Fayette County, PA
Housing, jobs, water, deposits and federal obligations for this county, each figure with the release it came from. Internal point 39.92, -79.64.
Assembled 2026-10-20. Read the brief.
- 14th pct · 2,612th of 3,063 US counties · median $230,451
- 13th pct · 58th of 67 Pennsylvania counties · median $231,558
- 0th pct · 8th of 8 counties in the Pittsburgh metro · median $211,133
- 11th pct · 2,705th of 3,062 US counties · median +2.9%
- 7th pct · 62nd of 67 Pennsylvania counties · median +3.3%
- 14th pct · 7th of 8 counties in the Pittsburgh metro · median +0.1%
- 3rd pct · 1,307th of 1,358 US counties · median $1,506
- 8th pct · 45th of 49 Pennsylvania counties · median $1,322
- 14th pct · 7th of 8 counties in the Pittsburgh metro · median $1,072
- 80th pct · 636th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
- 56th pct · 30th of 67 Pennsylvania counties · median 27,809
- 28th pct · 6th of 8 counties in the Pittsburgh metro · median 68,448
- 50th pct · 1,600th of 3,221 US counties · median $1,039
- 28th pct · 48th of 67 Pennsylvania counties · median $1,102
- 14th pct · 7th of 8 counties in the Pittsburgh metro · median $1,211
- 14th pct · 2,628th of 3,063 US counties · median 4.2
- 16th pct · 56th of 67 Pennsylvania counties · median 3.7
- 0th pct · 8th of 8 counties in the Pittsburgh metro · median 3.0
Typical home value divided by the average annual wage of one covered job.
A percentile here is a min-max scaling of average rank: the smallest published value in the cohort is 0 and the largest is 100, and tied values share the average of the ranks they span. It is not the share of entities below the value, so 0 means smallest, not none below. Entities that did not publish the metric are outside the cohort entirely and are counted in neither the rank nor its denominator.
Home values #
Typical home $143,795 (Sep 2026), -1.6% over one year, +5.6% over five
- 14th pct · 2,612th of 3,063 US counties · median $230,451
- 13th pct · 58th of 67 Pennsylvania counties · median $231,558
- 0th pct · 8th of 8 counties in the Pittsburgh metro · median $211,133
| Item | Value | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Fayette County, PA | $143,795 · -1.6% 1-yr |
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 $923/mo (Sep 2026), +3.6% over one year; price-to-rent 13.0
- 3rd pct · 1,307th of 1,358 US counties · median $1,506
- 8th pct · 45th of 49 Pennsylvania counties · median $1,322
- 14th pct · 7th of 8 counties in the Pittsburgh metro · median $1,072
| Item | Value | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Fayette County, PA | $923/mo · +3.6% 1-yr |
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 $796 a month on $143,795 at 7.40%, against an average weekly wage worth $4,507 a month: 17.7% of one job’s pay.
- payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $143,795 × 80% = $115,036, r = 7.40%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-15), n = 360 → $796/mo principal and interest
- wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $1,040 × 52 / 12 = $4,507) = 18% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
- years of wages = $143,795 / ($1,040 × 52) = 2.7
- price-to-rent = $143,795 / ($923 × 12) = 13.0
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 #
36,867 jobs at 2,714 employers (2026 Q1); -0.8% jobs and +2.2% average weekly wage over the year
- 80th pct · 636th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
- 56th pct · 30th of 67 Pennsylvania counties · median 27,809
- 28th pct · 6th of 8 counties in the Pittsburgh metro · median 68,448
| Item | Value | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Fayette County, PA | 36,867 jobs · $1,040/wk · -0.8% YoY |
| NAICS sector | Jobs | Avg weekly wage | Location quotient | Jobs over the year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Health care and social assistance | 7,641 | $1,057 | 1.38 | +4.2% |
| Retail trade | 4,876 | $656 | 1.36 | -1.9% |
| Accommodation and food services | 4,510 | $535 | 1.36 | -2.3% |
| Manufacturing | 3,911 | $1,362 | 1.32 | +2.5% |
| Transportation and warehousing | 1,760 | $960 | 1.13 | +5.0% |
| Other services | 1,204 | $790 | 1.09 | +4.2% |
| Construction | 1,181 | $1,121 | 0.61 | -4.1% |
| Administrative and waste services | 1,170 | $995 | 0.56 | -5.8% |
| Wholesale trade | 916 | $1,353 | 0.65 | -1.9% |
| Professional and technical services | 845 | $1,240 | 0.33 | -4.7% |
| Finance and insurance | 561 | $1,545 | 0.37 | +3.1% |
| Mining, oil and gas | 508 | $1,871 | 3.87 | -33.2% |
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 #
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 #
$2.8 bn in deposits at 31 offices of 10 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 1,852, highly concentrated. $946.5 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $889.3 m, grants $44.1 m), $25,673 per covered job
| Item | Value | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| PNC Bank, National Association | $819.6 m · 28.8% share · 6 offices | |
| First National Bank of Pennsylvania | $572.9 m · 20.1% share · 5 offices | |
| United Bank | $543.0 m · 19.1% share · 4 offices | |
| Fayette, PA | $946.5 m FY2026 · $25,673/job | |
| MULTIPLE RECIPIENTS | $868.7 m · top recipient FY2026 |
| Institution | Deposits | Share | Offices |
|---|---|---|---|
| PNC Bank, National Association | $819,634,000 | 28.8% | 6 |
| First National Bank of Pennsylvania | $572,882,000 | 20.1% | 5 |
| United Bank | $543,029,000 | 19.1% | 4 |
| Somerset Trust Company | $312,124,000 | 11.0% | 9 |
| First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Greene Co | $270,454,000 | 9.5% | 2 |
| Mid Penn Bank | $130,811,000 | 4.6% | 1 |
| KeyBank National Association | $111,146,000 | 3.9% | 1 |
| Community Bank | $38,835,000 | 1.4% | 1 |
| CFSBANK | $38,471,000 | 1.4% | 1 |
| Woodforest National Bank | $6,950,000 | 0.2% | 1 |
Deposit concentration is 1,852 across 10 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls highly concentrated.
