Essex County, MA
Housing, jobs, water, deposits and federal obligations for this county, each figure with the release it came from. Internal point 42.64, -70.86.
Assembled 2026-10-19. Read the brief.
- 97th pct · 65th of 3,063 US counties · median $230,451
- 53rd pct · 7th of 14 Massachusetts counties · median $681,406
- 50th pct · 4th of 7 counties in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton metro · median $715,954
- 40th pct · 1,827th of 3,062 US counties · median +2.9%
- 38th pct · 9th of 14 Massachusetts counties · median +2.7%
- 33rd pct · 5th of 7 counties in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton metro · median +2.5%
- 95th pct · 66th of 1,358 US counties · median $1,506
- 63rd pct · 5th of 12 Massachusetts counties · median $2,499
- 33rd pct · 5th of 7 counties in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton metro · median $2,700
- 97th pct · 95th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
- 69th pct · 5th of 14 Massachusetts counties · median 194,940
- 50th pct · 4th of 7 counties in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton metro · median 319,282
- 94th pct · 166th of 3,221 US counties · median $1,039
- 69th pct · 5th of 14 Massachusetts counties · median $1,471
- 50th pct · 4th of 7 counties in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton metro · median $1,613
- 94th pct · 166th of 3,063 US counties · median 4.2
- 69th pct · 5th of 14 Massachusetts counties · median 7.4
- 83rd pct · 2nd of 7 counties in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton metro · median 7.7
Typical home value divided by the average annual wage of one covered job.
A percentile here is a min-max scaling of average rank: the smallest published value in the cohort is 0 and the largest is 100, and tied values share the average of the ranks they span. It is not the share of entities below the value, so 0 means smallest, not none below. Entities that did not publish the metric are outside the cohort entirely and are counted in neither the rank nor its denominator.
Home values #
Typical home $715,954 (Sep 2026), +2.1% over one year, +25.3% over five
- 97th pct · 65th of 3,063 US counties · median $230,451
- 53rd pct · 7th of 14 Massachusetts counties · median $681,406
- 50th pct · 4th of 7 counties in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton metro · median $715,954
| Item | Value | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Essex County, MA | $715,954 · +2.1% 1-yr |
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 $2,595/mo (Sep 2026), +2.5% over one year; price-to-rent 23.0
- 95th pct · 66th of 1,358 US counties · median $1,506
- 63rd pct · 5th of 12 Massachusetts counties · median $2,499
- 33rd pct · 5th of 7 counties in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton metro · median $2,700
| Item | Value | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Essex County, MA | $2,595/mo · +2.5% 1-yr |
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 $3,966 a month on $715,954 at 7.40%, against an average weekly wage worth $6,990 a month: 56.7% of one job’s pay.
- payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $715,954 × 80% = $572,763, r = 7.40%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-15), n = 360 → $3,966/mo principal and interest
- wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $1,613 × 52 / 12 = $6,990) = 57% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
- years of wages = $715,954 / ($1,613 × 52) = 8.5
- price-to-rent = $715,954 / ($2,595 × 12) = 23.0
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 #
319,282 jobs at 29,636 employers (2026 Q1); -0.6% jobs and +4.3% average weekly wage over the year
- 97th pct · 95th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
- 69th pct · 5th of 14 Massachusetts counties · median 194,940
- 50th pct · 4th of 7 counties in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton metro · median 319,282
| Item | Value | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Essex County, MA | 319,282 jobs · $1,613/wk · -0.6% YoY |
| NAICS sector | Jobs | Avg weekly wage | Location quotient | Jobs over the year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Health care and social assistance | 65,807 | $1,217 | 1.37 | +1.5% |
| Manufacturing | 38,770 | $2,573 | 1.51 | +0.7% |
| Retail trade | 32,549 | $855 | 1.05 | -3.2% |
| Accommodation and food services | 26,566 | $611 | 0.93 | -0.4% |
| Professional and technical services | 17,790 | $3,328 | 0.81 | -1.2% |
| Construction | 15,082 | $1,787 | 0.90 | -4.3% |
| Administrative and waste services | 14,600 | $1,224 | 0.80 | -1.3% |
| Other services | 12,168 | $847 | 1.28 | +0.2% |
| Transportation and warehousing | 11,356 | $1,099 | 0.84 | +7.0% |
| Wholesale trade | 9,389 | $2,767 | 0.77 | -5.1% |
| Educational services | 8,360 | $1,155 | 1.22 | -2.6% |
| Finance and insurance | 6,929 | $3,756 | 0.53 | -2.9% |
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 #
Surface water layer not loaded
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 #
Surface water layer not loaded
Sites found: 0, 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 #
No USGS monitoring wells within 75 km (or above 1,500 km)
Sites found: 0, 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 / 0.35
Banks & federal dollars #
$31.5 bn in deposits at 216 offices of 32 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 840, unconcentrated. $12.1 bn federal obligations in FY2026 (contracts $7.2 bn, direct payments $4.6 bn), $37,979 per covered job
| Item | Value | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Salem Five Cents Savings Bank | $4.7 bn · 15.0% share · 20 offices | |
| TD Bank, National Association | $4.0 bn · 12.7% share · 19 offices | |
| Eastern Bank | $3.6 bn · 11.3% share · 20 offices | |
| Essex, MA | $12.1 bn FY2026 · $37,979/job |
| Institution | Deposits | Share | Offices |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salem Five Cents Savings Bank | $4,726,375,000 | 15.0% | 20 |
| TD Bank, National Association | $3,994,082,000 | 12.7% | 19 |
| Eastern Bank | $3,570,682,000 | 11.3% | 20 |
| Institution for Savings in Newburyport and Its Vicinity | $3,366,877,000 | 10.7% | 13 |
| Bank of America, National Association | $2,894,682,000 | 9.2% | 11 |
| Santander Bank, N.A. | $1,974,625,000 | 6.3% | 15 |
| TruNorth Bank | $1,381,618,000 | 4.4% | 13 |
| Rockland Trust Company | $1,327,984,000 | 4.2% | 10 |
| Citizens Bank, National Association | $1,127,148,000 | 3.6% | 11 |
| Newburyport Five Cents Savings Bank | $909,020,000 | 2.9% | 7 |
Deposit concentration is 840 across 32 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls unconcentrated.
