Anchorage Real Estate
 

Is it a good time to buy in Anchorage?

Also, is it better to buy a condo / apartment somewhere or do single family properties appreciate/hold value better?

We'd really like a nice apartment downtown somewhere with a great view. Do these kind of places even exist up there? High rise apartment type places?

Thanks in advance.

Yup, it's a good time to buy in Anchorage right now, because you can actually see the homes as the 10 feet of snow has melted for the brief summer. But I'd not wait too long, as it will start snowing again sometime next week or the week after.

I'm only kidding of course, but wish you well in your house-hunting. It's a glorious time of year, up there, right now, and for the next 3 months. It's the best.

Its been awhile
 

Since I've lived in ANC (2 years ago). Property is expensive compared to the south. We bought a 3BR, 2BA two car GA single family home with very little property for $190K. Our house was backed up in a quite little neighborhood behind Russian Jack park. There are condos downtown that overlook the water but I think that they probably carry a serious price tag to go with them. Due to the airport location I would look in South Anchorage. The schools are generally better and the commute would be easier in the winter. BTW we sold our house for $250K. I am hoping to be back up there in two more years...employer depending;)

T-1

South ANC overpriced
 

Brown - Since you don't have to drive in to work everyday, I would look in the Eagle River/Chugiak area of the Municipality. You will get a larger lot and pay around 20% less than south anc. Schools are great. South ANC lots are often so small that you will have breakfast with your neighbor separated by a pane of glass. Quite a few homes are available and prices are softer than in recent years.... The"Valley" is another option but the drive to the airport gets a little long.

Just closed on a house up there. I bought in South Anchorage, the bottom line on prices is; newer homes are around $200-220 per sq ft, older homes go for around $180-200 per sq ft. I looked up in Eagle River and Chugiac and it is true you get for your money up there. However, I was looking in Jan-Feb and never saw the sun in Eagle River because the town is behind the mountains. I think that would get old in the winter. Also watch out for the traffic. The only way to get from Eagle River to the airport is to drive right through downtown. The traffic gets backed up pretty bad, several times it has taken me up to 30 min waiting at lights.

I'm sure there are some nice Townhomes in the area, but I did not notice any during my search. Nor did I notice any downtown.

what about crash pads and transportation? Is there a public transportation system that will get me to the cargo side or will i need an airport car? Are there lots of crashpads in a good area near food/stores and that type of thing? Sorry for the silly questions but I know nothing about the area and hope to hold it on the next bid...whenever that is...!!

Is there a public transportation system that will get me to the cargo side or will i need an airport car? Are there lots of crashpads in a good area near food/stores and that type of thing?

Don't even think of using public trans to get to the cargo side. There is a bus that runs within a 1/4 mile of the UPS/FedEx ramps, but if you miss it,you're screwed. Also, if you are coming back in from SDF, the early AM flights will have you waiting for quite a while to get to your crashpad. Suck it up and buy a decent front wheel drive car and a spare set of studded snow tires and wheels for the winter. You WILL need them. Having a car up there is an absolute necessity. Beats sitting around the pad waiting for the call!

TH1

I lived in Eagle River (recently) for three years and absolutely loved it. However, if I had to commute to the airport often, the 45 minute drive would get old. I'd probably live in Anchorage if I moved back and needed to be close to the airport. If you're only commuting a couple times per week, I'd recommend Eagle River.

If you mean getting to the cargo side from the passenger side then that's a piece of cake. Call airline support and they'll pick you up anytime and drive you anywhere on airport property. Good guys too.

A lot of guys don't have cars and crash at either B&Bs or local motels that provide transportation. The Puffin Inn and Inlet Towers come to mind. These are obviously better options for a line and not a reserve schedule.

Good luck coming to ANC. Unless you're senior and purple, then stay away. :D

It is a good time to buy in the Anchorage area now. There are hundreds of houses for sale in the valley (Palmer and Wasilla) and that's helping to drive down the prices in Eagle River and Chugiak, and Anchorage as well to a lesser extent. In general commuting from the valley takes just under an hour, from Eagle River/Chugiak 35 to 40 minutes outside of rush hour. A lot more bang for your buck in ER/Chugiak. The market seems to have leveled off in the last 3 to 6 months, prices holding relatively steady and not falling any more. Only people on the south side of Eagle River or down and back in the valley don't get the sun in the dead of winter. Most places are safe. I can't imagine not having a car. In 2 weeks you'll want one to sneak off to the numerous fishing holes within an hours drive.

