Travis County, TX

Home values #

Typical home $461,123 (Sep 2026), -3.6% over one year, -15.3% over five

• 91st pct · 263rd of 3,063 US counties · median $230,451
• 98th pct · 5th of 243 Texas counties · median $207,861
• 100th pct · 1st of 5 counties in the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos metro · median $366,672

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 $1,602/mo (Sep 2026), +0.6% over one year; price-to-rent 24.0

• 57th pct · 572nd of 1,358 US counties · median $1,506
• 75th pct · 25th of 98 Texas counties · median $1,449
• 25th pct · 4th of 5 counties in the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos metro · median $1,625

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 $2,554 a month on $461,123 at 7.40%, against an average weekly wage worth $9,044 a month: 28.2% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $461,123 × 80% = $368,899, r = 7.40%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-15), n = 360 → $2,554/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $2,087 × 52 / 12 = $9,044) = 28% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $461,123 / ($2,087 × 52) = 4.2
• price-to-rent = $461,123 / ($1,602 × 12) = 24.0

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 #

931,218 jobs at 50,881 employers (2026 Q1); +0.1% jobs and +5.4% average weekly wage over the year

• 99th pct · 16th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 98th pct · 4th of 254 Texas counties · median 6,022
• 100th pct · 1st of 5 counties in the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos metro · median 99,377

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 #

Surface water layer not loaded

Sites found: 13, 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 #

moderate (0.31)

Σ wᵢ·termᵢ / Σ wᵢ = 0.35×0.50 + 0.3×0.09 / 0.65

Banks & federal dollars #

$51.3 bn in deposits at 236 offices of 56 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 1,125, moderately concentrated. $20.7 bn federal obligations in FY2026 (grants $14.7 bn, direct payments $4.9 bn), $22,277 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 1,125 across 55 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls moderately concentrated.

HHI = Σ (share %)² over 55 banks with deposits in the county = 19.0² + 17.8² + 14.5² + … (52 more) = 1,125

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 $22,277 per covered job, against 931,218 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $20.7 bn / 931,218 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $22,277

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 #

63 public companies file with the SEC from a business address here (Tesla, Inc., ORACLE CORP, FLEX LTD., and 60 more). The snapshot was pulled 2026-10-20; 59 of 63 carry financial facts. The county's jobs mix maps to 10 GICS sectors, led by Communication Services.

Snapshot pulled 2026-10-20: 63 filers, 59 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 #

Travis County, TX: 17 findings, 2 at a watch level and 15 noted

1. watchTravis County, TX's typical home value is -3.6% against a year earlier, a watch level here: typical home value below a year ago (arithmetic on Zillow ZHVI, county and metro files; 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: home.yoyPct = -3.560018524627542 < 0

   arithmetic on Zillow ZHVI, county and metro files; not an official level

2. watchTravis County, TX's price-to-rent ratio of 24.0 ranks 128th of 1,358 US counties, a watch level here: price-to-rent in the top tenth of US counties (position among the counties that published both ZHVI and ZORI this month; 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: priceToRent percentile = 90.64112011790715 >= 90
   • typical home value / (typical rent × 12); Zillow ZHVI over ZORI, same month

   position among the counties that published both ZHVI and ZORI this month; not an official level

3. noteTravis County, TX's average weekly wage was 5.4% 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

   • +5.4 % = 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. noteTravis County, TX's covered employment was 0.1% 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

   • +0.1 % = 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

5. noteTravis County, TX's typical home value of $461,123 ranks 1st of 5 counties in the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos metro, against a median of $366,672.

   Period 2026-09.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 100 on the 0-to-100 scale across 5 counties in the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos metro that published home.latest

   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.