Alaska Real Estate | The Truth About Homes & Lifestyle!

The actual good entry-level teenage jobs, those are there, but yeah, that's about it. Yeah. You're not going to find, like, some high-end engineering position in Eagle River or anything. You also have to think about that in general. Just across the entire state, you're going to have a lot more blue-collar jobs than you are white-collar jobs. And you'll make good money as a blue-collar worker. I mean, you'll make bank as a plumber or a heater or any of those things. So it's not that it's blue-collar or white-collar. Everything because you are, you're practical in Alaska because you have to be, because you have to respect the winter. You have to respect all of those things and that, that's what you're going to look for. That's a really good point. Yeah, I'd say it's a two on that employment. That's fair. That's fair. That's tough, but fair. It is. Very true. Sorry, Eagle River. All right, let's do, let's do lifestyle, Eagle River. Healthy lifestyle. Oh, yeah. Healthy, healthy lifestyle. A lot of walking paths. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. You know, you do have the mountain. You have the nature center, which has excellent trails. You even have the passeos that go through the, you know, different neighborhoods and such. So if that's your thing, that's definitely going to be a five. You'll see Alaskan wildlife. More than you'll see it. Yeah, and that's... Seems to be more bears here. Bears, there are more bears. Yeah, it's kind of strange out there. You don't see them. And that's weird, but, I mean, the reason is, like, you can't really hunt them, like, in the Chugach Sea Park, and we're, like, right up against that. Yes, you are. So that's, you know, this is where they come out. So, yeah, you would think, like, surely, yeah, Wasilla Palmer, but no, like, Eagle Rivers. Yeah. That's the spot. His cousin lives in Eagle River. Yeah, he shows me videos of so many bears. Yeah, I was really looking at, like, just throwing my financial goals to the wind and just buying a property down by the nature center. Oh, yeah. Just because, I mean, you get bears, moose, like, everything constantly up that way. Oh, yes. Especially during, like, you know, the bear fattening season. Oh, yeah. They close down the trails and they say, hey, you know, no moss. You're not going that way. Yeah, not today. Not today. Not for that whole month. Yep. All right. Lifestyle, doing pretty good there, but ranking one to five. I have to give it a five. I really do. Okay. It's higher. All right. And let's say you need challenges for Eagle River. You actually have a life. Yeah, that's fair. Yeah. You're also in between the bedroom commuting areas of Wasilla Palmer. So the main highway, your only highway to getting to Anchorage can be very full at times because it is the only way it takes one accident and things can just stop. I was on my way to Anchorage just last week. Two weeks ago with that head-on collusion that happened, and it shut down the highway, and they turned us all around. And there is no other way to get there unless you have base access, but it was before the Richardson Gate, so you're stuck. Yeah. So those are probably some unique challenges that I would share with the other veteran communities is that commuting can be… It's not an L.A. commute, but it's definitely a busy… Yeah. I think that's the biggest challenge. Yeah, I hate to say it, but after you've lived in Alaska for a while, your empathy for people who go off the road just kind of goes away. I'm not going to say non-existent. You know what? It's non-existent. It's like, sure, I'll help them. I don't feel bad for them, though. Like, does that make sense? Yeah, it does. It does. It does. It was tight. Tires make everything, folks. Yes, tires are important. Yeah. Don't assume people behind you have just as good of brakes as you do, too, though. Brakes and as good as tires. Yes. Yes. Yeah, 100% on that one. Yeah. Absolutely. All right, let's see. We've got, okay, let's do Wasilla. Okay, going back to the hometown here. So physical environment, Wasilla, ranking one to five. I don't know if I would give it a five. It is growing and is improving as it's growing, which is good. I do think city managers are... Traffic, traffic can be very tough, but we'll get to that after the other part, but it's got its areas just like Anchorage does where there's nice and then there's areas that are a little bit, I don't want to say seedy, but I guess that's probably the nicest word. Check the crime maps, one of those areas. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, you can have a nice house next to a house where the person looks like they're waiting for the apocalypse to happen. And the house right next to that looks like an old Pizza Hut building that they just repurposed because that's what they did. It did. And then there's a junkyard. And then there's a multi-billion dollar house. And then it's very interesting. Yeah, just a bunch of snowflakes, properties. But if we stick to just the downtown area, though, it's very appealing. Yeah. And it's growing. I mean, there's businesses, there's a bunch of new stuff going. Yes. So downtown area, very appealing. Yeah. So if we're looking at it then, like 4%, 5%? A solid 4%. A solid 4%? Yeah, I'm going to go with a 4%. Okay, let's stay with a 4%. Affordability for Wasso. While solar, you have more affordability than you do, and where you're going to work, you have to factor those things in. So, affordability, I would give it five or get a starter home. Yeah. It's still $300,000, but you could get a starter home. They're there, but a lot of those homes have issues. Get a home inspection, folks. Thank The entry-level homes that are happening in that area are probably questionable. They are building some stuff that is less expensive, but when you start getting the older stuff and it's that same price range, you. you really need to do some homework. Yeah, that's fair. And kind of what I'm seeing in the 300s to 400s lately, too. It's not very good. Well, here's the thing. You can find some quality stuff there. Fast and like when affordability is the main thing that's of concern when someone's buying in that price range, having to go in and compete and then the price gets driven up like $15,000, $20,000, $25,000, like it's just, it's an issue. It is, to find something in that price range that's nice. Like just the other day, we made an offer for some folks. It was like in the Palmer area. And you might actually do a home inspection for this one. We'll find out. Maybe. But yeah, we went in there, like super strong offer and all that, $15,000 over asking price. But we lost out to someone who was offering like a $5,000 appraisal gap. And like an escalation clause and like all this stuff. Getting creative. Getting creative. And it's like, why you've got this cash? Why are you in this price point? You know, why are you here? Right, right. You're supposed to be up there. Yeah. Go find the 400 and above. Like we're in the starter homes right now. Yeah. A lot of, I deal with a lot of real estate agents. And one of the things I'm hearing a lot of there is that the market's still hot and you're still competing and repairs are basically down to health and safety. If you're lucky. Yeah, if you're lucky. Absolutely. Yeah, for us, I mean, we said we weren't even going to ask for repairs, and we still lost. Yeah. Yeah. So, I'd say the affordability is probably more on the three areas, kind of right in the middle. You can find stuff, but, you know, you've got to do some homework. Yeah, yeah. And if you find anything good, you've got to step it up fast. Yeah. There's not a whole lot of just sit around and wait and mull it over. Like, it's speed kills here. It is. It is. Yeah. Yeah. And then some things are priced too high. There's like several in our neighborhood that are for sale and I don't think anything's been bitten on. Oh, is it like brand new construction or is it? Pretty new, pretty new construction. Oh yeah. That's so tough to sell. So it's like they're, they're houses that are like two or three years old. I mean, basically. No, actually they're younger than ours. They're about one to two years old. That's kind of part of the lifestyle just in Alaska with the military. Families is that they, they're relocating a lot. So every three years they seem to be packing up and putting stakes down elsewhere. So, yeah, I don't know. I'm kind of hesitant with like military folks lately and recommending like a new construction just based on what you're, you know, what you were just talking about, Gary, because the danger is when you buy a new construction in an area where there's a lot of new construction suddenly popping up is when you, if you go to sell like, Or within just a couple of years, you didn't have enough time for the appreciation to build up, but suddenly you're competing against that same builder that's got the same model, same everything except his is brand new now, and now you're competing against that person. I mean, that area... Probably run into that a little bit, not as much, but if you're looking like Fish Hook, Palmer, Wasilla, