The first five months of 2021 has seen the continued fast pace of residential sales. Despite lack of inventory, unit sales increased by 25% when compared to the same time last year and total volume has increased by over 35%. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the average Continue Reading
Memo to a New Administration
With change comes opportunity and there certainly is a lot of opportunity to make housing more affordable in Anchorage. The cost of housing always begins with the cost of land which is calculated not just by square foot or acreage but by its current allowable use as defined Continue Reading
Why I Love New Homes
Because they have no ghosts; no fingerprints of a past life; no lost memories. It’s a new beginning mingled with the smell of sawn cedar, LED lights and smooth, freshly painted walls with no texture. It’s a first coat of paint—pure and simple—in so many different Continue Reading
How to Buy a House That Doesn’t Exist
With less than a one month supply of single family homes for sale in the Municipality of Anchorage, frustrated buyers wanting to take advantage of historic low interest rates are exploring new construction. However, with few speculative homes being built, buyers are having Continue Reading
Home Building – An Economic Booster
The construction industry in Anchorage lost 600 jobs in 2020. It was down from 7,800 in 2019 to 7,200. Most of that loss was in the commercial sector. In its January 2021 Jobs Forecast, Alaska Economic Trends reported that two of the three new hotels Continue Reading
Alaska’s Ever Changing Real Estate Market
More people are leaving Alaska than moving in. According to the Department of Labor, Alaska has lost more movers than it’s gained every year since 2013. As of July 2020, the population had fallen to 728,903 from 740,637 in 2016. Like many economic factors, the Continue Reading
What You Need to Know When Considering a New Build
Late August is the rainy season and it’s also a reminder that if you want to have a new home built this year, you have about 45 days to get into the ground before builders will have to heat and tent their foundations which will add between $5,000 and $10,000 to the cost of a Continue Reading
Lack of Affordable New Housing Continues
Here at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Alaska Realty, we have just analyzed the single family permits from January 1 through July 24 2020 and the news is not good for buyers wanting to purchase a newly built home for the average sales price of $391,235 as reported by Continue Reading
Thank You for Reading My Real Estate Columns for Almost Forty Years
As many of you know, I began my real estate career with the goal of making enough money so that I could quit work and write poetry. Poets are inevitably poor and I grew up in a midwestern factory town which manufactured Maytag parts and where my Caucasian grandfather Continue Reading
How Alaska’s Changing Demographics May Affect our Housing Trends
Alaska’s population fell in 2019 to 731,007 which is 8,600 below the peak of 739,649 people in 2016, according to the Alaska Economic Trends February 2020 report. The major factors affecting this decline is the number of people moving out of Alaska and fewer Continue Reading
Connie Yoshimura, Owner/Broker of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Alaska Realty, has over 30 years of residential real estate experience. She was the number one individual realtor, according to Multiple Listing Service, in 2015,2016, 2017.