Risk index
Five risks that shape local financial pressure
Each risk category is built from public, defensible data on income, debt, housing costs, legal activity, and employment stability. These risks combine into Financial Risk Score v1 to explain why some places experience higher financial pressure.
Household financial stress
Baseline fragility signals tied to income, savings resilience, and cost burden.
Higher stress means more households are cost-burdened and rely on SNAP or other supports, leaving less room for savings.
- Median household income
- Households under 200% poverty
- Rent-burdened households (30%+)
- Mortgage-burdened households (30%+)
- Households receiving SNAP
- Income trend (YoY)
Debt and credit pressure
Leverage, utilization, and credit vulnerability signals that elevate risk.
High credit pressure often aligns with more late payments, higher borrowing costs, and limited access to affordable credit.
- Subprime share
- 90+ day delinquency rate
- Revolving utilization
- Total debt per borrower
Cost of living exposure
Housing costs and rent growth that erode purchasing power.
Higher exposure leaves less discretionary income and raises the risk of rent burden or displacement.
- Median gross rent
- Median monthly housing costs
- Median home value
- Rent-to-income ratio
- Rent growth (YoY)
Legal and collection risk
Civil court activity and enforcement intensity that signal collection pressure.
More filings can translate into more lawsuits, judgments, and collection pressure on households.
- Civil court filings per 100k residents
- Civil filings trend (YoY)
Employment and income stability
Exposure to job volatility, earnings softness, and income shocks.
Lower stability can mean more missed bills, less savings, and heavier reliance on credit during downturns.
- Unemployment rate
- Unemployment volatility (monthly)
- Labor force participation
- Employment-to-population rate
- Median earnings (full-time, year-round)
- Earnings trend (YoY)
- Industry concentration (HHI)