Montgomery County, MD

Home values #

Typical home $606,938 (Sep 2026), -0.4% over one year, +10.1% over five

• 96th pct · 104th of 3,063 US counties · median $230,451
• 95th pct · 2nd of 24 Maryland counties · median $417,647
• 68th pct · 8th of 23 counties in the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metro · median $562,284

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 $2,283/mo (Sep 2026), +0.6% over one year; price-to-rent 22.2

• 91st pct · 111th of 1,358 US counties · median $1,506
• 76th pct · 6th of 22 Maryland counties · median $1,875
• 57th pct · 10th of 22 counties in the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metro · median $2,255

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 $3,362 a month on $606,938 at 7.40%, against an average weekly wage worth $9,213 a month: 36.5% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $606,938 × 80% = $485,551, r = 7.40%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-15), n = 360 → $3,362/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $2,126 × 52 / 12 = $9,213) = 36% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $606,938 / ($2,126 × 52) = 5.5
• price-to-rent = $606,938 / ($2,283 × 12) = 22.2

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 #

440,742 jobs at 37,042 employers (2026 Q1); -4.2% jobs and +3.7% average weekly wage over the year

• 98th pct · 61st of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 100th pct · 1st of 24 Maryland counties · median 44,580
• 90th pct · 3rd of 23 counties in the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metro · median 38,075

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 #

Surface water layer not loaded

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 #

Surface water layer not loaded

Sites found: 0, 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 #

No USGS monitoring wells within 75 km (or above 1,500 km)

Sites found: 0, 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 / 0.35

Banks & federal dollars #

$53.6 bn in deposits at 217 offices of 29 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 912, unconcentrated. $17.3 bn federal obligations in FY2026 (contracts $11.5 bn, direct payments $5.3 bn), $39,216 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 912 across 29 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls unconcentrated.

HHI = Σ (share %)² over 29 banks with deposits in the county = 13.7² + 13.4² + 13.1² + … (26 more) = 912

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 $39,216 per covered job, against 440,742 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $17.3 bn / 440,742 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $39,216

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 #

Montgomery County, MD: 22 findings, 1 at an alert level, 3 at a watch level and 18 noted

1. alertMontgomery County, MD's covered employment is -4.2% 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 = -4.2 <= -3

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

2. watchMontgomery County, MD's covered employment is -4.2% 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 = -4.2 < 0

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

3. watchMontgomery County, MD's typical home value is -0.4% 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 = -0.4125776555821902 < 0

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

4. watchMontgomery County, MD's years of wages of 5.5 scores 73 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 35 across Maryland counties, a gap of 38 points.

   Period 2026-09.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 38 = |73 across US counties - 35 across Maryland 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

5. noteMontgomery County, MD's covered employment was 4.2% 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

   • -4.2 % = 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.