Waynesboro city, VA

Home values #

Typical home $293,551 (Sep 2026), +2.0% over one year, +24.7% over five

• 69th pct · 948th of 3,063 US counties · median $230,451
• 46th pct · 71st of 133 Virginia counties · median $309,231
• counties in the Staunton-Stuarts Draft metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Staunton-Stuarts Draft metro; fewer than 5 is too few to rank.

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 $1,398/mo (Sep 2026), +7.9% over one year; price-to-rent 17.5

• 39th pct · 817th of 1,358 US counties · median $1,506
• 17th pct · 59th of 71 Virginia counties · median $1,806
• counties in the Staunton-Stuarts Draft metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Staunton-Stuarts Draft metro; 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 $1,626 a month on $293,551 at 7.40%, against an average weekly wage worth $4,151 a month: 39.2% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $293,551 × 80% = $234,840, r = 7.40%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-15), n = 360 → $1,626/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $958 × 52 / 12 = $4,151) = 39% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $293,551 / ($958 × 52) = 5.9
• price-to-rent = $293,551 / ($1,398 × 12) = 17.5

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 #

10,389 jobs at 768 employers (2026 Q1); -0.4% jobs and +0.1% average weekly wage over the year

• 55th pct · 1,424th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 52nd pct · 64th of 133 Virginia counties · median 9,944
• counties in the Staunton-Stuarts Draft metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Staunton-Stuarts Draft metro; fewer than 5 is too few to rank.

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 #

D0 abnormally dry

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 #

No reservoir gauges within 150 km (or the camera is above the gauge altitude)

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 #

111 gauges · 0 flooding · 34 with quality panels averaging 99 % · 40 stale

Sites found: 111, 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 #

17 wells in 0 named aquifers:

Sites found: 17, 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 #

$763.1 m in deposits at 9 offices of 9 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 1,657, moderately concentrated. $148.9 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $145.8 m, grants $2.8 m), $14,334 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 1,657 across 9 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls moderately concentrated.

HHI = Σ (share %)² over 9 banks with deposits in the county = 24.1² + 20.1² + 16.7² + … (6 more) = 1,657

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 $14,334 per covered job, against 10,389 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $148.9 m / 10,389 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $14,334

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 #

Waynesboro city, VA: 8 findings, 2 at a watch level and 6 noted

1. watchWaynesboro city, VA's covered employment is -0.4% 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 = -0.4 < 0

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

2. watchWaynesboro city, VA's typical asking rent is -1.4% against the previous month, a watch level here: typical asking rent at least 1 percent below the previous month (arithmetic on the Zillow ZORI month columns; 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: rent.momPct = -1.379661256467939 <= -1
   • month-over-month percent change = (newest month − previous month) / |previous month| × 100, from Zillow's own published month columns

   arithmetic on the Zillow ZORI month columns; convention chosen for this dashboard, not an official level

3. noteWaynesboro city, VA's typical asking rent fell 1.4% from $1,417 in August 2026 to $1,398 in September 2026, on Zillow ZORI.

   Period 2026-09.
   Show the arithmetic

   • -1.4% = (1397.797619047619 - 1417.3522793129653) / 1417.3522793129653 × 100
   • 1397.797619047619 = Zillow ZORI, 2026-09
   • 1417.3522793129653 = Zillow ZORI, 2026-08

4. noteWaynesboro city, VA's covered employment was 0.4% 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

   • -0.4 % = 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

5. noteWaynesboro city, VA's average weekly wage 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

Read all 8 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.