Decatur County, GA

Home values #

Typical home $169,821 (Sep 2026), +4.8% over one year, +20.4% over five

• 24th pct · 2,305th of 3,063 US counties · median $230,451
• 29th pct · 113th of 159 Georgia counties · median $215,610

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 $1,263/mo (Sep 2026), n/a over one year; price-to-rent 11.2

• 26th pct · 999th of 1,358 US counties · median $1,506
• 8th pct · 63rd of 69 Georgia counties · median $1,701

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 $941 a month on $169,821 at 7.40%, against an average weekly wage worth $3,969 a month: 23.7% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $169,821 × 80% = $135,857, r = 7.40%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-15), n = 360 → $941/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $916 × 52 / 12 = $3,969) = 24% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $169,821 / ($916 × 52) = 3.6
• price-to-rent = $169,821 / ($1,263 × 12) = 11.2

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 #

8,605 jobs at 803 employers (2026 Q1); +2.5% jobs and +0.9% average weekly wage over the year

• 51st pct · 1,563rd of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 60th pct · 64th of 159 Georgia counties · median 7,095

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 #

3 USGS reservoir gauges, no capacity figures to weight

Sites found: 3, 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 #

62 gauges · 0 flooding · 8 with quality panels averaging 100 % · 34 stale

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 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 #

66 wells in 2 named aquifers: Floridan aquifer system, Intermediate aquifer system

Sites found: 66, 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 (0.00)

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

Banks & federal dollars #

$730.4 m in deposits at 10 offices of 7 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 2,446, highly concentrated. $183.1 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $174.2 m, grants $6.1 m), $21,279 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 2,446 across 7 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls highly concentrated.

HHI = Σ (share %)² over 7 banks with deposits in the county = 39.0² + 23.3² + 15.6² + … (4 more) = 2,446

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 $21,279 per covered job, against 8,605 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $183.1 m / 8,605 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $21,279

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 #

Decatur County, GA: 9 findings, 9 noted

1. noteDecatur County, GA's covered employment was 2.5% 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

   • +2.5 % = 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

2. noteDecatur County, GA'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

3. notetypical asking rent (rent.latest) and typical asking rent (rent.momPct) for Decatur County, GA could not be lined up against the previous published period this run, so no change is printed for them.

   Show the arithmetic

   • not comparable this run: rent.latest, rent.momPct

   the two newest month columns in the published file are not the two this table carries

4. noteDecatur County, GA's price-to-rent ratio of 11.2 ranks 67th of 69 Georgia counties, against a median of 15.0.

   Period 2026-09.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 3 on the 0-to-100 scale across 69 Georgia counties that published priceToRent
   • 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

5. noteDecatur County, GA's price-to-rent ratio of 11.2 ranks 1,305th of 1,358 US counties, against a median of 17.0.

   Period 2026-09.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 4 on the 0-to-100 scale across 1358 US counties that published priceToRent
   • 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

Read all 9 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.