Anchorage Thoughts - 3/29/2024

Anchorage had potential but with the massive amount of homeless the petty crime is on the rise. I chose to live in a town outside of Anchorage rather than the city for that very reason. Also the average cost of a 2 bedroom is a lot higher than $1400. I would say the more realistic number is $1800.

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Pros, Cons, and Variables to living in Anchorage - 3/18/2024

I lived in Anchorage for the better part of the 2010's. Pros: o Beautiful, mountain and ocean views; close to many hiking trails, campsites, fishing grounds, hunting areas, and winter outdoor sports. Nothing like hiking on a glacier in the summer! o Different nature than most Lower 48 cities: moose, bears, fox, magpies, ravens, lynx, eagles, whales, mountain sheep/ goats, some coastal ocean birds. It won't be unusual to have a moose peaking her head through a drive thru window. o Moderate summertime temps with plenty of daylight to do outdoor activities such as hiking, fishing, and camping. o Certain job industries are predominant and/or strong. (i.e. oil and gas, medical, education, construction, service jobs, military & Government) o Home and commercial construction can survive the harsh winters and even strong earthquakes. You get what you pay for when it comes to home buying. A decent home is selling for around $400,000. The best homes are on the southside of town. o High median income to compensate for the high cost of living. o Anchorage is a foodie town! If you are looking for BBQ, go somewhere else. But, the culturally vibrant town has great Asian food, pizzerias, seafood, and pubs. Pub crawling was my favorite in-city activity. I have tried and loved unique Alaskan food such as reindeer sausage, salmon cheese ball, halibut, salmon eggs benedict, caribou, salmon jerky, reindeer meatloaf, and this awesome Turkish restaurant called Turkish Delish. I have even tried Alaskan Native foods such as Eskimo Ice Cream (Akutaq) and muktuk. o Diverse culture. Alaskan schools have been rated as the most diverse in the country. I enjoyed learning about the Alaskan Native culture (which is embedded in many aspects of local activities). o Festivals: The Fur Rondy is Anchorage's most popular festival that includes the traditional start of the Iditarod. Cons: o I didn't mind the winters and long nights. Great for sleeping in on the weekends! Some people may not adjust as well. Of course, long summer days can make sleeping difficult but I was usually outdoors. So, it didn't bother me. o Large homeless population. This has been an issue for years. Unless you leave your vehicle unlocked, most of the homeless in Anchorage is noninvasive or not pushy when begging. o High property crime. Lock everything up! o Rent varies. There is not a lot of apartments available for the population. But there are a lot of homes for rent. Rent is generally high at around $1200/month for a 2-bedroom apartment or $3200/month for a 3-bedroom home. Not much yard unless you get a home on the southside. o California politics. Most Alaskans are very independent-minded. California politics are too invasive and regulatory for most Alaskans. But, as more West Coast people move to Anchorage, there will be more West Coast politics injected into the communities. o Certain job industries are weak (i.e. manufacturing, transportation) o Education: The schools have a hard time attracting and keeping great educators. California politics, non-competitive salaries/compensation, ESL, and very expensive per child to educate are some of the reasons for low test scores as compared to Lower 48 schools. o Logistics: It is long, expensive, and difficult to travel back and forth between Anchorage and the Lower 48. Supplies and store merchandise is at the mercy of the barges. There is one deep water port 50-miles out of the city and the city has an aging moderate water port. Store shelves can be empty from time to time. o Alaskan Time Zone can create difficult times to connect with family and friends in the Lower 48... especially with Eastern Time Zone 4-hours ahead. Variables: o As with anywhere, the local wildlife can be a beautiful sight or a nuisance. You must be bear aware, moose can be tame or they can charge you, magpies are jerks of the avian world, ravens tear apart the lining of pick up trucks and many Alaskan wildlife will pick through garbage cans and dumpsters (bears, ravens, fox) o Television programming for live events such as sports can advantageous for the Alaskan Time Zone. For example, I wake up on Sundays to watch football rather than waiting until noon. Then again, I was usually at work when Monday Night Football came on. The great thing is being able to watch MNF and go to bed at a decent time. o Sporting events: No professional teams in Anchorage and the Alaskan Aces minor league hockey team left. You get Seattle-based professional teams on TV. College sports are fun to watch. There is a strong intramural community for many sports. There are plenty of clubs for children to be involved in a variety of sports. o Weather: There are some unique weather or meteorological phenomenons that are amazing to see: Northern Lights, sun dogs, sun pillars, hoarfrost, and floating ice crystals. However, most of those events require extreme cold. The late summer also has a lot of rainy days. The best time of year for weather is between Memorial Day and Independence Day. o Cleanliness: Garbage appears during Spring Breakup, but, many communities have a very active clean up effort. The homeless don't clean up after themselves. o The Roads: You may never see pavement during the winter months of October through April. It's usually too cold for salt and the moose would lick it anyways (creating a road hazard). So, AKDOT will plow and drop these tiny, sharp rocks for traction. They pop tires and flying rocks spit out by tires causes cracks in the windshield. Plows are active and keep the roads clear of snow and ice. Then, they clean up the rocks and dust during the summer. You can have studded tires during the winter season. Roads are well maintained despite the challenging weather conditions. It's crazy to drive on roads with frost heaves! I hope you found this informative. If given the chance, I would move back to Anchorage in a heartbeat.

