Wilson County, TX

Home values #

Typical home $395,462 (Sep 2026), -0.2% over one year, +10.5% over five

• 85th pct · 435th of 3,063 US counties · median $230,451
• 94th pct · 15th of 243 Texas counties · median $207,861
• 71st pct · 3rd of 8 counties in the San Antonio-New Braunfels metro · median $322,764

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 $1,582/mo (Sep 2026), n/a over one year; price-to-rent 20.8

• 56th pct · 598th of 1,358 US counties · median $1,506
• 69th pct · 31st of 98 Texas counties · median $1,449
• 85th pct · 2nd of 8 counties in the San Antonio-New Braunfels metro · median $1,474

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 $2,190 a month on $395,462 at 7.40%, against an average weekly wage worth $4,398 a month: 49.8% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $395,462 × 80% = $316,370, r = 7.40%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-15), n = 360 → $2,190/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $1,015 × 52 / 12 = $4,398) = 50% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $395,462 / ($1,015 × 52) = 7.5
• price-to-rent = $395,462 / ($1,582 × 12) = 20.8

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 #

9,587 jobs at 928 employers (2026 Q1); -0.7% jobs and -1.2% average weekly wage over the year

• 54th pct · 1,480th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 63rd pct · 94th of 254 Texas counties · median 6,022
• 14th pct · 7th of 8 counties in the San Antonio-New Braunfels metro · median 17,217

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 #

69 % of conservation capacity, weighted over 7 TWDB reservoirs

Sites found: 12, 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 #

75 gauges · 0 flooding · 17 with quality panels averaging 93 % · 13 stale

Sites found: 75, 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 #

21 wells in 3 named aquifers: Edwards-Trinity aquifer system, Texas coastal uplands aquifer system, Other aquifers

Sites found: 21, 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 (0.33)

Σ wᵢ·termᵢ / Σ wᵢ = 0.35×0.50 + 0.3×0.31 + 0.2×0.07 / 0.85

Banks & federal dollars #

$678.6 m in deposits at 9 offices of 6 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 2,533, highly concentrated. $418.8 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $390.8 m, grants $27.7 m), $43,688 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 2,533 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 = 39.3² + 21.1² + 16.1² + … (3 more) = 2,533

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 $43,688 per covered job, against 9,587 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $418.8 m / 9,587 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $43,688

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 #

Wilson County, TX: 11 findings, 4 at a watch level and 7 noted

1. watchWilson County, TX's years of wages of 7.5 ranks 263rd 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 = 91.4435009797518 >= 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. watchWilson County, TX's average weekly wage is -1.2% 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 = -1.2 < 0

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

3. watchWilson County, TX's covered employment is -0.7% 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 = -0.7 < 0

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

4. watchWilson County, TX's typical home value is -0.2% 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 = -0.19792510313808137 < 0

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

5. noteWilson County, TX's average weekly wage was 1.2% 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

   • -1.2 % = 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

Read all 11 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.