Cumberland County, ME

Home values #

Typical home $558,564 (Sep 2026), +2.3% over one year, +26.2% over five

• 95th pct · 139th of 3,063 US counties · median $230,451
• 100th pct · 1st of 16 Maine counties · median $322,387
• counties in the Portland-South Portland metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Portland-South Portland 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 $2,397/mo (Sep 2026), +2.2% over one year; price-to-rent 19.4

• 93rd pct · 92nd of 1,358 US counties · median $1,506
• 100th pct · 1st of 13 Maine counties · median $1,801
• counties in the Portland-South Portland metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Portland-South Portland 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 $3,094 a month on $558,564 at 7.40%, against an average weekly wage worth $6,517 a month: 47.5% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $558,564 × 80% = $446,851, r = 7.40%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-15), n = 360 → $3,094/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $1,504 × 52 / 12 = $6,517) = 47% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $558,564 / ($1,504 × 52) = 7.1
• price-to-rent = $558,564 / ($2,397 × 12) = 19.4

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 #

189,968 jobs at 17,314 employers (2026 Q1); +0.2% jobs and +3.0% average weekly wage over the year

• 94th pct · 173rd of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 100th pct · 1st of 16 Maine counties · median 16,807
• counties in the Portland-South Portland metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Portland-South Portland 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 #

D2 severe 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 #

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 #

38 gauges · 0 flooding · 1 with quality panels averaging 100 % · 15 stale

Sites found: 38, 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 #

15 wells in 0 named aquifers:

Sites found: 15, 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 #

moderate (0.32)

Σ wᵢ·termᵢ / Σ wᵢ = 0.35×0.50 + 0.2×0.00 / 0.55

Banks & federal dollars #

$16.1 bn in deposits at 119 offices of 19 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 1,113, moderately concentrated. $3.6 bn federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $3.0 bn, contracts $467.7 m), $18,856 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 1,113 across 19 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls moderately concentrated.

HHI = Σ (share %)² over 19 banks with deposits in the county = 18.8² + 15.6² + 12.5² + … (16 more) = 1,113

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 $18,856 per covered job, against 189,968 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $3.6 bn / 189,968 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $18,856

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 #

Cumberland County, ME: 16 findings, 2 at a watch level and 14 noted

1. watchCumberland County, ME's typical home value of +2.3% scores 43 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 80 across Maine counties, a gap of 37 points.

   Period 2026-09.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 37 = |43 across US counties - 80 across Maine counties|

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

2. watchCumberland County, ME's momentum index of 0.25 scores 52 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 87 across Maine counties, a gap of 35 points.

   Period 2026-09.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 35 = |52 across US counties - 87 across Maine counties|
   • momentum = Σ wᵢ · clip(changeᵢ / scaleᵢ, −1, 1) / Σ wᵢ over the terms present; weights and scales: home value 1-yr change 0.3 (±10%), rent 1-yr change 0.15 (±10%), jobs over-the-year change 0.3 (±3%), avg weekly wage over-the-year change 0.25 (±6%)

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

3. noteCumberland County, ME's average weekly wage was 3.0% 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 % = 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. noteCumberland County, ME's typical asking rent fell 0.8% from $2,415 in August 2026 to $2,397 in September 2026, on Zillow ZORI.

   Period 2026-09.
   Show the arithmetic

   • -0.8% = (2396.515321100917 - 2414.834683200818) / 2414.834683200818 × 100
   • 2396.515321100917 = Zillow ZORI, 2026-09
   • 2414.834683200818 = Zillow ZORI, 2026-08

5. noteCumberland County, ME's covered employment was 0.2% 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

   • +0.2 % = 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

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.