King County, WA
Housing, jobs, water, deposits and federal obligations for this county, each figure with the release it came from. Internal point 47.49, -121.83.
Assembled 2026-10-19. Read the brief.
- 98th pct · 38th of 3,063 US counties · median $230,451
- 97th pct · 2nd of 39 Washington counties · median $428,499
- counties in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro; fewer than 5 is too few to rank.
- 8th pct · 2,788th of 3,062 US counties · median +2.9%
- 0th pct · 39th of 39 Washington counties · median +0.2%
- counties in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro; fewer than 5 is too few to rank.
- 92nd pct · 104th of 1,358 US counties · median $1,506
- 96th pct · 2nd of 27 Washington counties · median $1,705
- counties in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro; fewer than 5 is too few to rank.
- 99th pct · 9th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
- 100th pct · 1st of 39 Washington counties · median 18,771
- counties in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro; fewer than 5 is too few to rank.
- 99th pct · 13th of 3,221 US counties · median $1,039
- 100th pct · 1st of 39 Washington counties · median $1,237
- counties in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro; fewer than 5 is too few to rank.
- 77th pct · 696th of 3,063 US counties · median 4.2
- 23rd pct · 30th of 39 Washington counties · median 6.7
- counties in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro; fewer than 5 is too few to rank.
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 $824,870 (Sep 2026), -2.2% over one year, +7.4% over five
- 98th pct · 38th of 3,063 US counties · median $230,451
- 97th pct · 2nd of 39 Washington counties · median $428,499
- counties in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro; fewer than 5 is too few to rank.
| Item | Value | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| King County, WA | $824,870 · -2.2% 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 $2,323/mo (Sep 2026), +1.6% over one year; price-to-rent 29.6
- 92nd pct · 104th of 1,358 US counties · median $1,506
- 96th pct · 2nd of 27 Washington counties · median $1,705
- counties in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro; fewer than 5 is too few to rank.
| Item | Value | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| King County, WA | $2,323/mo · +1.6% 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 $4,569 a month on $824,870 at 7.40%, against an average weekly wage worth $11,869 a month: 38.5% of one job’s pay.
- payment = P·r / (1 − (1+r)^−n), P = $824,870 × 80% = $659,896, r = 7.40%/12 (Freddie Mac PMMS via FRED, 2026-10-15), n = 360 → $4,569/mo principal and interest
- wage share = payment / (avg weekly wage $2,739 × 52 / 12 = $11,869) = 38% of one average job's pay (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all covered jobs)
- years of wages = $824,870 / ($2,739 × 52) = 5.8
- price-to-rent = $824,870 / ($2,323 × 12) = 29.6
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 #
1.42 m jobs at 82,524 employers (2026 Q1); -0.4% jobs and +1.9% average weekly wage over the year
- 99th pct · 9th of 3,221 US counties · median 8,232
- 100th pct · 1st of 39 Washington counties · median 18,771
- counties in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro: Rank context is unavailable: the manifest lists 3 counties in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro; fewer than 5 is too few to rank.
| Item | Value | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| King County, WA | 1.42 m jobs · $2,739/wk · -0.4% YoY |
| NAICS sector | Jobs | Avg weekly wage | Location quotient | Jobs over the year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Health care and social assistance | 169,705 | $1,567 | 0.79 | +2.6% |
| Professional and technical services | 145,906 | $3,842 | 1.49 | -0.3% |
| Information | 124,421 | $7,304 | 4.75 | -0.5% |
| Accommodation and food services | 105,373 | $824 | 0.83 | -0.8% |
| Retail trade | 99,223 | $1,233 | 0.72 | -2.7% |
| Manufacturing | 91,251 | $2,836 | 0.80 | -0.1% |
| Management of companies | 84,214 | $4,891 | 3.54 | +0.5% |
| Administrative and waste services | 69,065 | $1,863 | 0.85 | -0.6% |
| Construction | 65,444 | $2,034 | 0.88 | -4.1% |
| Transportation and warehousing | 59,476 | $2,150 | 0.99 | +0.6% |
| Wholesale trade | 54,195 | $2,807 | 1.00 | -5.4% |
| Other services | 45,199 | $1,360 | 1.06 | +0.1% |
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 #
$104.2 bn in deposits at 411 offices of 38 banks (SOD June 2026); HHI 1,545, moderately concentrated. $24.7 bn federal obligations in FY2026 (contracts $11.4 bn, direct payments $10.6 bn), $17,356 per covered job
| Item | Value | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Bank of America, National Association | $30.8 bn · 29.5% share · 64 offices | |
| JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association | $17.2 bn · 16.5% share · 63 offices | |
| Wells Fargo Bank, National Association | $12.8 bn · 12.3% share · 50 offices | |
| King, WA | $24.7 bn FY2026 · $17,356/job | |
| MULTIPLE RECIPIENTS | $9.7 bn · top recipient FY2026 |
| Institution | Deposits | Share | Offices |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bank of America, National Association | $30,782,869,000 | 29.5% | 64 |
| JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association | $17,214,587,000 | 16.5% | 63 |
| Wells Fargo Bank, National Association | $12,842,914,000 | 12.3% | 50 |
| U.S. Bank National Association | $12,824,273,000 | 12.3% | 43 |
| KeyBank National Association | $6,214,561,000 | 6.0% | 57 |
| WaFd Bank | $5,720,310,000 | 5.5% | 27 |
| Columbia Bank | $3,882,985,000 | 3.7% | 25 |
| East West Bank | $2,455,733,000 | 2.4% | 4 |
| Washington Trust Bank | $2,110,892,000 | 2.0% | 2 |
| Banner Bank | $1,558,292,000 | 1.5% | 14 |
Deposit concentration is 1,545 across 36 banks, which the 1995 Department of Justice bank merger screen calls moderately concentrated.