If all the pilots that you here about get based up here, buying sooner than later is going to be better.

1. If you eat your own boogers, you will love living in the valley.

2. Cabs are pretty cheap, $10 or so from midtown/ Spernard to the airport and in the winter they show up already warm.

We have a winner.....

AKfreighter makes a very good (and often overlooked) point about the Southern exposure. Take a close look at what is to the South of your house -- like mountains. I lived in Eagle River in a subdivision that wasn't far from the river (100 yds.), there is a fairly good size mountain just to the south of ER. I lived in a shadow for the limited amount of daylight in the winter months, from October to March. That's on the sunny days. But the view down Eagle River Valley was phenomenal. I would move back in a heartbeat, but my wife's been there done that, got the t-shirt and refuses to go back. Good luck.

Sounds like you need a new wife! :-)

Truer things have never been spoken!

bumper sticker
 

Seen recently..."I'm Valley Trash and Proud of it!" on a bumper sticker.:D

Lived in Bootleggers Cove for 4 years near the downtown and loved every minute of it. I never have lived so well in my life as there.
I hope someday to position myself for a return. Must slug it out here in Europe until then...
Good luck,
Lifter

That's hilarious because its true. I heard a couple years ago that the WalMart in Wasilla sells more blue tarps and duct tape than any other. Just drive through Wasilla neighborhoods, it seems to be holding the whole area together.

How about living farther north of Wasilla such as Willow. I have seen some nice homes on Lake Nancy for sale. Would the commute be too challenging even if I only need to make it 3 to 4 times a month? Thanks in advance for the advice.

anchorage realtor,,
 

FWIW, if you need a realtor,, I've used this guy in the past, www.lindstam.com. and found him to be quite good. He's a PennAir pilot and works with a quality brokerage firm in ANC.

That would be a very loooong commute. Especially in the winter, with 12 fresh inches of snow, and it's still coming down, and someone hit a moose on the Glenn Highway....you're now looking at 2-3 hours from Willow!

But, buy yourself a commuter plane, put it on floats in the summer, skis in the winter, and no matter what, you're to Lake Hood in 45 minutes or so!...at least that's what I'm trying to convince my wife of!

Best of luck

Fit59,

The Nancy lakes area/Willow is a great area. Not sure if you have kids, schools could be an issue. There are alot of cabins in that area. Buy a smaller place in Anchorage, not the typical $700,000 F/O hillside "I really need a draft trip" mansion. Then buy a cabin.

The plane commute option is great also, but just consider that unless you have a hangar, winter time prep is at least a 2hr process to get ready to fly. If the road conditions are crappy to drive there is a 90% chance flying is not so great also. If ANC goes below a mile you are stuck waiting for a special to get into Lake Hood, and there goes your 45min commute.

Why not just put wings on that motorhome of yours and launch it down Hillberg? It would probably clear Six Mile at least. Oh yeah...wrong direction. I've been gone too long.

Tell Mrs. Trouser hello for us. :)

Where's my halibut?

I might have to try that! I'm cruising to Homer in the RV this weekend. It should be great.

Your 'butt is in my freezer. We got plenty of it. I'll send some out next week if you want.

I just bought in South Anchorage. Looked in Eagle River as everyone told me it was cheaper/bigger. Ultimately just wanted to live in Anchorage more but I never saw the price difference. Prices were very comparable for similar sized houses. Additionally the newer homes up there were on the same tiny lots (5000sq ft) as the newer homes in Anchorage.

For what it's worth conventional wisdom was that cargo pilots live down South, easy commute to the airport. I'm military but hope to suck up for a job so hopefully we'll be neighbors. I bought my house off a JAL guy.

Downtown is extremely expensive. Gotten to the point that people buy a house just for the lot, tear down and start over. There are some awesome condos there though I didn't see anything that would be called a "high rise." My personal favorite was a little 4 unit townhome style, each unit had it's own personal glass elevator and started at $1.2M.

