Portsmouth city, VA

Home values #

Typical home $266,486 (Sep 2026), +2.5% over one year, +25.9% over five

• 62nd pct · 1,164th of 3,063 US counties · median $230,451
• 36th pct · 85th of 133 Virginia counties · median $309,231
• 5th pct · 17th of 18 counties in the Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk metro · median $385,676

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 $1,642/mo (Sep 2026), +5.6% over one year; price-to-rent 13.5

• 61st pct · 523rd of 1,358 US counties · median $1,506
• 37th pct · 45th of 71 Virginia counties · median $1,806
• 16th pct · 11th of 13 counties in the Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk metro · median $2,050

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 $1,476 a month on $266,486 at 7.40%, against an average weekly wage worth $6,691 a month: 22.1% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $266,486 × 80% = $213,189, r = 7.40%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-15), n = 360 → $1,476/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $1,544 × 52 / 12 = $6,691) = 22% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $266,486 / ($1,544 × 52) = 3.3
• price-to-rent = $266,486 / ($1,642 × 12) = 13.5

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 #

41,898 jobs at 1,930 employers (2026 Q1); -3.1% jobs and +13.1% average weekly wage over the year

• 81st pct · 585th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 84th pct · 21st of 133 Virginia counties · median 9,944
• 64th pct · 7th of 18 counties in the Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk metro · median 18,007

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 #

Surface water layer not loaded

Sites found: 0, 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 #

low (0.00)

Σ wᵢ·termᵢ / Σ wᵢ = 0.35×0.00 / 0.35

Banks & federal dollars #

$1.7 bn in deposits at 10 offices of 6 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 5,362, highly concentrated. $1.7 bn federal obligations in FY2026 (contracts $1.1 bn, direct payments $615.8 m), $41,042 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 5,362 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 = 71.1² + 12.7² + 11.4² + … (3 more) = 5,362

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 $41,042 per covered job, against 41,898 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $1.7 bn / 41,898 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $41,042

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 #

Portsmouth city, VA: 15 findings, 1 at an alert level, 1 at a watch level and 13 noted

1. alertPortsmouth city, VA's covered employment is -3.1% 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 = -3.1 <= -3

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

2. watchPortsmouth city, VA's covered employment is -3.1% 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 = -3.1 < 0

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

3. notePortsmouth city, VA's average weekly wage was 13.1% 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

   • +13.1 % = 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

4. notePortsmouth city, VA's covered employment was 3.1% 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

   • -3.1 % = 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. notePortsmouth city, VA's typical asking rent rose 0.9% from $1,627 in August 2026 to $1,642 in September 2026, on Zillow ZORI.

   Period 2026-09.
   Show the arithmetic

   • +0.9% = (1642.062222222222 - 1627.2421139750932) / 1627.2421139750932 × 100
   • 1642.062222222222 = Zillow ZORI, 2026-09
   • 1627.2421139750932 = Zillow ZORI, 2026-08

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.