Riley County, KS

Home values #

Typical home $273,920 (Sep 2026), +4.8% over one year, +27.6% over five

• 63rd pct · 1,112th of 3,063 US counties · median $230,451
• 94th pct · 7th of 105 Kansas counties · median $148,146
• counties in the Manhattan metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Manhattan 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 $1,296/mo (Sep 2026), +5.0% over one year; price-to-rent 17.6

• 30th pct · 940th of 1,358 US counties · median $1,506
• 72nd pct · 6th of 19 Kansas counties · median $1,215
• counties in the Manhattan metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Manhattan 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 $1,517 a month on $273,920 at 7.40%, against an average weekly wage worth $4,788 a month: 31.7% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $273,920 × 80% = $219,136, r = 7.40%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-15), n = 360 → $1,517/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $1,105 × 52 / 12 = $4,788) = 32% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $273,920 / ($1,105 × 52) = 4.8
• price-to-rent = $273,920 / ($1,296 × 12) = 17.6

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 #

29,263 jobs at 1,956 employers (2026 Q1); -4.3% jobs and +5.8% average weekly wage over the year

• 77th pct · 730th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 94th pct · 7th of 105 Kansas counties · median 2,554
• counties in the Manhattan metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Manhattan 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 #

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 #

7 USGS reservoir gauges, no capacity figures to weight

Sites found: 7, 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 #

43 gauges · 0 flooding · 13 with quality panels averaging 87 % · 7 stale

Sites found: 43, 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 #

7 wells in 0 named aquifers:

Sites found: 7, 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 + 0.2×0.13 / 0.55

Banks & federal dollars #

$2.8 bn in deposits at 27 offices of 16 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 2,242, highly concentrated. $525.2 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $348.5 m, contracts $96.5 m), $17,949 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 2,242 across 16 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls highly concentrated.

HHI = Σ (share %)² over 16 banks with deposits in the county = 43.3² + 11.6² + 7.9² + … (13 more) = 2,242

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 $17,949 per covered job, against 29,263 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $525.2 m / 29,263 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $17,949

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 #

Riley County, KS: 14 findings, 1 at an alert level, 3 at a watch level and 10 noted

1. alertRiley County, KS' covered employment is -4.3% 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 = -4.3 <= -3

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

2. watchRiley County, KS' covered employment is -4.3% 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 = -4.3 < 0

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

3. watchRiley County, KS' typical asking rent of $1,296 scores 31 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 72 across Kansas counties, a gap of 41 points.

   Period 2026-09.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 41 = |31 across US counties - 72 across Kansas counties|

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

4. watchRiley County, KS' typical home value of $273,920 scores 64 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 94 across Kansas counties, a gap of 31 points.

   Period 2026-09.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 31 = |64 across US counties - 94 across Kansas counties|

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

5. noteRiley County, KS' average weekly wage was 5.8% 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

   • +5.8 % = 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

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.