covered employment is -0.7% 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 = -0.7 < 0

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

3. watchCowlitz County, WA's years of wages of 5.8 scores 77 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 26 across Washington counties, a gap of 51 points.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 51 = |77 across US counties - 26 across Washington counties|
   • typical home value / (average weekly wage × 52); one average covered job, not a household

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

4. watchCowlitz County, WA's typical home value of $418,072 scores 88 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 45 across Washington counties, a gap of 43 points.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 43 = |88 across US counties - 45 across Washington counties|

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

5. watchCowlitz County, WA's typical asking rent of $1,443 scores 45 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 7 across Washington counties, a gap of 38 points.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 38 = |45 across US counties - 7 across Washington counties|

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

Read all 11 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.