Palo Alto County, IA

Home values #

Typical home $170,587 (Sep 2026), +3.5% over one year, +31.3% over five

• 25th pct · 2,296th of 3,063 US counties · median $230,451
• 27th pct · 72nd of 99 Iowa counties · median $192,339

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 #

Zillow publishes no rent index for this area (ZORI covers about 1,400 counties)

• US counties: not published this period
• Iowa counties: 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 #

Principal and interest of $945 a month on $170,587 at 7.40%, against an average weekly wage worth $4,108 a month: 23.0% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $170,587 × 80% = $136,469, r = 7.40%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-15), n = 360 → $945/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $948 × 52 / 12 = $4,108) = 23% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $170,587 / ($948 × 52) = 3.5

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 #

3,577 jobs at 331 employers (2026 Q1); -1.3% jobs and +3.4% average weekly wage over the year

• 28th pct · 2,294th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 26th pct · 73rd of 99 Iowa counties · median 5,685

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 #

35 gauges · 0 flooding · 2 with quality panels averaging 100 % · 3 stale

Sites found: 35, 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 #

6 wells in 0 named aquifers:

Sites found: 6, 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 #

$318.0 m in deposits at 5 offices of 4 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 5,180, highly concentrated. $75.9 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $67.2 m, grants $8.3 m), $21,211 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 5,180 across 4 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls highly concentrated.

HHI = Σ (share %)² over 4 banks with deposits in the county = 69.6² + 14.3² + 9.7² + … (1 more) = 5,180

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 $21,211 per covered job, against 3,577 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $75.9 m / 3,577 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $21,211

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 #

Palo Alto County, IA: 7 findings, 1 at a watch level and 6 noted

1. watchPalo Alto County, IA's covered employment is -1.3% 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 = -1.3 < 0

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

2. notePalo Alto County, IA's average weekly wage was 3.4% 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

   • +3.4 % = 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. notePalo Alto County, IA's covered employment was 1.3% 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

   • -1.3 % = 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

4. notePalo Alto County, IA's typical home value fell 0.3% from $171,035 in August 2026 to $170,587 in September 2026, on Zillow ZHVI.

   Period 2026-09.
   Show the arithmetic

   • -0.3% = (170586.70946799513 - 171034.7272591633) / 171034.7272591633 × 100
   • 170586.70946799513 = Zillow ZHVI, 2026-09
   • 171034.7272591633 = Zillow ZHVI, 2026-08

5. notePalo Alto County, IA's average weekly wage of $948 ranks 94th of 99 Iowa counties, against a median of $1,057.

   Period 2026 Q1.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 5 on the 0-to-100 scale across 99 Iowa counties that published jobs.avgWeeklyWage

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

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.