Clarke County, GA

Home values #

Typical home $331,786 (Sep 2026), +1.7% over one year, +32.4% over five

• 76th pct · 716th of 3,063 US counties · median $230,451
• 78th pct · 35th of 159 Georgia counties · median $215,610
• counties in the Athens-Clarke County metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 4 counties in the Athens-Clarke County 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 $1,758/mo (Sep 2026), +2.5% over one year; price-to-rent 15.7

• 69th pct · 413th of 1,358 US counties · median $1,506
• 57th pct · 30th of 69 Georgia counties · median $1,701
• counties in the Athens-Clarke County metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 4 counties in the Athens-Clarke County 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 $1,838 a month on $331,786 at 7.40%, against an average weekly wage worth $5,096 a month: 36.1% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $331,786 × 80% = $265,429, r = 7.40%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-15), n = 360 → $1,838/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $1,176 × 52 / 12 = $5,096) = 36% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $331,786 / ($1,176 × 52) = 5.4
• price-to-rent = $331,786 / ($1,758 × 12) = 15.7

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 #

74,231 jobs at 4,058 employers (2026 Q1); +0.9% jobs and +2.1% average weekly wage over the year

• 88th pct · 381st of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 92nd pct · 13th of 159 Georgia counties · median 7,095
• counties in the Athens-Clarke County metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 4 counties in the Athens-Clarke County 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 #

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 #

16 USGS reservoir gauges, no capacity figures to weight

Sites found: 16, 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 #

79 gauges · 0 flooding · 27 with quality panels averaging 100 % · 5 stale

Sites found: 79, 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 #

42 wells in 0 named aquifers:

Sites found: 42, 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 + 0.2×0.00 / 0.55

Banks & federal dollars #

$4.2 bn in deposits at 27 offices of 16 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 1,390, moderately concentrated

Deposit concentration is 1,390 across 16 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls moderately concentrated.

HHI = Σ (share %)² over 16 banks with deposits in the county = 27.3² + 14.4² + 11.2² + … (13 more) = 1,390

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 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 #

Clarke County, GA: 7 findings, 7 noted

1. noteClarke County, GA's average weekly wage was 2.1% 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

   • +2.1 % = 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

2. noteClarke County, GA's typical asking rent rose 1.3% from $1,736 in August 2026 to $1,758 in September 2026, on Zillow ZORI.

   Period 2026-09.
   Show the arithmetic

   • +1.3% = (1757.759214124839 - 1735.6207983012682) / 1735.6207983012682 × 100
   • 1757.759214124839 = Zillow ZORI, 2026-09
   • 1735.6207983012682 = Zillow ZORI, 2026-08

3. noteClarke County, GA'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

4. noteClarke County, GA's covered employment of 74,231 ranks 13th of 159 Georgia counties, against a median of 7,095.

   Period 2026 Q1.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 92 on the 0-to-100 scale across 159 Georgia counties that published jobs.emp

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

5. noteThe next Unemployment rate (BLS Employment Situation, monthly) covering Clarke County, GA is due between 2026-10-30 and 2026-11-13, estimated from the publisher's past release pattern.

   Show the arithmetic

   • window = 2026-10-30 to 2026-11-13, estimated from the publisher's past release pattern

   estimated from the publisher's past release pattern; not an announced date

Read all 7 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.