Bergen County, NJ

Home values #

Typical home $780,357 (Sep 2026), +7.1% over one year, +33.5% over five

• 98th pct · 47th of 3,063 US counties · median $230,451
• 90th pct · 3rd of 21 New Jersey counties · median $579,852
• 76th pct · 6th of 22 counties in the New York-Newark-Jersey City metro · median $680,195

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 $2,895/mo (Sep 2026), +3.0% over one year; price-to-rent 22.5

• 97th pct · 41st of 1,358 US counties · median $1,506
• 90th pct · 3rd of 21 New Jersey counties · median $2,291
• 57th pct · 10th of 22 counties in the New York-Newark-Jersey City metro · median $2,825

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 $4,322 a month on $780,357 at 7.40%, against an average weekly wage worth $7,189 a month: 60.1% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $780,357 × 80% = $624,285, r = 7.40%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-15), n = 360 → $4,322/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $1,659 × 52 / 12 = $7,189) = 60% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $780,357 / ($1,659 × 52) = 9.0
• price-to-rent = $780,357 / ($2,895 × 12) = 22.5

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 #

431,949 jobs at 37,311 employers (2026 Q1); -0.9% jobs and -0.4% average weekly wage over the year

• 98th pct · 63rd of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 100th pct · 1st of 21 New Jersey counties · median 188,702
• 76th pct · 6th of 22 counties in the New York-Newark-Jersey City metro · median 283,785

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 #

6 USGS reservoir gauges, no capacity figures to weight

Sites found: 6, 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 #

273 gauges · 0 flooding · 71 with quality panels averaging 85 % · 84 stale

Sites found: 273, 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 #

263 wells in 0 named aquifers:

Sites found: 263, 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 (0.05)

Σ wᵢ·termᵢ / Σ wᵢ = 0.35×0.00 + 0.2×0.15 / 0.55

Banks & federal dollars #

$69.9 bn in deposits at 346 offices of 45 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 773, unconcentrated. $6.7 bn federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $6.5 bn, contracts $202.8 m), $15,500 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 773 across 42 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls unconcentrated.

HHI = Σ (share %)² over 42 banks with deposits in the county = 13.4² + 13.1² + 10.8² + … (39 more) = 773

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 $15,500 per covered job, against 431,949 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $6.7 bn / 431,949 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $15,500

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.

Public companies #

25 public companies file with the SEC from a business address here (BECTON DICKINSON & CO, COGNIZANT TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS CORP, ConnectOne Bancorp, Inc., and 22 more). The snapshot was pulled 2026-10-20; 24 of 25 carry financial facts. The county's jobs mix maps to 10 GICS sectors, led by Health Care.

Snapshot pulled 2026-10-20: 25 filers, 24 with financial facts.

Public filers whose registered business address with the SEC falls in this county, from a committed snapshot of EDGAR's company_tickers_exchange file. A position is the centroid of the address's ZIP code (Census ZCTA) or, where the snapshot says so, of its city: it is not a building. Legal entities only - no officer, insider or shareholder data is read, and Forms 3, 4 and 5 are excluded everywhere. Sector exposure is the county's BLS QCEW jobs mix bridged to GICS sectors by a convention documented in lib/companies/sectors.ts; a jobs mix is not a portfolio.

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 #

Bergen County, NJ: 20 findings, 4 at a watch level and 16 noted

1. watchBergen County, NJ's years of wages of 9.0 ranks 121st 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 = 96.0809928151535 >= 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

2. watchBergen County, NJ's covered employment is -0.9% 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 = -0.9 < 0

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

3. watchBergen County, NJ's average weekly wage is -0.4% against a year earlier, a watch level here: average weekly wage below the same quarter a year earlier, before inflation (BLS QCEW over-the-year percent change, as published, nominal dollars; 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.avgWeeklyWage = -0.4 < 0

   BLS QCEW over-the-year percent change, as published, nominal dollars; convention chosen for this dashboard, not an official level

4. watchBergen County, NJ's average weekly wage of $1,659 scores 96 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 60 across New Jersey counties, a gap of 36 points.

   Period 2026 Q1.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 36 = |96 across US counties - 60 across New Jersey counties|

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

5. noteBergen County, NJ's covered employment was 0.9% 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

   • -0.9 % = 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.