Vega Baja Municipio, PR

Home values #

No Zillow home value index for this area

• US counties: not published this period
• Puerto Rico counties: not published this period
• counties in the San Juan-Bayamon-Caguas metro: not published this period

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 #

No rent index for this area

• US counties: not published this period
• Puerto Rico counties: not published this period
• counties in the San Juan-Bayamon-Caguas metro: not published this period

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 #

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 #

8,577 jobs at 569 employers (2026 Q1); -1.7% jobs and +0.6% average weekly wage over the year

• 51st pct · 1,569th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 72nd pct · 22nd of 78 Puerto Rico counties · median 4,800
• 61st pct · 16th of 40 counties in the San Juan-Bayamon-Caguas metro · median 6,531

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 #

255 gauges · 0 flooding · 4 with quality panels averaging 77 % · 59 stale

Sites found: 255, 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 #

130 wells in 2 named aquifers: South Coast aquifer (Puerto Rico), Other aquifers

Sites found: 130, 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 (0.08)

Σ wᵢ·termᵢ / Σ wᵢ = 0.35×0.00 + 0.2×0.23 / 0.55

Banks & federal dollars #

$449.4 m in deposits at 3 offices of 3 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 3,755, highly concentrated. $210.7 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $195.4 m, grants $13.0 m), $24,560 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 3,755 across 3 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls highly concentrated.

HHI = Σ (share %)² over 3 banks with deposits in the county = 42.7² + 40.7² + 16.6² = 3,755

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 $24,560 per covered job, against 8,577 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $210.7 m / 8,577 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $24,560

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 #

Vega Baja Municipio, PR: 7 findings, 3 at a watch level and 4 noted

1. watchVega Baja Municipio, PR's covered employment is -1.7% 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 = -1.7 < 0

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

2. watchVega Baja Municipio, PR's momentum index is -0.26, 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.

   Show the arithmetic

   • test: momentum = -0.2636363636363636 <= -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

3. watchVega Baja Municipio, PR's average weekly wage of $660 scores 2 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 78 across Puerto Rico counties, a gap of 76 points.

   Period 2026 Q1.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 76 = |2 across US counties - 78 across Puerto Rico counties|

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

4. noteVega Baja Municipio, PR's covered employment was 1.7% 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

   • -1.7 % = 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

5. noteVega Baja Municipio, PR's average weekly wage was 0.6% 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

   • +0.6 % = 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 7 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.