New home buyers are faced with a multitude of decisions from the kitchen stove with four, five or six burners to the ‘Bad Ass’ fan for the living room. (And, yes, there actually is a brand called that and their fans are as unique as their name.) But always the most important Continue Reading
Future of Anchorage Housing Hangs on Urgent Need for Affordability Solutions
By Connie Yoshimura Anchorage housing continues its first-class trajectory resulting in more and more buyers shut out of the market. According to MLS statistics, the first five months of 2024 showed an 11.95% increase in closed volume but only a 4.01% Continue Reading
Are Anchorage Home Values Stalled?
And the answer is no due to a continuing depletion of available homes for sale. Whether that stall floats along for the remainder of the year or dips downward depends not so much on mortgage interest rates but available inventory. So, unless Continue Reading
The Return of the Ranch
Much of Anchorage’s original housing stock consisted of ranch homes in Nunaka Valley, Old Turnagain and the ‘pilot’ housing along the original airstrip that we now call the ‘Park Strip’. The Nunaka Valley homes were small square footage, many with just two bedrooms and Continue Reading
Alaska’s Housing Shortage Continues
The good news is that single family permits have increased from last year. Through April 2022 single family permits rose to 73 compared to 62 in 2021. That’s not much of an increase but it’s a good start with the expectation that lower framing prices will encourage Continue Reading
Can Anchorage Build Its Way Out of the Housing Shortage?
Not if the April 2022’s most recent building safety activity report is any indication. Single family building permits are up from 62 to 73 but duplex permits are down from 24 units in 2021 to 8 this year. That’s a breakeven number for the two most desirable housing Continue Reading
Anchorage Struggles to Compete with the Mat-Su Borough
According to the 2020 U.S. census, Anchorage lost 579 citizens during the last decade. However, not all of them left for warmer weather as the Mat-Su gained a whopping 18,096. The Mat-Su also gained almost 10,000 housing units to accommodate their surge in Continue Reading
Anchorage’s Lack of New Housing Continues
Anchorage’s slow slide down into fewer and fewer new housing permits continues. So far this year there have been only 239 new housing units permitted, including single family, duplex and multi-family compared to 378 in 2020. No matter all the talk about the Continue Reading
Twelve Things You May Not Know, but Should Know, about the South Central Housing Market
1. Million dollar home sales continues its robust climb with 41 closed sales YTD compared to 37 for all of 2020. 2. At the opposite end of the housing spectrum is the condo market. There are 411 condo associations in Anchorage and 13,844 condo units. The average Continue Reading
Why We Need Unit Lot Subdivisions
The Anchorage residential market continues on its robust journey of higher prices and multiple offers. The May 2021 average sales price was $458,580, the highest monthly sales price ever recorded since January 2013. Yet, of last week’s 112 pending sales in Anchorage and Continue Reading
Connie Yoshimura is the Owner and Broker of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Alaska Realty. With over 40 years of residential real estate experience, she continues to be a leader in Alaska’s housing market. Most recently, she sold the highest-priced home ever recorded in the Alaska MLS.