Lake County, MI
Housing, jobs, water, deposits and federal obligations for this county, each figure with the release it came from. Internal point 44.00, -85.81.
Assembled 2026-10-19. Read the brief.
- 23rd pct · 2,349th of 3,063 US counties · median $230,451
- 7th pct · 77th of 83 Michigan counties · median $225,043
- 87th pct · 390th of 3,062 US counties · median +2.9%
- 68th pct · 27th of 83 Michigan counties · median +5.3%
- US counties: not published this period
- Michigan counties: not published this period
- 10th pct · 2,877th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
- 3rd pct · 80th of 83 Michigan counties · median 12,414
- 11th pct · 2,841st of 3,221 US counties · median $1,039
- 8th pct · 76th of 83 Michigan counties · median $1,045
- 39th pct · 1,857th of 3,063 US counties · median 4.2
- 35th pct · 54th of 83 Michigan counties · median 4.0
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 $165,696 (Sep 2026), +7.0% over one year, +23.6% over five
- 23rd pct · 2,349th of 3,063 US counties · median $230,451
- 7th pct · 77th of 83 Michigan counties · median $225,043
| Item | Value | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Lake County, MI | $165,696 · +7.0% 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 #
Zillow publishes no rent index for this area (ZORI covers about 1,400 counties)
- US counties: not published this period
- Michigan 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 $918 a month on $165,696 at 7.40%, against an average weekly wage worth $3,688 a month: 24.9% of one job’s pay.
- payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $165,696 × 80% = $132,557, r = 7.40%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-15), n = 360 → $918/mo principal and interest
- wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $851 × 52 / 12 = $3,688) = 25% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
- years of wages = $165,696 / ($851 × 52) = 3.7
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 #
1,440 jobs at 190 employers (2026 Q1); -11.1% jobs and +5.3% average weekly wage over the year
- 10th pct · 2,877th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
- 3rd pct · 80th of 83 Michigan counties · median 12,414
| Item | Value | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Lake County, MI | 1,440 jobs · $851/wk · -11.1% YoY |
| NAICS sector | Jobs | Avg weekly wage | Location quotient | Jobs over the year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Accommodation and food services | 263 | $370 | 2.03 | +0.0% |
| Retail trade | 187 | $604 | 1.33 | -6.5% |
| Construction | 74 | $854 | 0.98 | +4.2% |
| Manufacturing | 59 | $1,170 | 0.51 | -1.7% |
| Other services | 46 | $603 | 1.07 | +0.0% |
| Professional and technical services | 39 | $754 | 0.39 | +14.7% |
| Wholesale trade | 18 | $1,049 | 0.33 | +0.0% |
| Arts, entertainment and recreation | 14 | $331 | 0.59 | +0.0% |
| Unclassified | 5 | $1,401 | 1.63 | +0.0% |
| Agriculture, forestry, fishing | withheld | |||
| Mining, oil and gas | withheld | |||
| Utilities | withheld |
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 #
$162.8 m in deposits at 3 offices of 1 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 10,000, highly concentrated. $213.8 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $114.5 m, contracts $92.2 m), $148,484 per covered job
| Item | Value | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Lake-Osceola State Bank | $162.8 m · 100.0% share · 3 offices | |
| Lake, MI | $213.8 m FY2026 · $148,484/job | |
| MULTIPLE RECIPIENTS | $109.6 m · top recipient FY2026 |
| Institution | Deposits | Share | Offices |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lake-Osceola State Bank | $162,828,000 | 100.0% | 3 |
Deposit concentration is 10,000 across 1 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls highly concentrated.
HHI = Σ (share %)² over 1 banks with deposits in the county = 100.0² = 10,000
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.
| Awarding agency | Obligations |
|---|---|
| Social Security Administration | $99,564,483 |
| Department of Homeland Security | $92,113,003 |
| Department of Veterans Affairs | $9,541,248 |
| Department of Health and Human Services | $5,325,516 |
| Federal Communications Commission | $3,567,801 |
| Department of Housing and Urban Development | $1,488,370 |
| Department of Transportation | $968,440 |
| Railroad Retirement Board | $572,210 |
| Department of Agriculture | $556,737 |
| Department of Education | $119,812 |
| Department of Defense | $0 |
| Small Business Administration | $0 |
That is $148,484 per covered job, against 1,440 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.
per job = FY2026 obligations $213.8 m / 1,440 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $148,484
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 #
Lake County, MI: 12 findings, 1 at an alert level, 1 at a watch level and 10 noted
alertLake County, MI's covered employment is -11.1% against a year earlier, an alert level here: covered employment at least 3 percent below the same quarter a year earlier (BLS QCEW over-the-year percent change, as published; convention chosen for this dashboard, 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 = -11.1 <= -3
BLS QCEW over-the-year percent change, as published; convention chosen for this dashboard, not an official level
watchLake County, MI's covered employment is -11.1% 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 = -11.1 < 0
BLS QCEW over-the-year percent change, as published; not an official level
noteLake County, MI's covered employment was 11.1% 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
- -11.1 % = 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
noteLake County, MI's average weekly wage was 5.3% 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
- +5.3 % = 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
noteLake County, MI's typical home value fell 0.7% from $166,919 in August 2026 to $165,696 in September 2026, on Zillow ZHVI.
Period 2026-09.Show the arithmetic
- -0.7% = (165696.39005294288 - 166919.29256997703) / 166919.29256997703 × 100
- 165696.39005294288 = Zillow ZHVI, 2026-09
- 166919.29256997703 = Zillow ZHVI, 2026-08
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.