Kenai Peninsula two-bedroom rents post record 11% jump in state survey

The median rent for a two-bedroom apartment on the Kenai Peninsula rose 11% this spring, the largest one-year increase in state records for the borough going back to 2010.

The median two-bedroom rent, including utilities, was $1,336 a month in March, up from $1,203 a year earlier, according to the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development's annual rental survey, published this month. Across the areas the state surveys, the typical increase was 2.6%. Only the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, at 13%, rose faster.

Department economist Gunnar Schultz wrote that rents in both boroughs rose considerably last year, then posted record increases in 2026. Since 2019, the Kenai Peninsula's two-bedroom median has climbed about 32%, from $1,015.

The increase wasn't limited to two-bedroom apartments. Across all 1,216 units surveyed in the borough, the median rose about 12%, to $1,350. The figures are medians for the units surveyed, not the change in any one renter's lease, and the department cautions that changes can be volatile in small areas and for unit types with small samples.

The report points to conditions that tend to raise demand for rentals. The Kenai Peninsula was one of two large areas with above-average job growth last year, with jobs up 1.4% and total wages up 7.5%. It also gained more residents than it lost to migration, though that has moved closer to even over the past two years. Buying a home costs far more than it used to: the estimated monthly payment on a typical new mortgage in the borough was about $1,900 in 2025, nearly double the roughly $960 of 2019.

More housing is on the way. The borough permitted 215 new units in 2025, 10% of the state's total. That included 67 multifamily units, 32 in Soldotna and 24 in Kenai, the most in any year since at least 2005. New housing, especially multifamily, can slow rent growth by expanding the rental supply, the department wrote.

Vacancy has risen for four straight years, to 5.8% this March. The department said this year's increase was small and the rate remains about a percentage point below the borough's long-term median.