DeKalb County, IL

Home values #

Typical home $294,833 (Sep 2026), +5.0% over one year, +38.8% over five

• 69th pct · 941st of 3,063 US counties · median $230,451
• 91st pct · 10th of 102 Illinois counties · median $158,551
• 16th pct · 11th of 13 counties in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin metro · median $340,258

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 $1,400/mo (Sep 2026), +7.3% over one year; price-to-rent 17.5

• 40th pct · 809th of 1,358 US counties · median $1,506
• 77th pct · 8th of 32 Illinois counties · median $1,198
• 10th pct · 10th of 11 counties in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin metro · median $2,105

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 $1,633 a month on $294,833 at 7.40%, against an average weekly wage worth $4,988 a month: 32.7% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $294,833 × 80% = $235,866, r = 7.40%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-15), n = 360 → $1,633/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $1,151 × 52 / 12 = $4,988) = 33% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $294,833 / ($1,151 × 52) = 4.9
• price-to-rent = $294,833 / ($1,400 × 12) = 17.5

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 #

36,369 jobs at 2,006 employers (2026 Q1); +0.3% jobs and +4.2% average weekly wage over the year

• 80th pct · 642nd of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 82nd pct · 19th of 102 Illinois counties · median 7,611
• 33rd pct · 9th of 13 counties in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin metro · median 94,945

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 #

102 gauges · 0 flooding · 22 with quality panels averaging 72 % · 26 stale

Sites found: 102, 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 #

61 wells in 0 named aquifers:

Sites found: 61, 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 (0.10)

Σ wᵢ·termᵢ / Σ wᵢ = 0.35×0.00 + 0.2×0.28 / 0.55

Banks & federal dollars #

$3.0 bn in deposits at 37 offices of 9 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 1,971, highly concentrated. $548.7 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $537.4 m, grants $9.7 m), $15,087 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 1,971 across 9 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls highly concentrated.

HHI = Σ (share %)² over 9 banks with deposits in the county = 28.5² + 24.5² + 17.7² + … (6 more) = 1,971

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 $15,087 per covered job, against 36,369 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $548.7 m / 36,369 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $15,087

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 #

DeKalb County, IL: 12 findings, 2 at a watch level and 10 noted

1. watchDeKalb County, IL's price-to-rent ratio of 17.5 scores 54 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 94 across Illinois counties, a gap of 39 points.

   Period 2026-09.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 39 = |54 across US counties - 94 across Illinois counties|
   • 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

2. watchDeKalb County, IL's typical asking rent of $1,400 scores 40 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 77 across Illinois counties, a gap of 37 points.

   Period 2026-09.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 37 = |40 across US counties - 77 across Illinois counties|

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

3. noteDeKalb County, IL's average weekly wage was 4.2% 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

   • +4.2 % = 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. noteDeKalb County, IL's typical asking rent rose 1.1% from $1,385 in August 2026 to $1,400 in September 2026, on Zillow ZORI.

   Period 2026-09.
   Show the arithmetic

   • +1.1% = (1400.239898989899 - 1385.4741469375688) / 1385.4741469375688 × 100
   • 1400.239898989899 = Zillow ZORI, 2026-09
   • 1385.4741469375688 = Zillow ZORI, 2026-08

5. noteDeKalb County, IL's covered employment was 0.3% 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

   • +0.3 % = 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 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.