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it's cool - pros and cons of anchorage - 9/5/2022

it's nice, i liked it when i grew up there. kinda wish i could move back, but i didn't really like being isolated from all the things like nordstrom, trader joe's, gamestop, or lego. otherwise, it was really nice (i lived in south addition and midtown) and i wish i could move back but i'm only 15. it's cool, and i really liked anchorage. pros: natural beauty. i live in colorado and don't get me wrong, colorado is gorgeous too, but as an alaskan, i think alaska beats colorado schools: idk why but anchorage schools were safer and better for me- i guess it's because where i go to school in denver there's a ton of fights and people act like gangsters. there were, maybe 2 kids like that in west anchorage hs. i just moved here 14 months ago and i love colorado but hate denver. i miss anchorage architecture: i prefer the history of denver but architecture in anchorage is extremely unique and cool! it's crazy how downtown anchorage looks so modern sometimes- the weather: i hate 85+ weather. it's hot, overrated, annoying, and gives me sunburns. i prefer anchorage's 65 degree summer days with some clouds over denver's never ending 80+ heat with annoying no-rain thunderstorms. i like winter in denver, though. the rain in anchorage makes me happy for whatever reason lol friendliness: people in anchorage are friendly and nice, compare that to people in lakewood colorado or downtown denver and you got passive aggressive conformist people. coloradans are similar to anchorageites outside of denver and pueblo, though. crime: apparently anchorage has really bad pretty low crime outside northeast anchorage- that's weird, i always felt safe in the city but apparently anchorage has high crime. mtn view is kinda sketchy though air quality: anchorage's air is really clean! cleanliness: i don't see much litter at all when i go back there to see my friends and family- anchorage is a very clean city! cons: crime- mtn view and parts of fairview are pretty dangerous during night, but you need to watch out for north russian jack. weird stuff happens there, usually a murder there once every week or so. west colfax in denver is like a worse mtn view with daily murders. isolation- yeah- as i said, anchorage doesn't really have amenities like nordstrom (closed in 2019) or ikea, i suppose. ikea and other stores should expand to anchorage, juneau, kodiak, palmer, kenai or fairbanks. it gets pretty boring in the winter if you don't like school or hiking- usually i played video games and drank hot cocoa when i lived in anchorage. winters aren't bad there, but i don't like how there's not much daylight hours. one more hour would be fine. that's my review lol. anchorage is a solid 8.5/10 for me. i wanna go back and so do my parents but my parents prefer to either stay in colorado outside of denver or move back to alaska.

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Beautiful place when it's sunny... - 12/14/2021

