The Anchorage Market: Your Expert Update

By Dar Walden

Dar Walden and her team are ranked #1 in the state of Alaska! She is ranked in the Top 500 Real Estate Marketers of the Year by the National Association of Expert Advisors (out of 1,216,382 agents)!

People everywhere I go want to know what I think the market is doing. Unfortunately, we have no crystal ball. I have been in this business for a long time—22 years, and I will say this is the most unique market that I’ve been in.

In single-family homes, we currently have about 141 active listings, which is low. In February 2020, we had 540 listings, which was the peak of COVID, and in 2021, we had 280; right now, we’re down to 141 active properties. Half a month of inventory is all we have right now. Inventory is tight. If you’re a buyer, you’ve probably been struggling to win an offer. Most of the time, we put something on the market, and we have five to ten offers on it in a day or two.

The condo market is always tougher to sell in, and the marketing time is much longer. Right now, we have 42 active listings, which is almost nothing. In 2020, we had 597 condos. In 2021, we had 297 condos. So we have 42, and we have 133 that are currently under contract.

It’s not that houses aren’t selling; we just don’t have enough inventory right now. Sellers that don’t necessarily have to move are holding tight because they are afraid they will sell their house and not have a place to go. We’ll see what the spring brings. It’s become more active in the last two weeks, so hopefully, spring will get things back to normal again.

Our average sales price is $440,500 in the Anchorage municipality area. Today, we’re down about 3.4% in price appreciation, which is expected in January, February, and March. Last year we were down 6% or 7% at this time, and we had a 7% or 7.5% positive growth on appreciation for the whole year. So it will catch up as the year goes on.

Hopefully, you found that interesting and helpful. Remember, if you have any questions about the Anchorage housing market or real estate in general, please feel free to reach out to us by phone or email. We would be happy to serve as your resource for all of your real estate needs.