Isom, Kentucky.
Typical home $67,727 (-23.9% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$104 (+41%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $21,223 -24%
- $88,949$67,727 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Down $18,744 -22%
- $86,471$67,727 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Isom$355
- Kentucky$1,212
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, prices here aren't rising.
Typical home values in Isom, KY fell 23.9% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Isom, Letcher County, Kentucky
The Census does not count Isom on its own, so the figures here are Letcher County's. Half the county's households earn more than $41,793 a year and half less; 24% of the county's people live below the poverty line. 74% of the county's homes are lived in by their owners and 26% are rented. Unemployment in Letcher County was 4.7% in August 2026, and the county had 3.0% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Letcher County work in schools and health care, then shops.
Written by AI Claude Haiku 5.5 wrote this on 22 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Isom is a small community in Letcher County, in the Appalachian hills of eastern Kentucky. Across the county, most homes are lived in by their owners, and typical home values are lower than across most of the country. Incomes sit below the county's median, and a larger share of residents live below the poverty line than across the country. Winters are cold, summers are warm, and rain and melted snow fall more heavily than in most of the country.
Work. Across Letcher County, many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, in transport, warehouses and utilities, or in government. Unemployment has fallen over the past year, although the number of jobs slipped slightly in the most recent year. Fewer adults hold a four-year degree than across most of the country, and few people work from home, so most commute to a workplace.
Things to do. Lilley Cornett Woods is a park a short drive away, and Kingdom Come State Park, a protected area, lies a longer drive off. The Hindman Settlement School, a museum, is also a longer drive away.
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- 8,463households
- 43.5median age
- 12%of adults have a degree
- 24%below the poverty line
- 28 mintypical commute
- 8%work from home
What people in Letcher County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Letcher County had 4,130 jobs in 2025, 3.0% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 44° and lows near 24°; warmest in July, with highs near 82° and lows near 64°. About 51 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Whitesburg 2SE weather station, 7 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Letcher County
- Letcher County SchoolsSchool district454FTE
- Whitesburg ARHGeneral hospital290FTE
- Mountain Comprehensive HealthCommunity health centers and clinics, outpatient248
- DJLM OperationsHomes for the elderly with nursing care129
- WalmartDiscount department stores129
- K VA T Food StoresSupermarket98
- Jenkins Independent SchoolsSchool district74FTE
- Childers Oil CompanyGasoline stations with convenience stores66
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 16 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,349 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- LandslidesRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across Letcher County, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively low. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Letcher County.
Isom home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Isom$67,727
- Kentucky$230,909
- United States$366,157
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Zip codes with a Isom address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Isom — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zillow publishes no zip-level series with this city on the address.