I grew up and lived in Anchorage during my teenage years and 20s. Positives: Its hard to find a city closer to nature. Sometimes you get more nature than you may want, but it's amazing to be able to just drive a few minutes out of town and there is nobody and you are in the boonies. It's beautiful when it's sunny. Driving to Denali National Park is great, when it is sunny and you can actually see Denali. Most of the time it is covered by clouds - something they unfortunately don't tell the tourists. Lack of population can be nice. It's easy to advance in a career because you are not competing with people from other bigger cities in the state because there are none. You are not competing with many people out of state because not many people are willing to move to AK. Obviously, if you like winter sports you will have things to do. There are some arts and cultural things to do. Some people who really like cold weather and isolation are very happy there. Cons: It's rarely sunny. And by rarely, Anchorage is listed as the most gloomiest city in the country for a reason. If you think Portland or Seattle is bad, you haven't seen anything. As a PSA, if you have any mental health issues such as depression, bipolar, etc, please think VERY hard before moving to Alaska. It will likely only contribute to it. The extreme darkness, cold and dreariness in the winter can bring down even the most cheerful disposition. And summer can exacerbate mania. If you don't have mental health or substance abuse challenges, you may after living there several years. Very high prevalence of these things as well as domestic violence. If you still decide to live there, remember to take Vitamin D, as deficiency in this due to lack of sun probably contributes to above issues (not that I am a doctor, just common sense). At least get checked for deficiency as I wish I had when living there. If you don't have a higher income career that allows you to afford regular plane tickets to leave the state for visiting family/friends and vacations to less dreary places, then you may feel trapped and isolated. Isolation is real there, as you can't simply hop in your car and drive to another state or even another large city in the state for a change of scenery, because as mentioned, there are none. You can drive to a few small towns, but it's all going to be pretty much more of the same. Yes you can take a boat out in Seward or something, but it will still most likely be chilly and dreary unless you luck out that one of the few sunny warm days happens to fall on your day off and then you are Golden, but you have to cherish it like a precious moment in life, that rarely comes along and when it's over, it could be another year or more before it happens again. Hence, adding to gloom and depression. If not made clear- if you like sun, you will be miserable. You can not drive to a warmer place, as you have to drive all the way through Canada to get to one. Hence, many people fly to Hawaii for vacations if they can afford it. If you don't have a garage, you will spend a lot of time clearing snow off your car. Driving can he hazardous as with other wintery climates. You will want to eat out just to get out of the house, as there is not a lot of other things to do in the dark vwinter, but it's very expensive to do so. So again, if you are not a high earner, you will be happiest here if you really like doing things like cross-country skiing in the dark. Because it WILL be dark when you get off work (and before you go to work) in the winter. Hope this helps give someone a dose of reality to make a decision, as there is a reason the population doesn't grow much in Alaska. For every person who falls in love after coming during a rare sunny and lovely weather week visiting in the summer and decides to move there - someone else has just spent their last dreary winter there and can't wait to get out.

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Although it's very beautiful, it's not utopia. - 8/16/2020

Like any city, Anchorage has it's pros and cons: Pros: The scenery is incredibly beautiful. Endless amount of walking trails to enjoy. The summers are mild and 80 degree days in the Anchorage Bowl are scarce. The winter scenery is breathtaking. You're not too far away from seclusion. You can leave some of the Lower 48 "behind" (not all, only some). You're over 1,000 miles away from the northernmost point of the lower 48 (which can be a pro or con). CONS The high cost of living, although housing prices are still cheaper than New York, L.A., San Francisco and Seattle. The crime rate is significantly above the national average (It can get crazy here sometimes, especially areas east of Downtown), which is concerning. Let's face facts, there are more than just tourists who come to Alaska. The "shady element" come here to evade the law, taxes, child support, etc.. in their home states. There's a bit of a political divide between the Anchorage Bowl and Eagle River/Mat-Su Valley. Although it's Alaska, there are some areas where I wouldn't leave my doors open at night. The homeless and drug epidemic is growing rapidly here (I recently had a person who agressively pandhandled me at a grocery store). Although it's a nice place to live geographically, It's not exactly utopia. You have a mix of nice people and standoffish people (I experience this firsthand working customer service).

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An inconvenient, overpriced icebox. - 7/18/2019

I've lived here for several years and dislike it more and more each year. Family and lack of funds has kept me here. Aside from the weather and darkness, there is little to no culture here, except for native Alaskan culture. The museum has had the same exhibits since I got here. There is no competition here, since large companies see no reason to do business here. So, customer service is non-existent. The people here are a bad combo of dull and weird, and they are prejudiced against "big city folks", especially East Coasters like myself. In addition, the cost of living is very high.

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its nice...better than san jose, DAVID - 12/4/2018

love it

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HELP...Never been...seems like my place, BUT... ?? - 7/10/2017

I live in Mammoth Lakes, CA...a gorgeous 4 season mountain resort community. I do love it but it is a bit small and I hate the heat in the summer. I love the cold and am an avid skier. I am also gay. So I am looking for a place with a colder climate, mountains, skiing, diversity...my concern is the dark in the winter and the distance from the lower 48...any suggestions? What's good, what's bad? Thanks!

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Anchorage Housing - 8/25/2015

Housing costs are high.