HHI = Σ (share %)² over 32 banks with deposits in the county = 15.0² + 12.7² + 11.3² + … (29 more) = 840
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 #
That is $37,979 per covered job, against 319,282 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.
per job = FY2026 obligations $12.1 bn / 319,282 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $37,979
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.
| Series | Latest | As of | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mississippi River at Memphis, stage · ft | not published | not published | |
| Mississippi River at St. Louis, stage · ft | not published | not published | |
| Ohio River at Louisville, stage · ft | 17.95 | 2026-10-18 | -2.6% |
| Missouri River at St. Joseph, stage · ft | not published | not published | |
| Colorado River below Hoover Dam, flow (Hoover releases) · ft³/s | 5,170.00 | 2026-02-05 | -25.3% |
| Texas reservoirs, statewide percent full · % | 72.20 | 2026-10-19 | +0.0% |
| Laredo truck crossings, monthly · trucks | 258,700.00 | 2026-08-01 | -0.4% |
| Los Angeles + Long Beach container volume, annual · TEU | 10,513,167.00 | 2023-01-01 | -13.5% |
| Containerships waiting for a berth, all US ports · ships | 7.00 | 2026-10-13 | +133.3% |
| Shanghai to Los Angeles container rate · $ per 40 ft box | 7,848.00 | 2026-09-01 | +14.9% |
| US diesel retail price · $ per gallon | unavailable | not published | |
| WTI crude oil, spot · $ per barrel | 101.91 | 2026-10-14 | +1.0% |
| 30-year fixed mortgage rate · % | 7.40 | 2026-10-15 | +0.0% |
| Housing starts, annual rate · thousands of units | 1,275.00 | 2026-08-01 | -2.6% |
| Building permits, annual rate · thousands of units | 1,403.00 | 2026-08-01 | -2.1% |
| Case-Shiller US home price index · index, Jan 2000 = 100 | 337.31 | 2026-07-01 | +0.1% |
| Unemployment rate · % | 4.20 | 2026-09-01 | +2.4% |
| US goods and services trade balance, monthly · $ millions | -105,572.00 | 2026-08-01 | -13.7% |
| Retail sales excluding food services, monthly · $ millions | 652,115.00 | 2026-09-01 | +0.7% |
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 #
Essex County, MA: 18 findings, 5 at a watch level and 13 noted
watchEssex County, MA's years of wages of 8.5 ranks 166th of 3,063 US counties, a watch level here: years of wages in the top tenth of US counties (position among the counties that published both a ZHVI value and a QCEW average weekly wage; 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: yearsOfWages percentile = 94.61136512083606 >= 90
- typical home value / (average weekly wage × 52); one average covered job, not a household
position among the counties that published both a ZHVI value and a QCEW average weekly wage; not an official level
watchEssex County, MA's covered employment is -0.6% 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 = -0.6 < 0
BLS QCEW over-the-year percent change, as published; not an official level
watchEssex County, MA's typical home value of $715,954 scores 98 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 54 across Massachusetts counties, a gap of 44 points.
Period 2026-09.Show the arithmetic
- 44 = |98 across US counties - 54 across Massachusetts counties|
position among the entities that published this metric this period; not an official level
watchEssex County, MA's covered employment of -0.6% scores 43 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 81 across Massachusetts counties, a gap of 38 points.
Period 2026 Q1.Show the arithmetic
- 38 = |43 across US counties - 81 across Massachusetts counties|
position among the entities that published this metric this period; not an official level
watchEssex County, MA's typical asking rent of $2,595 scores 95 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 64 across Massachusetts counties, a gap of 32 points.
Period 2026-09.Show the arithmetic
- 32 = |95 across US counties - 64 across Massachusetts counties|
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.