Grafton County, NH

Home values #

Typical home $429,567 (Sep 2026), +3.5% over one year, +41.6% over five

• 89th pct · 330th of 3,063 US counties · median $230,451
• 33rd pct · 7th of 10 New Hampshire counties · median $496,284

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 $2,345/mo (Sep 2026), +5.1% over one year; price-to-rent 15.3

• 92nd pct · 100th of 1,358 US counties · median $1,506
• 88th pct · 2nd of 10 New Hampshire counties · median $2,108

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 $2,379 a month on $429,567 at 7.40%, against an average weekly wage worth $6,682 a month: 35.6% of one job’s pay.

• payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $429,567 × 80% = $343,654, r = 7.40%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-15), n = 360 → $2,379/mo principal and interest
• wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $1,542 × 52 / 12 = $6,682) = 36% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
• years of wages = $429,567 / ($1,542 × 52) = 5.4
• price-to-rent = $429,567 / ($2,345 × 12) = 15.3

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 #

54,528 jobs at 3,294 employers (2026 Q1); -0.3% jobs and +1.7% average weekly wage over the year

• 85th pct · 482nd of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
• 66th pct · 4th of 10 New Hampshire counties · median 37,786

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 #

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 #

44 gauges · 0 flooding · 3 with quality panels averaging 100 % · 6 stale

Sites found: 44, 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 #

3 wells in 0 named aquifers:

Sites found: 3, 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 #

$4.0 bn in deposits at 46 offices of 13 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 1,398, moderately concentrated. $957.5 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $670.6 m, grants $211.9 m), $17,560 per covered job

Deposit concentration is 1,398 across 13 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls moderately concentrated.

HHI = Σ (share %)² over 13 banks with deposits in the county = 25.8² + 15.0² + 13.8² + … (10 more) = 1,398

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 $17,560 per covered job, against 54,528 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.

per job = FY2026 obligations $957.5 m / 54,528 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $17,560

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 #

Grafton County, NH: 19 findings, 7 at a watch level and 12 noted

1. watchGrafton County, NH's typical asking rent is -1.8% 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 = -1.7514409525813286 <= -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

2. watchGrafton County, NH's covered employment is -0.3% 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 = -0.3 < 0

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

3. watchGrafton County, NH's years of wages of 5.4 scores 71 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 11 across New Hampshire counties, a gap of 60 points.

   Period 2026-09.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 60 = |71 across US counties - 11 across New Hampshire 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. watchGrafton County, NH's typical home value of $429,567 scores 89 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 33 across New Hampshire counties, a gap of 56 points.

   Period 2026-09.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 56 = |89 across US counties - 33 across New Hampshire counties|

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

5. watchGrafton County, NH's covered employment of -0.3% scores 49 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 100 across New Hampshire counties, a gap of 51 points.

   Period 2026 Q1.
   Show the arithmetic

   • 51 = |49 across US counties - 100 across New Hampshire counties|

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

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.