Housing

Anchorage's new-home tax break would reach pricier houses under a revision

Anchorage's proposed tax break for first-time buyers of new homes would reach pricier houses under a revised version up Tuesday, ending a cutoff at the average.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read

Anchorage can build housing with this grant now. Residents asked for teardowns

Congress just let Anchorage spend block grant money on new housing for the first time in 50 years. The residents who showed up asked for demolitions.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read

Kodiak staff urge keeping Beaver Lake land as the borough hunts for housing sites

Kodiak's manager wants to open Beaver Lake land to housing. The borough's own planning staff say keep it — and the commission said no in 2019.

by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read

18 condo units draw 46 percent of Anchorage's housing tax exemptions, report says

Eighteen single condominium units took 46 percent of Anchorage's housing tax exemptions this year, qualifying for a four-or-more-unit incentive through common ownership of one parent parcel.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Anchorage wants 10,000 homes. Its zoning fight is over where they can fit.

Anchorage wants 10,000 homes in 10 years. Tuesday's zoning fight is over where they can go — because adding homes means letting familiar blocks change.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago7 min read

Housing projects can compete for Alaska CDBG grants, with applications due Dec. 4

Alaska's Community Development Block Grant applications are due Friday, Dec. 4, with about $2.5 million available and a maximum of $850,000 per community. Any Alaska municipal government except Anchorage may apply.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Anchorage weighs $2.8M state payment, most of it for winter shelter

Anchorage cut $1 million in contracted surge shelter beds when alcohol tax revenue fell short. State money would put them back ahead of winter.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min readFrom Sep 1

Anchorage wants city land sales weighed by housing, not price alone

Anchorage land sales now come with a written case for the housing they produce. The guidance is nonbinding, but it changes what the Assembly weighs.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min readFrom Sep 1

Anchorage weighs who decides when cold-weather shelter opens

An Anchorage ordinance up Sept. 15 would let the health director decide when emergency shelter opens, replacing the current 45-degree trigger.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

A state windfall would restore shelter capacity Anchorage cut this year

Anchorage cut $1 million in shelter surge capacity when alcohol-tax revenue fell short. An unexpected state payment would let the city restore it.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min readFrom Sep 1

Anchorage could shrink its minimum lot size by two-thirds under a pending ordinance

Anchorage could cut its minimum single-family lot to a third of current size and let buildings cover 70 percent of it. The hearing is Sept. 15.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min readFrom Jun 9

Sitka's search for housing land narrows to two small parcels

Sitka's search for city land to build housing on has narrowed to two small parcels — the sites with the most room to build are the hardest to develop.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago3 min readFrom Sep 2

Federal grant will test a Yup'ik healing framework against homelessness

Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness won $450,000 to serve Alaska Native households facing homelessness through case management and traditional Yup'ik healing practices through August 2027.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Juneau grants pay up to $13,500 to add a second unit, and a contractor list is coming

Juneau is offering homeowners up to $13,500 grants to build accessory dwelling units, with 16 awards available annually.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Follows: Juneau gathers its senior-housing help into one guide

Sitka's Assembly takes up how to pay for child care

Sitka's Assembly takes up a possible child care funding source Tuesday. A survey found most parents struggle to find care and employers are feeling it too.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Planners urged cutting the overlay's R-1 height break. The sponsors kept it.

Anchorage planning staff told the sponsors of a housing overlay to drop its special height rules for single-family zones. The sponsors kept them.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago3 min read

A fourplex would install no landscaping under this Anchorage ordinance

A builder putting four homes on an Anchorage lot would install no landscaped buffer under an ordinance up for public hearing Oct. 6.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Anchorage Assembly keeps a non-binding housing resolution moving

The Anchorage Assembly refused to delay a housing resolution that, by its own sponsor's account, does not require anyone at all to do anything.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Anchorage would trade away land it bought five years ago for $2.35 million

Anchorage would trade away land it paid $2.35 million to buy in 2021, before its own study of the site is finished and over a state objection.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Cordova weighs a model where you own the house but lease the land

You own the house and a trust owns the ground under it, and you pay $50 a month for the ground. Cordova is weighing whether that math works.

by Melinda Communities.News2mo ago2 min readFrom Aug 25

Anchorage will weigh housing density, not just price, when it sells land

The Anchorage Assembly voted 11-0 to tell the city to weigh housing density and affordability, not just price, when it disposes of municipal land.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

