Eau Claire County, WI

Home values #

Typical home $322,405 (Aug 2026), +2.6% over one year, +24.8% over five

• 74th pct · 784th of 3,063 US counties · median $234,566
• 64th pct · 26th of 72 Wisconsin counties · median $298,900
• counties in the Eau Claire metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 2 counties in the Eau Claire 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 $1,084/mo (Aug 2026), +0.4% over one year; price-to-rent 24.8

• 13th pct · 1,205th of 1,399 US counties · median $1,496
• 16th pct · 32nd of 38 Wisconsin counties · median $1,216
• counties in the Eau Claire metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 2 counties in the Eau Claire 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 $1,765 a month on $322,405 at 7.28%, against an average weekly wage worth $5,395 a month: 32.7% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $322,405 × 80% = $257,924, r = 7.28%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-01), n = 360 → $1,765/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $1,245 × 52 / 12 = $5,395) = 33% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $322,405 / ($1,245 × 52) = 5.0
• price-to-rent = $322,405 / ($1,084 × 12) = 24.8

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 #

57,281 jobs at 3,430 employers (2026 Q1); -1.8% jobs and +8.7% average weekly wage over the year

• 85th pct · 464th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 83rd pct · 13th of 72 Wisconsin counties · median 15,405
• counties in the Eau Claire metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 2 counties in the Eau Claire 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 #

D2 severe 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 #

42 gauges · 0 flooding · 3 with quality panels averaging 100 % · 14 stale

Sites found: 42, 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 #

5 wells in 0 named aquifers:

Sites found: 5, 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 #

moderate (0.32)

Σ wᵢ·termᵢ / Σ wᵢ = 0.35×0.50 + 0.2×0.00 / 0.55

Banks & federal dollars #

$2.4 bn in deposits at 24 offices of 16 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 1,084, moderately concentrated. $637.0 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $609.7 m, grants $26.1 m), $11,121 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 1,084 across 16 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls moderately concentrated.

HHI = Σ (share %)² over 16 banks with deposits in the county = 17.1² + 15.7² + 13.9² + … (13 more) = 1,084

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 $11,121 per covered job, against 57,281 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $637.0 m / 57,281 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $11,121

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 #

Eau Claire County, WI: 11 findings, 4 at a watch level and 7 noted

1. watchEau Claire County, WI's price-to-rent ratio of 24.8 ranks 92nd 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 = 93.49070100143062 >= 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. watchEau Claire County, WI's covered employment is -1.8% 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 = -1.8 < 0

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

3. watchEau Claire County, WI's typical asking rent is -1.2% against the previous month, a watch level here: typical asking rent at least 1 percent below the previous month (arithmetic on the Zillow ZORI month columns; 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: rent.momPct = -1.2176751617374613 <= -1
   • month-over-month percent change = (newest month − previous month) / |previous month| × 100, from Zillow's own published month columns

   arithmetic on the Zillow ZORI month columns; convention chosen for this dashboard, not an official level

4. watchEau Claire County, WI's typical home value of +2.6% scores 46 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 6 across Wisconsin counties, a gap of 40 points.

   Period 2026-08.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 40 = |46 across US counties - 6 across Wisconsin counties|

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

5. noteEau Claire County, WI's average weekly wage was 8.7% 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

   • +8.7 % = 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 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.