HHI = Σ (share %)² over 10 banks with deposits in the county = 28.8² + 20.1² + 19.1² + … (7 more) = 1,852
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.
| Awarding agency | Obligations |
|---|---|
| Social Security Administration | $771,517,589 |
| Department of Veterans Affairs | $86,819,557 |
| Department of Transportation | $28,032,521 |
| Department of Housing and Urban Development | $24,254,271 |
| Railroad Retirement Board | $12,052,723 |
| Department of Defense | $7,534,360 |
| Department of Education | $4,028,031 |
| Department of Health and Human Services | $3,534,370 |
| Department of Agriculture | $3,001,748 |
| Environmental Protection Agency | $2,300,000 |
| Federal Communications Commission | $1,611,860 |
| Department of the Interior | $1,234,377 |
That is $25,673 per covered job, against 36,867 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.
per job = FY2026 obligations $946.5 m / 36,867 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $25,673
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.
| Series | Latest | As of | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mississippi River at Memphis, stage · ft | not published | not published | |
| Mississippi River at St. Louis, stage · ft | not published | not published | |
| Ohio River at Louisville, stage · ft | 17.95 | 2026-10-18 | -2.6% |
| Missouri River at St. Joseph, stage · ft | not published | not published | |
| Colorado River below Hoover Dam, flow (Hoover releases) · ft³/s | 5,170.00 | 2026-02-05 | -25.3% |
| Texas reservoirs, statewide percent full · % | 72.20 | 2026-10-19 | +0.0% |
| Laredo truck crossings, monthly · trucks | 258,700.00 | 2026-08-01 | -0.4% |
| Los Angeles + Long Beach container volume, annual · TEU | 10,513,167.00 | 2023-01-01 | -13.5% |
| Containerships waiting for a berth, all US ports · ships | 7.00 | 2026-10-13 | +133.3% |
| Shanghai to Los Angeles container rate · $ per 40 ft box | 7,848.00 | 2026-09-01 | +14.9% |
| US diesel retail price · $ per gallon | unavailable | not published | |
| WTI crude oil, spot · $ per barrel | 101.91 | 2026-10-14 | +1.0% |
| 30-year fixed mortgage rate · % | 7.40 | 2026-10-15 | +0.0% |
| Housing starts, annual rate · thousands of units | 1,275.00 | 2026-08-01 | -2.6% |
| Building permits, annual rate · thousands of units | 1,403.00 | 2026-08-01 | -2.1% |
| Case-Shiller US home price index · index, Jan 2000 = 100 | 337.31 | 2026-07-01 | +0.1% |
| Unemployment rate · % | 4.20 | 2026-09-01 | +2.4% |
| US goods and services trade balance, monthly · $ millions | -105,572.00 | 2026-08-01 | -13.7% |
| Retail sales excluding food services, monthly · $ millions | 652,115.00 | 2026-09-01 | +0.7% |
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 #
Fayette County, PA: 17 findings, 2 at a watch level and 15 noted
watchFayette County, PA's typical home value is -1.6% 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 = -1.5991745518888243 < 0
arithmetic on Zillow ZHVI, county and metro files; not an official level
watchFayette County, PA's covered employment is -0.8% 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 = -0.8 < 0
BLS QCEW over-the-year percent change, as published; not an official level
noteFayette County, PA's typical asking rent rose 2.2% from $903 in August 2026 to $923 in September 2026, on Zillow ZORI.
Period 2026-09.Show the arithmetic
- +2.2% = (923.3333333333334 - 903.2035131062153) / 903.2035131062153 × 100
- 923.3333333333334 = Zillow ZORI, 2026-09
- 903.2035131062153 = Zillow ZORI, 2026-08
noteFayette County, PA's average weekly wage was 2.2% 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
- +2.2 % = 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
noteFayette County, PA's covered employment was 0.8% 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
- -0.8 % = 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.