HHI = Σ (share %)² over 36 banks with deposits in the county = 29.5² + 16.5² + 12.3² + … (33 more) = 1,545
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 |
|---|---|
| Department of Defense | $10,670,114,061 |
| Social Security Administration | $8,473,163,331 |
| Department of Health and Human Services | $1,828,911,190 |
| Department of Housing and Urban Development | $804,838,924 |
| Department of Veterans Affairs | $774,772,156 |
| Department of Energy | $742,931,624 |
| Department of Transportation | $348,897,402 |
| Department of Homeland Security | $267,601,262 |
| Department of Education | $194,457,929 |
| Department of Commerce | $123,901,687 |
| National Science Foundation | $118,165,786 |
| Department of Justice | $62,062,347 |
That is $17,356 per covered job, against 1,421,311 jobs in the 2026 Q1 QCEW quarter.
per job = FY2026 obligations $24.7 bn / 1.42 m covered jobs (BLS QCEW 2026 Q1, all ownerships) = $17,356
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.
Public companies #
1 public company files with the SEC from a business address here (Microsoft Corp). These rows are a committed fixture, not a pull: the snapshot has never been refreshed, so every financial fact is null and the list is not a complete census of filers in this county. The county's jobs mix maps to 10 GICS sectors, led by Communication Services.
| Item | Value | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Corp | MSFT · Nasdaq · Information Technology · Redmond, WA 98052 |
This is a committed fixture, not a pull: 1 filers are named and their financial facts are empty until the snapshot is refreshed. An absent company is not evidence that none is headquartered here.
Public filers whose registered business address with the SEC falls in this county, from a committed snapshot of EDGAR's company_tickers_exchange file. A position is the centroid of the address's ZIP code (Census ZCTA) or, where the snapshot says so, of its city: it is not a building. Legal entities only - no officer, insider or shareholder data is read, and Forms 3, 4 and 5 are excluded everywhere. Sector exposure is the county's BLS QCEW jobs mix bridged to GICS sectors by a convention documented in lib/companies/sectors.ts; a jobs mix is not a portfolio.
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 #
King County, WA: 20 findings, 5 at a watch level and 15 noted
watchKing County, WA's price-to-rent ratio of 29.6 ranks 24th of 1,358 US counties, a watch level here: price-to-rent in the top tenth of US counties (position among the counties that published both ZHVI and ZORI this month; 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: priceToRent percentile = 98.30508474576271 >= 90
- typical home value / (typical rent × 12); Zillow ZHVI over ZORI, same month
position among the counties that published both ZHVI and ZORI this month; not an official level
watchKing County, WA's price-to-rent ratio is 29.6, a watch level here: typical home value worth 25 or more years of typical rent (typical home value / (typical rent × 12), Zillow ZHVI over ZORI, same month; 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: priceToRent = 29.592940542408865 >= 25
- typical home value / (typical rent × 12); Zillow ZHVI over ZORI, same month
typical home value / (typical rent × 12), Zillow ZHVI over ZORI, same month; convention chosen for this dashboard, not an official level
watchKing County, WA's typical home value is -2.2% 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 = -2.2451581625113466 < 0
arithmetic on Zillow ZHVI, county and metro files; not an official level
watchKing County, WA's covered employment is -0.4% 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 = -0.4 < 0
BLS QCEW over-the-year percent change, as published; not an official level
watchKing County, WA's years of wages of 5.8 scores 77 on the 0-to-100 scale across US counties but 24 across Washington counties, a gap of 54 points.
Period 2026-09.Show the arithmetic
- 54 = |77 across US counties - 24 across Washington 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
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.