North Slope Borough Assembly raises lot density to four homes in zoning code rewrite

North Slope Borough Assembly voted 9-0 to allow four homes per lot instead of two, aiming to address a shortage of 637 housing units across the region.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Alaska rent increases were the smallest in five years, but Mat-Su and Kenai set records

Alaska rents rose again this year, but the pressure shifted. Mat-Su and the Kenai set records while Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau saw their smallest rises.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Cook Inlet Housing Authority chief backs Anchorage housing code changes his projects use

Cook Inlet Housing Authority's chief backed Anchorage's housing code changes Tuesday, crediting them for enabling his organization's Nest project.

by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago2 min read

Cook Inlet Housing Authority asks Anchorage Assembly to make design-standard pause permanent

Anchorage paused its multifamily design rules in 2025. A housing developer wants the pause made permanent; neighborhood councils want it narrowed inste

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Abbott Loop rezone drew 223 notices and no comments; hearing is Oct. 6

Anchorage Assembly takes its first vote Tuesday on rezoning a 0.27-acre Abbott Loop lot to allow denser housing, shifting from five to eight dwelling units per acre.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Anchorage ordinance would drop 45-degree shelter trigger, raise site cap to 200

Anchorage would drop its automatic 45-degree shelter trigger, raise site limits to 200 and open rec centers, with one director deciding when shelter opens.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Anchorage developer says fire lanes cost his 58-unit project 15 homes

Fire lane requirements cost an Anchorage developer 15 potential homes. The city faces pressure to ease building rules to meet housing goals.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Petersburg hospital rejects shared-kitchen lease for traveling staff

Petersburg Medical Center dropped plans to lease shared housing for traveling staff after two assistants clashed over kitchen supplies, and is now exploring building its own duplexes on tundra land.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Follows: Petersburg hospital board weighs buying housing to address staffing gaps

Anchorage officials pitch Assembly on Block 102-Tozier land swap for housing

Anchorage officials pitched a land swap to the Assembly Friday that could enable housing on two sites, but the vote covers only the exchange itself, not zoning or development deals.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Anchorage weighs selling city land for housing by units built, not just the highest bid

Anchorage would rank housing density and affordability over sale price when selling city land, prioritizing multifamily projects and permanently affordable housing over highest bidder.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Anchorage permits more housing than last year, but from a near-record low

Anchorage permitted more housing this year than in 2024 or 2025, the mayor says — but those were near-record lows, still far below its 1,000-a-year target.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Anchorage's proposed tax break caps at $497,000. New homes average $750,000.

A first-time buyer of a new Anchorage home could skip property tax for 10 years, if it sells under about $497,000. New builds average near $750,000.

by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago2 min read

Follows: Anchorage Assembly weighs 10-year tax break for condos above shops and offices

Juneau donors are giving the Legislature 16 more apartments for lawmakers

Juneau donors are giving the Alaska Legislature 16 more apartments for lawmakers to live in during session, in a capital where housing is scarce and costly.

by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago2 min read

A state grant would keep TB screening running at Anchorage homeless shelters

A $2.77 million grant before the Anchorage Assembly would keep public health nurses screening for TB at shelters — the clearance many people need to get in.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

An Anchorage housing provider gets another year of federal help for disabled renters

Andrew Housing Co. in Anchorage received $132,800 from HUD to help house very-low-income renters with disabilities, part of a $184,392 total in federal housing awards posted this week.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Sitka may rewrite its rules for second homes on residential lots

Sitka's planning commission takes up a draft rewrite of its accessory dwelling unit rules Monday. The draft does not say which direction it goes.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Coast Guard awards $143.4 million for 30 housing units and child care center at Kodiak ahead of two Arctic cutters

The Coast Guard is spending $143.4 million on 30 housing units and a child care center at Base Kodiak, ahead of two Arctic Security Cutters homeporting there.

by Melinda Communities.News2mo ago1 min read

The state wants to give away land near Houston for housing, one piece of a statewide push

The state wants to give away 42 acres near Houston, free, for housing — one of several no-cost transfers to the Housing Finance Corporation across Alaska.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

HUD awards $85,520 to Anchorage disability housing provider

HUD awarded Anchorage disability housing provider AASC Housing II Inc. $85,520 to subsidize rent for very-low-income residents with disabilities.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read