District of Columbia, DC

Home values #

Typical home $567,289 (Sep 2026), -0.7% over one year, -9.6% over five

• 95th pct · 134th of 3,063 US counties · median $230,451
• District of Columbia counties: Rank context is unavailable: 1 of District of Columbia counties are in the table, fewer than the 5 a rank needs.
• 54th pct · 11th of 23 counties in the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metro · median $562,284

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 $2,484/mo (Sep 2026), +1.0% over one year; price-to-rent 19.0

• 94th pct · 81st of 1,358 US counties · median $1,506
• District of Columbia counties: Rank context is unavailable: 1 of District of Columbia counties are in the table, fewer than the 5 a rank needs.
• 80th pct · 5th of 22 counties in the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metro · median $2,255

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 $3,142 a month on $567,289 at 7.40%, against an average weekly wage worth $11,808 a month: 26.6% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $567,289 × 80% = $453,831, r = 7.40%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-15), n = 360 → $3,142/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $2,725 × 52 / 12 = $11,808) = 27% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $567,289 / ($2,725 × 52) = 4.0
• price-to-rent = $567,289 / ($2,484 × 12) = 19.0

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 #

715,729 jobs at 51,352 employers (2026 Q1); -4.5% jobs and +4.5% average weekly wage over the year

• 99th pct · 33rd of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• District of Columbia counties: Rank context is unavailable: 1 of District of Columbia counties are in the table, fewer than the 5 a rank needs.
• 100th pct · 1st of 23 counties in the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metro · median 38,075

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 #

1 USGS reservoir gauges, no capacity figures to weight

Sites found: 1, 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 #

300 gauges · 0 flooding · 52 with quality panels averaging 98 % · 63 stale

Sites found: 300, 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 #

62 wells in 0 named aquifers:

Sites found: 62, 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 (0.01)

Σ wᵢ·termᵢ / Σ wᵢ = 0.35×0.00 + 0.2×0.02 / 0.55

Banks & federal dollars #

$55.9 bn in deposits at 178 offices of 34 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 1,416, moderately concentrated. $40.0 bn federal obligations in FY2026 (contracts $33.0 bn, direct payments $4.1 bn), $55,842 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 1,416 across 30 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls moderately concentrated.

HHI = Σ (share %)² over 30 banks with deposits in the county = 26.5² + 19.1² + 13.5² + … (27 more) = 1,416

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 $55,842 per covered job, against 715,729 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $40.0 bn / 715,729 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $55,842

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 #

District of Columbia, DC: 21 findings, 1 at an alert level, 4 at a watch level and 16 noted

1. alertDistrict of Columbia, DC's covered employment is -4.5% against a year earlier, an alert level here: covered employment at least 3 percent below the same quarter a year earlier (BLS QCEW over-the-year percent change, as published; 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 Q1.
   Show the arithmetic

   • test: jobs.yoy.emp = -4.5 <= -3

   BLS QCEW over-the-year percent change, as published; convention chosen for this dashboard, not an official level

2. watchDistrict of Columbia, DC's covered employment is -4.5% 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 = -4.5 < 0

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

3. watchDistrict of Columbia, DC's typical home value is -0.7% against a year earlier, a watch level here: typical home value below a year ago (arithmetic on Zillow ZHVI, county and metro files; not an official level). The previous published period is not in this table, so this is a standing level rather than a change.

   Period 2026-09.
   Show the arithmetic

   • test: home.yoyPct = -0.7151946556552886 < 0

   arithmetic on Zillow ZHVI, county and metro files; not an official level

4. watchDistrict of Columbia, DC's years of wages of 4.0 scores 46 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 0 across counties in the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metro, a gap of 46 points.

   Period 2026-09.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 46 = |46 across US counties - 0 across counties in the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metro|
   • 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

5. watchDistrict of Columbia, DC's typical home value of $567,289 scores 96 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 55 across counties in the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metro, a gap of 41 points.

   Period 2026-09.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 41 = |96 across US counties - 55 across counties in the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metro|

   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.