Franklin County, WA

Home values #

Typical home $416,623 (Aug 2026), +0.4% over one year, +15.5% over five

• 87th pct · 378th of 3,063 US counties · median $234,566
• 42nd pct · 23rd of 39 Washington counties · median $433,836
• counties in the Kennewick-Richland metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 2 counties in the Kennewick-Richland 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 $1,663/mo (Aug 2026), -0.7% over one year; price-to-rent 20.9

• 63rd pct · 510th of 1,399 US counties · median $1,496
• 35th pct · 19th of 29 Washington counties · median $1,767
• counties in the Kennewick-Richland metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 2 counties in the Kennewick-Richland 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 $2,280 a month on $416,623 at 7.28%, against an average weekly wage worth $4,897 a month: 46.6% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $416,623 × 80% = $333,299, r = 7.28%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-01), n = 360 → $2,280/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $1,130 × 52 / 12 = $4,897) = 47% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $416,623 / ($1,130 × 52) = 7.1
• price-to-rent = $416,623 / ($1,663 × 12) = 20.9

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 #

36,520 jobs at 2,395 employers (2026 Q1); +1.1% jobs and +0.9% average weekly wage over the year

• 80th pct · 641st of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 63rd pct · 15th of 39 Washington counties · median 18,771
• counties in the Kennewick-Richland metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 2 counties in the Kennewick-Richland 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 #

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 #

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 #

31 gauges · 0 flooding · 8 with quality panels averaging 98 % · 19 stale

Sites found: 31, 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 #

1 wells in 0 named aquifers:

Sites found: 1, 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 (0.16)

Σ wᵢ·termᵢ / Σ wᵢ = 0.35×0.25 + 0.2×0.02 / 0.55

Banks & federal dollars #

$904.4 m in deposits at 10 offices of 8 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 1,581, moderately concentrated. $398.3 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $365.8 m, grants $23.2 m), $10,907 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 1,581 across 8 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls moderately concentrated.

HHI = Σ (share %)² over 8 banks with deposits in the county = 19.9² + 19.1² + 19.0² + … (5 more) = 1,581

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 $10,907 per covered job, against 36,520 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $398.3 m / 36,520 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $10,907

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 #

Franklin County, WA: 8 findings, 3 at a watch level and 5 noted

1. watchFranklin County, WA's price-to-rent ratio of 20.9 scores 78 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 29 across Washington counties, a gap of 50 points.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 50 = |78 across US counties - 29 across Washington counties|
   • typical home value / (typical rent × 12); Zillow ZHVI over ZORI, same month

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

2. watchFranklin County, WA's typical home value of $416,623 scores 88 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 42 across Washington counties, a gap of 46 points.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 46 = |88 across US counties - 42 across Washington counties|

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

3. watchFranklin County, WA's average weekly wage of $1,130 scores 68 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 34 across Washington counties, a gap of 33 points.

   Period 2026 Q1.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 33 = |68 across US counties - 34 across Washington counties|

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

4. noteFranklin County, WA's covered employment was 1.1% 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

   • +1.1 % = 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

5. noteFranklin County, WA's average weekly wage was 0.9% 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

   • +0.9 % = 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 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.