Housing Official Can’t Afford Any Ketchum Home Prices Force $37,000 Planner To Live Out Of Town

When Karl Fulmer moved from North Carolina to Ketchum this summer to become the city’s first official charged with solving its shortage of affordable housing, he got a first-hand taste of the problem.

“I can’t even afford to buy a lot,” said the 30-year-old community housing planner who is being paid $37,000 a year.

“I don’t think any of us in the Planning and Zoning office could afford to buy a home in Ketchum,” Fulmer said. “That kind of speaks for itself.”

In fact, most city employees do not live in Ketchum, in large part because the cost of living is so high. For Fulmer, that left him renting a place six miles south of town in the county. He has two roommates.

The reason is obvious. From January through August, 23 single-family homes sold in Ketchum for an average price of $500,000. Another 39 condominium units were sold at an average price of $174,000.

With 10 percent down and an 8 percent mortgage, Fulmer figures he could afford to pay between $90,000 and $110,000 for a house on his salary and considering his other obligations. In Raleigh, N.C., Fulmer said that would buy a two- or three-bedroom home in a nice, older part of town.

A dozen miles south of Ketchum in Hailey, the average condominium sale price was under $92,000, but only two units have been sold this year.

The Ketchum city council has earmarked $840,000 this year for land acquisition, and the cash could be spent on affordable housing, although how far it would go in that real estate market is problematic.