Benton County, AR

Home values #

Typical home $382,880 (Sep 2026), +1.8% over one year, +35.8% over five

• 83rd pct · 491st of 3,063 US counties · median $230,451
• 100th pct · 1st of 74 Arkansas counties · median $165,493
• counties in the Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers 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 $1,607/mo (Sep 2026), +1.2% over one year; price-to-rent 19.8

• 58th pct · 561st of 1,358 US counties · median $1,506
• 100th pct · 1st of 18 Arkansas counties · median $1,178
• counties in the Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers 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 $2,121 a month on $382,880 at 7.40%, against an average weekly wage worth $10,786 a month: 19.7% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $382,880 × 80% = $306,304, r = 7.40%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-15), n = 360 → $2,121/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $2,489 × 52 / 12 = $10,786) = 20% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $382,880 / ($2,489 × 52) = 3.0
• price-to-rent = $382,880 / ($1,607 × 12) = 19.8

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 #

151,933 jobs at 9,448 employers (2026 Q1); +1.9% jobs and +8.9% average weekly wage over the year

• 93rd pct · 214th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 98th pct · 2nd of 75 Arkansas counties · median 5,609
• counties in the Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers 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 #

D4 exceptional 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 #

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 #

73 gauges · 0 flooding · 15 with quality panels averaging 98 % · 20 stale

Sites found: 73, 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 #

23 wells in 1 named aquifer: Ozark Plateaus aquifer system

Sites found: 23, 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 #

high (0.64)

Σ wᵢ·termᵢ / Σ wᵢ = 0.35×1.00 + 0.2×0.02 / 0.55

Banks & federal dollars #

$10.7 bn in deposits at 107 offices of 34 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 2,885, highly concentrated. $1.6 bn federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $1.5 bn, grants $161.9 m), $10,661 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 2,885 across 34 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls highly concentrated.

HHI = Σ (share %)² over 34 banks with deposits in the county = 52.3² + 5.4² + 5.1² + … (31 more) = 2,885

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 $10,661 per covered job, against 151,933 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $1.6 bn / 151,933 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $10,661

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.

Public companies #

1 public company files with the SEC from a business address here (Walmart Inc.). These rows are a committed fixture, not a pull: the snapshot has never been refreshed, so every financial fact is null and the list is not a complete census of filers in this county. The county's jobs mix maps to 7 GICS sectors, led by Industrials.

This is a committed fixture, not a pull: 1 filers are named and their financial facts are empty until the snapshot is refreshed. An absent company is not evidence that none is headquartered here.

Public filers whose registered business address with the SEC falls in this county, from a committed snapshot of EDGAR's company_tickers_exchange file. A position is the centroid of the address's ZIP code (Census ZCTA) or, where the snapshot says so, of its city: it is not a building. Legal entities only - no officer, insider or shareholder data is read, and Forms 3, 4 and 5 are excluded everywhere. Sector exposure is the county's BLS QCEW jobs mix bridged to GICS sectors by a convention documented in lib/companies/sectors.ts; a jobs mix is not a portfolio.

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 #

Benton County, AR: 13 findings, 1 at a watch level and 12 noted

1. watchBenton County, AR's typical asking rent of $1,607 scores 59 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 100 across Arkansas counties, a gap of 41 points.

   Period 2026-09.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 41 = |59 across US counties - 100 across Arkansas counties|

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

2. noteBenton County, AR's average weekly wage was 8.9% 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

   • +8.9 % = 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

3. noteBenton County, AR's covered employment was 1.9% 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

   • +1.9 % = 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

4. noteBenton County, AR's typical home value of $382,880 ranks 1st of 74 Arkansas counties, against a median of $165,493.

   Period 2026-09.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 100 on the 0-to-100 scale across 74 Arkansas counties that published home.latest

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

5. noteBenton County, AR's average weekly wage of $2,489 ranks 1st of 75 Arkansas counties, against a median of $912.

   Period 2026 Q1.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 100 on the 0-to-100 scale across 75 Arkansas counties that published jobs.avgWeeklyWage

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

Read all 12 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.