Pulaski County, VA

Home values #

Typical home $226,254 (Sep 2026), +4.9% over one year, +15.8% over five

• 48th pct · 1,593rd of 3,063 US counties · median $230,451
• 28th pct · 96th of 133 Virginia counties · median $309,231
• 25th pct · 4th of 5 counties in the Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford metro · median $265,800

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 $1,085/mo (Sep 2026), n/a over one year; price-to-rent 17.4

• 12th pct · 1,183rd of 1,358 US counties · median $1,506
• 4th pct · 68th of 71 Virginia counties · median $1,806
• counties in the Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford metro: only 3 of counties in the Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford metro published this metric; fewer than 5 is too few to rank

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 $1,253 a month on $226,254 at 7.40%, against an average weekly wage worth $4,277 a month: 29.3% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $226,254 × 80% = $181,003, r = 7.40%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-15), n = 360 → $1,253/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $987 × 52 / 12 = $4,277) = 29% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $226,254 / ($987 × 52) = 4.4
• price-to-rent = $226,254 / ($1,085 × 12) = 17.4

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 #

12,814 jobs at 892 employers (2026 Q1); -9.3% jobs and -7.9% average weekly wage over the year

• 60th pct · 1,258th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 63rd pct · 49th of 133 Virginia counties · median 9,944
• 75th pct · 2nd of 5 counties in the Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford metro · median 6,604

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 #

2 USGS reservoir gauges, no capacity figures to weight

Sites found: 2, 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 #

97 gauges · 0 flooding · 24 with quality panels averaging 99 % · 26 stale

Sites found: 97, 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 #

7 wells in 0 named aquifers:

Sites found: 7, 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 + 0.2×0.01 / 0.55

Banks & federal dollars #

$577.2 m in deposits at 9 offices of 7 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 2,203, highly concentrated. $256.0 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $235.8 m, grants $17.0 m), $19,977 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 2,203 across 7 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls highly concentrated.

HHI = Σ (share %)² over 7 banks with deposits in the county = 34.1² + 26.1² + 12.6² + … (4 more) = 2,203

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 $19,977 per covered job, against 12,814 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $256.0 m / 12,814 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $19,977

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 #

Pulaski County, VA: 16 findings, 1 at an alert level, 3 at a watch level and 12 noted

1. alertPulaski County, VA's covered employment is -9.3% 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 = -9.3 <= -3

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

2. watchPulaski County, VA's covered employment is -9.3% 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 = -9.3 < 0

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

3. watchPulaski County, VA's average weekly wage is -7.9% 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 = -7.9 < 0

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

4. watchPulaski County, VA's momentum index is -0.47, a watch level here: momentum index in the cooling band (the cooling band of the momentum index computed here, score at or below -0.25; 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 2026-09.
   Show the arithmetic

   • test: momentum = -0.4728773296587248 <= -0.25
   • momentum = Σ wᵢ · clip(changeᵢ / scaleᵢ, −1, 1) / Σ wᵢ over the terms present; weights and scales: home value 1-yr change 0.3 (±10%), rent 1-yr change 0.15 (±10%), jobs over-the-year change 0.3 (±3%), avg weekly wage over-the-year change 0.25 (±6%)

   the cooling band of the momentum index computed here, score at or below -0.25; convention chosen for this dashboard, not an official level

5. notePulaski County, VA's covered employment was 9.3% 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

   • -9.3 % = 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

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.