Contra Costa County, CA

Home values #

Typical home $768,394 (Sep 2026), -0.5% over one year, -3.0% over five

• 98th pct · 49th of 3,063 US counties · median $230,451
• 73rd pct · 16th of 58 California counties · median $494,569
• 0th pct · 5th of 5 counties in the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont metro · median $1,441,170

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 $2,902/mo (Sep 2026), +4.3% over one year; price-to-rent 22.1

• 97th pct · 40th of 1,358 US counties · median $1,506
• 72nd pct · 14th of 48 California counties · median $2,448
• 0th pct · 5th of 5 counties in the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont metro · median $3,865

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 $4,256 a month on $768,394 at 7.40%, against an average weekly wage worth $7,835 a month: 54.3% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $768,394 × 80% = $614,715, r = 7.40%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-15), n = 360 → $4,256/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $1,808 × 52 / 12 = $7,835) = 54% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $768,394 / ($1,808 × 52) = 8.2
• price-to-rent = $768,394 / ($2,902 × 12) = 22.1

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 #

375,487 jobs at 42,652 employers (2026 Q1); +0.9% jobs and +1.3% average weekly wage over the year

• 97th pct · 73rd of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 80th pct · 12th of 58 California counties · median 74,865
• 25th pct · 4th of 5 counties in the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont metro · median 413,139

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 #

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 #

182 gauges · 0 flooding · 122 with quality panels averaging 86 % · 104 stale

Sites found: 182, 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 #

5 wells in 0 named aquifers:

Sites found: 5, 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 (0.05)

Σ wᵢ·termᵢ / Σ wᵢ = 0.35×0.00 + 0.2×0.14 / 0.55

Banks & federal dollars #

$50.7 bn in deposits at 171 offices of 31 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 1,517, moderately concentrated. $7.1 bn federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $6.1 bn, contracts $871.9 m), $18,960 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 1,517 across 31 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls moderately concentrated.

HHI = Σ (share %)² over 31 banks with deposits in the county = 29.0² + 16.6² + 13.5² + … (28 more) = 1,517

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 $18,960 per covered job, against 375,487 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $7.1 bn / 375,487 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $18,960

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 #

Contra Costa County, CA: 19 findings, 3 at a watch level and 16 noted

1. watchContra Costa County, CA's years of wages of 8.2 ranks 197th 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 = 93.59895493141738 >= 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. watchContra Costa County, CA's typical home value is -0.5% 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 = -0.5265993822171905 < 0

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

3. watchContra Costa County, CA's years of wages of 8.2 scores 94 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 63 across California counties, a gap of 30 points.

   Period 2026-09.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 30 = |94 across US counties - 63 across California counties|
   • typical home value / (average weekly wage × 52); one average covered job, not a household

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

4. noteContra Costa County, CA's average weekly wage was 1.3% 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

   • +1.3 % = 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

5. noteContra Costa County, CA's covered employment was 0.9% 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

   • +0.9 % = 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.