Brookings County, SD
Housing, jobs, water, deposits and federal obligations for this county, each figure with the release it came from. Internal point 44.38, -96.80.
Assembled 2026-10-19. Read the brief.
- 75th pct · 743rd of 3,063 US counties · median $230,451
- 81st pct · 10th of 50 South Dakota counties · median $251,658
- 82nd pct · 538th of 3,062 US counties · median +2.9%
- 69th pct · 16th of 50 South Dakota counties · median +3.1%
- 27th pct · 980th of 1,358 US counties · median $1,506
- 50th pct · 6th of 11 South Dakota counties · median $1,275
- 70th pct · 948th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
- 95th pct · 4th of 66 South Dakota counties · median 1,825
- 70th pct · 963rd of 3,221 US counties · median $1,039
- 89th pct · 8th of 66 South Dakota counties · median $978
- 72nd pct · 829th of 3,063 US counties · median 4.2
- 71st pct · 15th of 50 South Dakota counties · median 4.8
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 $327,004 (Sep 2026), +6.1% over one year, +30.0% over five
- 75th pct · 743rd of 3,063 US counties · median $230,451
- 81st pct · 10th of 50 South Dakota counties · median $251,658
| Item | Value | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Brookings County, SD | $327,004 · +6.1% 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 $1,275/mo (Sep 2026), +9.8% over one year; price-to-rent 21.4
- 27th pct · 980th of 1,358 US counties · median $1,506
- 50th pct · 6th of 11 South Dakota counties · median $1,275
| Item | Value | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Brookings County, SD | $1,275/mo · +9.8% 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 $1,811 a month on $327,004 at 7.40%, against an average weekly wage worth $4,979 a month: 36.4% of one job’s pay.
- payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $327,004 × 80% = $261,603, r = 7.40%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-15), n = 360 → $1,811/mo principal and interest
- wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $1,149 × 52 / 12 = $4,979) = 36% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
- years of wages = $327,004 / ($1,149 × 52) = 5.5
- price-to-rent = $327,004 / ($1,275 × 12) = 21.4
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 #
19,409 jobs at 1,419 employers (2026 Q1); +1.6% jobs and +3.6% average weekly wage over the year
- 70th pct · 948th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
- 95th pct · 4th of 66 South Dakota counties · median 1,825
| Item | Value | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Brookings County, SD | 19,409 jobs · $1,149/wk · +1.6% YoY |
| NAICS sector | Jobs | Avg weekly wage | Location quotient | Jobs over the year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manufacturing | 4,340 | $1,676 | 2.78 | +1.5% |
| Accommodation and food services | 2,026 | $370 | 1.16 | +1.0% |
| Retail trade | 1,861 | $659 | 0.98 | -0.7% |
| Health care and social assistance | 1,206 | $941 | 0.41 | +2.3% |
| Professional and technical services | 817 | $1,418 | 0.61 | +5.4% |
| Construction | 744 | $1,172 | 0.73 | -0.5% |
| Wholesale trade | 646 | $1,914 | 0.87 | -2.9% |
| Other services | 607 | $804 | 1.05 | +12.0% |
| Finance and insurance | 549 | $1,648 | 0.69 | -3.3% |
| Transportation and warehousing | 322 | $1,212 | 0.39 | -3.9% |
| Arts, entertainment and recreation | 322 | $356 | 1.01 | +22.9% |
| Real estate and rental | 212 | $995 | 0.71 | +8.2% |
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 #
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 #
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 #
moderate (0.25)
Σ wᵢ·termᵢ / Σ wᵢ = 0.35×0.25 / 0.35
Banks & federal dollars #
$2.2 bn in deposits at 14 offices of 8 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 4,742, highly concentrated. $221.1 m federal obligations in FY2026 (direct payments $179.1 m, grants $35.0 m), $11,391 per covered job
| Item | Value | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| First Bank & Trust | $1.5 bn · 66.9% share · 5 offices | |
| BankStar Financial | $302.1 m · 13.5% share · 3 offices | |
| Wells Fargo Bank, National Association | $138.8 m · 6.2% share · 1 office | |
| Brookings, SD | $221.1 m FY2026 · $11,391/job | |
| MULTIPLE RECIPIENTS | $145.3 m · top recipient FY2026 |
| Institution | Deposits | Share | Offices |
|---|---|---|---|
| First Bank & Trust | $1,500,066,000 | 66.9% | 5 |
| BankStar Financial | $302,145,000 | 13.5% | 3 |
| Wells Fargo Bank, National Association | $138,820,000 | 6.2% | 1 |
| Dacotah Bank | $115,849,000 | 5.2% | 1 |
| Central Bank | $88,041,000 | 3.9% | 1 |
| Richland State Bank | $44,676,000 | 2.0% | 1 |
| First Interstate Bank | $27,334,000 | 1.2% | 1 |
| Citizens State Bank, of Arlington | $25,927,000 | 1.2% | 1 |
Deposit concentration is 4,742 across 8 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls highly concentrated.
HHI = Σ (share %)² over 8 banks with deposits in the county = 66.9² + 13.5² + 6.2² + … (5 more) = 4,742
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 | $128,745,443 |
| Department of Agriculture | $33,330,969 |
| Department of Education | $16,201,581 |
| Department of Veterans Affairs | $15,545,276 |
| Department of Transportation | $8,267,333 |
| Department of Health and Human Services | $3,931,954 |
| National Science Foundation | $3,030,906 |
| National Aeronautics and Space Administration | $2,974,644 |
| Department of Housing and Urban Development | $2,415,296 |
| Department of Commerce | $2,302,984 |
| Department of Defense | $1,727,811 |
| Department of the Interior | $1,129,953 |
That is $11,391 per covered job, against 19,409 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.
per job = FY2026 obligations $221.1 m / 19,409 covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $11,391
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 #
Brookings County, SD: 12 findings, 3 at a watch level and 9 noted
watchBrookings County, SD's typical asking rent is +9.8% against a year earlier, a watch level here: typical asking rent at least 8 percent above a year ago (arithmetic on Zillow ZORI; 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.yoyPct = 9.750489267797976 >= 8
arithmetic on Zillow ZORI; convention chosen for this dashboard, not an official level
watchBrookings County, SD's typical asking rent rose 4.9% from $1,216 in August 2026 to $1,275 in September 2026, on Zillow ZORI.
Period 2026-09.Show the arithmetic
- +4.9% = (1275.2063492063492 - 1215.8605033019749) / 1215.8605033019749 × 100
- 1275.2063492063492 = Zillow ZORI, 2026-09
- 1215.8605033019749 = Zillow ZORI, 2026-08
watchBrookings County, SD's price-to-rent ratio of 21.4 scores 81 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 40 across South Dakota counties, a gap of 41 points.
Period 2026-09.Show the arithmetic
- 41 = |81 across US counties - 40 across South Dakota counties|
- typical home value / (typical rent × 12); Zillow ZHVI over ZORI, same month
position among the entities that published this metric this period; not an official level
noteBrookings County, SD's average weekly wage was 3.6% 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
- +3.6 % = 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
noteBrookings County, SD's covered employment was 1.6% 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
- +1.6 % = 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.