Roanoke city, VA

Home values #

Typical home $219,673 (Sep 2026), +0.6% over one year, +37.2% over five

• 45th pct · 1,673rd of 3,063 US counties · median $230,451
• 27th pct · 97th of 133 Virginia counties · median $309,231
• 0th pct · 6th of 6 counties in the Roanoke metro · median $302,817

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 $1,280/mo (Sep 2026), +2.4% over one year; price-to-rent 14.3

• 28th pct · 968th of 1,358 US counties · median $1,506
• 12th pct · 62nd of 71 Virginia counties · median $1,806
• 25th pct · 4th of 5 counties in the Roanoke metro · median $1,531

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 $1,217 a month on $219,673 at 7.40%, against an average weekly wage worth $5,633 a month: 21.6% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $219,673 × 80% = $175,739, r = 7.40%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-15), n = 360 → $1,217/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $1,300 × 52 / 12 = $5,633) = 22% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $219,673 / ($1,300 × 52) = 3.2
• price-to-rent = $219,673 / ($1,280 × 12) = 14.3

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 #

67,038 jobs at 3,663 employers (2026 Q1); +0.5% jobs and +3.8% average weekly wage over the year

• 87th pct · 410th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 90th pct · 13th of 133 Virginia counties · median 9,944
• 100th pct · 1st of 6 counties in the Roanoke metro · median 18,323

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 #

D1 moderate 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 #

3 USGS reservoir gauges, no capacity figures to weight

Sites found: 3, 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 #

119 gauges · 0 flooding · 33 with quality panels averaging 99 % · 26 stale

Sites found: 119, 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 #

13 wells in 0 named aquifers:

Sites found: 13, 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 (0.16)

Σ wᵢ·termᵢ / Σ wᵢ = 0.35×0.25 + 0.2×0.01 / 0.55

Banks & federal dollars #

$3.5 bn in deposits at 30 offices of 14 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 2,766, highly concentrated. $723.7 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $621.4 m, grants $81.0 m), $10,795 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 2,766 across 14 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls highly concentrated.

HHI = Σ (share %)² over 14 banks with deposits in the county = 45.9² + 20.6² + 11.8² + … (11 more) = 2,766

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 $10,795 per covered job, against 67,038 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $723.7 m / 67,038 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $10,795

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 #

Roanoke city, VA: 12 findings, 12 noted

1. noteRoanoke city, VA's average weekly wage was 3.8% 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

   • +3.8 % = 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

2. noteRoanoke city, VA's covered employment was 0.5% 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

   • +0.5 % = 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

3. noteRoanoke city, VA's typical asking rent rose 0.4% from $1,276 in August 2026 to $1,280 in September 2026, on Zillow ZORI.

   Period 2026-09.
   Show the arithmetic

   • +0.4% = (1280.4226741467976 - 1275.8505871201137) / 1275.8505871201137 × 100
   • 1280.4226741467976 = Zillow ZORI, 2026-09
   • 1275.8505871201137 = Zillow ZORI, 2026-08

4. noteRoanoke city, VA's typical home value of $219,673 ranks 6th of 6 counties in the Roanoke metro, against a median of $302,817.

   Period 2026-09.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 0 on the 0-to-100 scale across 6 counties in the Roanoke metro that published home.latest

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

5. noteRoanoke city, VA's typical home value of +0.6% ranks 6th of 6 counties in the Roanoke metro, against a median of +3.8%.

   Period 2026-09.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 0 on the 0-to-100 scale across 6 counties in the Roanoke metro that published home.yoyPct

   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.