Steuben County, NY

Home values #

Typical home $172,442 (Sep 2026), +4.1% over one year, +22.9% over five

• 26th pct · 2,266th of 3,063 US counties · median $230,451
• 8th pct · 57th of 62 New York counties · median $254,056

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 $1,274/mo (Sep 2026), +2.8% over one year; price-to-rent 11.3

• 27th pct · 982nd of 1,358 US counties · median $1,506
• 18th pct · 40th of 49 New York counties · median $1,521

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 $955 a month on $172,442 at 7.40%, against an average weekly wage worth $8,316 a month: 11.5% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $172,442 × 80% = $137,953, r = 7.40%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-15), n = 360 → $955/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $1,919 × 52 / 12 = $8,316) = 11% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $172,442 / ($1,919 × 52) = 1.7
• price-to-rent = $172,442 / ($1,274 × 12) = 11.3

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 #

33,850 jobs at 2,152 employers (2026 Q1); -0.8% jobs and +8.2% average weekly wage over the year

• 79th pct · 676th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 54th pct · 29th of 62 New York counties · median 32,139

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 #

76 gauges · 0 flooding · 15 with quality panels averaging 100 % · 21 stale

Sites found: 76, 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 #

30 wells in 0 named aquifers:

Sites found: 30, 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 #

$1.4 bn in deposits at 18 offices of 6 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 2,847, highly concentrated. $718.8 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $622.7 m, contracts $66.4 m), $21,234 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 2,847 across 6 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls highly concentrated.

HHI = Σ (share %)² over 6 banks with deposits in the county = 38.9² + 33.4² + 10.6² + … (3 more) = 2,847

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 $21,234 per covered job, against 33,850 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $718.8 m / 33,850 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $21,234

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 #

Steuben County, NY: 15 findings, 3 at a watch level and 12 noted

1. watchSteuben County, NY's covered employment is -0.8% 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 = -0.8 < 0

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

2. watchSteuben County, NY's typical asking rent rose 3.2% from $1,235 in August 2026 to $1,274 in September 2026, on Zillow ZORI.

   Period 2026-09.
   Show the arithmetic

   • +3.2% = (1274.0555555555557 - 1234.8877768407133) / 1234.8877768407133 × 100
   • 1274.0555555555557 = Zillow ZORI, 2026-09
   • 1234.8877768407133 = Zillow ZORI, 2026-08

3. watchSteuben County, NY's typical home value of +4.1% scores 65 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 20 across New York counties, a gap of 45 points.

   Period 2026-09.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 45 = |65 across US counties - 20 across New York counties|

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

4. noteSteuben County, NY's average weekly wage was 8.2% 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

   • +8.2 % = 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

5. noteSteuben County, NY's covered employment was 0.8% 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

   • -0.8 % = 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.