Anchorage permits more new housing than in any year since 2015, mayor's office says

Anchorage permitted 532 new housing units this year through October, more than in any full year since 2015, according to figures Mayor Suzanne LaFrance's office released Tuesday.

Permits count homes approved to be built, not homes finished. The release doesn't say how many of this year's permitted units have been completed.

The increase comes off a low base. The city's 2024 and 2025 totals were among the leanest on record: 299 and 393 units, according to figures Assembly Member Erin Baldwin Day cited in June. The mayor's release puts last year at 400.

Most of this year's growth is in apartments, condos and other multifamily buildings. The city permitted 305 multifamily units, the most in records going back to 2011, according to the release.

The administration credits a multifamily property tax break LaFrance proposed and the Assembly approved in 2025, along with simpler land-use codes, shorter permit reviews and public land opened for housing. The tax break has produced 386 new units over two years, the city said in an update to the Assembly in August. As of August, the city hadn't published a measure of how long permit reviews take, which makes the claim of shorter reviews hard to check.

"The Municipality doesn't build homes, set mortgage rates, or control housing prices," LaFrance said in the release. "But we can make it easier, faster, and less expensive for our private and nonprofit partners to build the housing our community needs."

LaFrance's 10,000 Homes in Ten Years strategy aims for about 1,000 new or rehabilitated homes a year. New permits so far cover about half of that. Counting about 300 major renovations it expects this year, the city says it's on track for at least 80% of the goal. The release doesn't say how renovations are counted.

Others have questioned the pace. In June, looking at permits from 2023 through 2025, Baldwin Day said the city's trajectory would not reach 10,000 homes in 10 years. Developer Shaun Debenham said in August that permitting remains a bottleneck. "Took me 9 months to go through and get a permit," he said. Assembly Vice Chair Daniel Volland has since proposed a task force to streamline permitting.

A study by consulting firm Agnew Beck estimated Anchorage will need about 11,800 more housing units by 2035. Most of that, about 8,700, is homes needing rehabilitation or replacement because of age and condition. The rest, about 3,100, is new units to keep up with population trends and overcrowding.