County Lender Headwind: Banks Present, Banks Under Stress and the 0-100 Headwind Score (2026)
County headwind is the credit-supply read that sits beside the market-phase card on a dossier: of the banks with branches in the county, how many are under stress, how much real-estate lending they carry, and what that does to the county's credit. A county where the lenders are stressed sees tighter loans and more REO before prices show it. This report ranks the highest-headwind counties with at least three banks and gives the national totals.
- 3,194 counties carry a headwind score in the 2026-04-26 snapshot; the average is 45.8 and 397 counties score 70 or higher.
- 25,540 bank-county presences are counted, 21,046 of them banks with a stress score, on the county-headwind card.
- Carbon, Pa scores 100.0 with 4 of 5 banks under stress.
- County-headwind weights stressed banks by branch share and real-estate loan concentration.
county-headwind: the county headwind score figures as of 2026-10-20; source the FDIC Summary of Deposits and DLRadar bank stress scores by county.
| County | Headwind 0-100 | Banks present | Banks with stress | Banks with RE loans |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carbon, Pa | 100.0 | 5 | 4 | 3 |
| Oconto, Wi | 100.0 | 5 | 5 | 3 |
| Iron, Mi | 100.0 | 4 | 4 | 2 |
| Waldo, Me | 100.0 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Juniata, Pa | 100.0 | 4 | 4 | 2 |
| Gogebic, Mi | 100.0 | 4 | 4 | 2 |
| Ontonagon, Mi | 100.0 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| Mackinac, Mi | 100.0 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| Roane, Wv | 100.0 | 3 | 3 | 1 |
| Kingman, Ks | 99.8 | 4 | 4 | 0 |
Counties by lender headwind score (3+ banks present) (county-headwind, as of 2026-10-20)
Counties with the highest lender headwind
Carbon, Pa: headwind 100.0, 4 of 5 banks stressed, 3 with real-estate loans; Oconto, Wi: headwind 100.0, 5 of 5 banks stressed, 3 with real-estate loans; Iron, Mi: headwind 100.0, 4 of 4 banks stressed, 2 with real-estate loans; Waldo, Me: headwind 100.0, 4 of 4 banks stressed, 4 with real-estate loans; Juniata, Pa: headwind 100.0, 4 of 4 banks stressed, 2 with real-estate loans; Gogebic, Mi: headwind 100.0, 4 of 4 banks stressed, 2 with real-estate loans.
What county-headwind measures
Banks present, banks with a stress score, banks with real-estate loans, the branch-weighted sums, the county's real-estate loan footprint proxy, its credit headwind proxy and the headwind score 0-100.
How county-headwind is computed
Branches are read from the FDIC Summary of Deposits, each bank's stress score from DLRadar's call-report model, and the county's headwind weights stressed banks by their branch share and real-estate loan concentration. The snapshot used is the fullest one on file, dated on the card.
How to use county-headwind on a deal
High headwind is where financed buyers thin out and sellers who need a loan to close fall through; it favours cash buyers and lengthens exits. Pair it with the bank-stress state page to see which lenders cause it, and with the foreclosure-pressure card, because a stressed lender base feeds REO.
Read county-headwind on your ZIPs
The bank-stress pages rank lenders by state; the live board shows the county headwind on every parcel.
County-headwind refreshes with its source table.
County Lender Headwind: Banks Present, Banks Under Stress and the 0-100 Headwind Score (2026): questions
Why does the ranking require three banks?
A county with one stressed bank and nothing else scores 100 by arithmetic; the floor keeps the table to counties with a lender market.
Is the score the same as the bank-stress state page?
The state page lists the banks; this score weights them by their county footprint.
How often is the snapshot taken?
Monthly, with the Summary of Deposits refreshed annually.
More on the county headwind score
- Bank stress by state →
- Most-distressed ZIP codes (county-headwind) →
- Learn: the county headwind score →
- The construction-permits signal report (county-headwind) →
- The construction-stress score report (county-headwind) →
- The Section 8 and HUD card report (county-headwind) →
- Methodology behind county-headwind →
County Lender Headwind: Banks Present, Banks Under Stress and the 0-100 Headwind Score (2026) (county-headwind) is computed from the FDIC Summary of Deposits and DLRadar bank stress scores by county; the county headwind score is research (county-headwind), not legal advice; nothing on the county-headwind page is tax or county-headwind investment advice, so verify every county-headwind figure with its issuing agency before acting.