Alaska Real Estate

Alaska is the largest state in the United States, with nearly twice the square mileage of Texas. We are talking over six hundred and fifty thousand square miles of real estate! Texas probably has more real estate agents though because Alaska's entire population is under one million people. In fact, the amount of people inhabiting our largest state is roughly only six hundred and ninety thousand. After the math is all said and done, that comes to about one person per square mile of real estate. To put it in perspective, the largest major U.S. city, New York City, has over eight million residents! In one city, there are eleven times the total number of people living in Alaska. Common sense tells us that the Alaskans aren't proportionally laid out across all their Arctic real estate. It would be lonely to only come across only one person per mile. The commercial areas would be ghost towns! Not to mention what the morning commute to work would be like. So where are the real estate hot spots in this chilly, seemingly empty, state? Are there even real estate listings for such a state? Alaska's capital is Juneau. Is this where an Alaskan real estate agent should go to see success? The population here is more optimistic with an estimated thirty thousand people. Juneau is a bustling commercial area, perfect for those looking to join the great outdoors and buy some real estate to start a local shop. Visitors are always popping in by way of cruise ship, sometimes several times a day.

Thus making real estate here more touristy, but profitable to those with business minds. Homes are generally older in this area, built in the early 1900s, and have been restored. In fact there is an Alaskan real estate tax incentive for those ambitious enough to grab a hammer and put on a hard hat. Artistry and style is appreciated in this real estate market with many neighborhoods featuring Craftsman style homes. This is something your real estate agent can educate you on. What does a Craftsman style house looks like? This architectural movement started at the turn of the twentieth century, around 1905. These real estate ventures are essentially a bungalow with an artsy flair. A Craftsman home will have a slow sloping roof, ending with wide eaves and exposed rafters. The exterior will always feature a rather deeply inset porch with room for seating and plants. Predictable to the style, square pillars will line the porch. Usually these homes will only be one story, but may include a small attic. The interior of these residential home designs continue with exposed beams and many built-in cabinets and seating. Artistic touches are applied to the real estate property as often as possible by way of lighting. Lighting fixtures are chosen with care, window panes (often stained glass) are carefully contemplated, and typically the homes are oriented to greet the sun. These houses are meant to be subtly stunning, using humble materials available and natural to the area.

Though the Craftsman movement ended in 1930, the style is still appreciated by the Juneau residents. The real estate listings today are full of these artistic structures, but what else does Alaska real estate have to offer? Do you wonder about log cabins? Obviously cabins seem to naturally fit with northern real estate, but is that just a housing stereotype? Log cabins originated by Swedish settlers in the eighteenth century. They used no nails when building the cabins and the entire house had only one big room with a loft. These real estate wonders were wildly popular and even influenced the creation of the Homestead Act in 1862. This act required all future real estate explorers who moved into open territories to establish homes similar to ever popular log cabins. In these current times however, log cabins are not used to house frontier wanderers and are rather luxury residential homes. They do exist in Alaska and the linked log style is noticeable among buildings, commercial and residential, across the state. Despite this, and the real estate stereotype, the common Alaskan real estate does not rely on log cabins. They solely serve as a luxury vacation home, or a personal style preference. A log cabin sounds like a pretty awesome house to me. There is something quaint about that, but if I was to move to Alaska, a thirty thousand person town still sounds small to me. Juneau is the capital, but as made obvious states across the country, that by no means makes it the largest city. So in what area of Alaska are more people calling their real estate agent and buying these northern homes? The answer is Anchorage! And boy is it. Over three hundred thousand people fill up those residential areas in Anchorage, Alaska. With over half the population of the state living in one city, it must be pretty great. The homes located there must be awesome to attract so many people- or maybe it is the commercial businesses that create a luscious residential area. What kind of commercial businesses flourish in Alaska to begin with? The booming commercial business is definitely not amusement parks.

There are only two in the entire state. Zoos, however, are a different story. They have tripled their real estate in the last ten years, increasing from two zoos in the state to seven! Ice cream creators are sadly on the decline. Half the market has shut down leaving only one shop manning the entire ice cream producing real estate in Alaska. I suppose no one is interested in turning that winter snow into a frozen treat. With half the population of the state in one city, you can only imagine how much real estate in Alaska is still left wide open for future commercial and residential development. That means a rather large chunk of the largest state in one of the largest countries contains nothing but real estate full of trees, gorgeous landscapes, and nature. Alaska is nicknamed the Final Frontier after all, will you be one of the final pioneers?