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Anchorage climate - 7/4/2015

Summers in Anchorage are generally very pleasant with temperatures in the mid-60s to low 70s and sunshine from 4:30 am - 11:30 pm. If you like getting outside and being active, you'll enjoy these conditions. Winters are as bad as they say: cold and dark. Winter temperatures are typically in the mid20s to low 30s. Snowfall is about 60 inches a year.

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Anchorage - 2/1/2015

Has been a great place to raise kids and make a living.

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Favorite Place So Far - 1/14/2015

Lived in multiple cities in California, North Carolina, Texas, Alaska, and Nevada. Anchorage is easily the winner; yes, even over my San Diego hometown. If I could find work back up in Anchorage (Industrial Marketing and Business Deveopment), I would be there in a minute. Blessed with natural beauty so intense it will put a permanent lump in your throat. Unpretentious social atmosphere. Wild critters that walk the neighborhoods (moose, lynx, bears, moose, weasels, moose). Housing is expensive. Restaurants are phenomenal, but expensive. Fantastic beer. Winter is magnificent.

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Kevin Elfrink - 3/4/2014

Kevin Elfrink has been a realtor in Alaska for over 18+ years. But what does that mean for you? It means if you are looking to buy real estate in Alaska, you can call him and avoid 98% of the normal frustrations most home buyers experience. How nice would that be? To finally have someone on YOUR side for a change! Give Kevin a call for a free real estate consultation to make sure you avoid the most common pit falls people make when buying or selling Alaskan property. Call now for more information 907-727-2150 www.kevinelfrink.com kevinelfrink@gmail.com Services: Real Estate Real Estate Specialist Real Estate Agent Real Estate Brokers Real Estate Consultant

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Don't get too excited. - 8/8/2013

People like to say that there is always lots of things to do, which is far from it. I mean, yeah, if you are an avid skiier, or a snowboarder, then sure, you can be engaged in those activities about 7 month a year. But other than that..there is very little things you can do here. First off, it's hard to play outside when it's under 30 below.So If you want your children to spend all day sitting at home playing videogames, it's a great state for you. Second, every single decent artist or singer in US have forgotten that there is a state called Alaska. So in case you need your Lady Gaga fix, you better hop on a plane. Lack of museums, theaters, decent places to hang out really. There is quete a few nice restaurants though. I mean, what else you gona do, when it's so miserable outside? Eat!! One of the downsides if that if you want to go somewhere else, you'll have to endure hours and hours of flying and layovers. However, and it's a good thing, they do have a direct flight to my beloved Hawaii. What else? Salaries are high, but so is cost of living. Good luck finding a 1 bedroom for rent for less than 1,000/mo+utilities. I think, if you are not an oil indurstry professional, don't even bother living here. Education. I don't know about high schools, but University of Alaska Anchorage is clearly lacking. There is not enough programs, it's underfunded, parking is horrible. Ok, maybe I'm being too harsh, I guess for a small city like Anchorage, it's ok. What I like? Mose walking around town, summer is not hot, summer of 2013 was simply amazing. All prior summers (for 10 years of living here) were very gloomy...ok did I start on bad things again? No sales tax. yearly PFD of about a grand, favorite part, really. My advice? Come spend couple of weeks here in January, before you decide to move.

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A place for the young and the young in heart. - 3/6/2013

A great place to raise a family with lots to do.

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Anchorage, Alaska - 2/9/2013

Great city to live with all the many miles of trails available in all seasons.

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TOO MUCH! - 2/3/2013

way too much.

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great but a few downers - 1/19/2013

lots of active things to do. winter is just long so if you dont get out and play during winter it is way too long. nice camping but no other real cites to visit.

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People complaining about Alaska making no sense - 1/2/2013

Ok, for all of those complaining and wining about the state let me start by telling you that i don't live there but will be moving soon. But let me go ahead and go to the point. If you think you are paying to much for an apartment there come to Houston where i am paying $1355 a month in a real nice place and 770 sqft. that at night you hear nothing but gunshots, the ambulance, police etc from the evening till the morning!!!! i am moving there to find peace in a real nice place and enjoy what life has for all of us. If Seasons changes why don't you? Stop complaining and find a way to improve and change from wining to start living a better life. Nothing it's free in live and someone has to sacrifice, so may as well be you to improve YOU!!! Sorry!

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housing - 12/3/2012

i have lived in anchorage for 17 years and although its absolutely beautiful here its very expensive. housing rentals are very high cost..example average to low end- 1bedroom-550-700, 2bedroom 700-1200. and 3 bedroom 1350-1600.

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