There's a new development just south of the airport, only a couple miles from cargo side. It's being built in an old gravel pit. I actually thought the houses looked nice but my realtor hated it, considering his firm was selling a lot of the houses there I figured he was worth listening to. There are some other established neighborhoods there that looked great, everything I saw was at least 500k. Much as I love airplanes I got turned off watching FedEx take off right over the houses. I heard it's not southflow there very often but it sure was the day I was in the neighborhood.

Sputnik, Did youy happen to buy a house on Moose Dr. ?

No, it's on Beamreach

What are the price ranges in South ANC for a 1500-1900 sf home....either townhouse or sfr.



Thanks

You're looking at between $170-200 per square foot. It has started to flatten out a bit and I have read a few articles that say Anchorage is turning into a buyer's market. I am not so sure the sellers have always acknowledged that. I am seeing homes that have come back on the market with either: lower prices, now showing empty, or with upgrades (paint, flooring, etc). We are going up in a couple of weeks to buy, I'll try to remember to report back.

Haz

Bought mine about a month ago, I was in the market for 4 bed so I was looking for a little larger than what you mentioned FliFast. The two areas of South I really liked were Southport, sort of SW, and where I bought which is called Turnagain (at least by realtors), which is the very south part part of Anchorage, east of Seward highway. Not to be confused with Turnagain something else which is up by downtown and is very nice, very spendy and kind of close to the earthquake shear zone from the last big one. I would have gotten something there anyway but couldn't find anything.

Anyway, the stuff I saw in Southport was high $180s square foot (min), construction less than 10 years, quite nice really. One thing I really liked about Southport were the excellent wide bike/walking trails all through the neighborhood. On SE mostly built in 80s which means larger lots, but also older with dated interiors, possible new roof required, etc. I got little rug monkeys so I liked the bigger yards and older trees, etc of an older neighborhood. $/Sq foot was lower on that side as well, sometimes down to lower 160s. Schools in both are good with the edge towards SE--based on test scores which mean whatever it means. The high school on SW is Diamond, actually a well regarded new school, but Diamond neighborhood is pretty hoodish with a horrible reputation, deserved or not.

Hopefully this link will work, police dept there puts out nice graphics showing crime in different neighborhoods broken down by different types of crime.

http://www.muni.org/apd1/stats.cfm

I can't remember the site but you can find a few with school scores without too much trouble. Schools down south in general have pretty good reputations.

I ended up switching realtors midway though due to non-stellar performance of the first one. Was referred to Bob Stanton by a friend, he did a fantastic job. He's out fishing till the 5th, but I recommend him strongly if you're looking. Here's his website.

http://www.anchoragerealestateinfo.com/

One last thought, I was very surprised to find Anchorage is basically out of land, therefore the new construction tends to have tiny, tiny lots. I'm coming from Hawaii and I still thought they were small. I saw some new construction that was just beautiful, but you were living on top of your neighbors and looking through their windows, not my thing.

Man I'm long winded, FliFast I'd be happy to share what little knowledge I may or may not have gained from my nutso fast home hunting trip if you're interested. I'm very happy with what I bought, but by the time the trip was over I was almost ready to buy anything just to end the pain.

Thanks guys for the info. I'm headed back up there on the 10th to house hunt..maybe more questions to follow...Thanks again.
FF

ps. What's wrong with looking in your neighbors windows ???

You making that move ?

Nothing wrong with looking ... as long as you don't get caught ! ;)

Later,CC

:D

Well of course, I really don't like anyone looking in mine...no one gets to watch for free.

When I first moved to Hawaii I rented a really nice house, but they have no yards here. When my neighbors watched TV I could watch right along with them. And hear it. Drove me nuts. When I imagined living in Alaska about the last possibility I considered was the same tight lot lines they have here.

Good luck on the house hunt

I'm trying to sell a 3 BR/2.5 BA in Eagle River...It is definitely a buyer's market...there are tons of houses on the market.

When you get enough posts to send a PM, pass on some pictures of your place.

Fish

fF15freak,

I understand your position having been up there househunting. I saw one street where, I was told, one squadron had 11 houses for sale. Got to say, didn't seem too much like a buyer's market based on listed prices. Not that it makes you feel better. Clearly most military buyers like ER, there are a lot of C17 guys coming up, not to mention a rush of F22 bubbas. It may take longer than you like but I'm confident what you got will be wanted real soon.

Good luck brother.

I might be interested in your place. Do you have an MLS #, address or anything. We will be up there June 20-24.

Haz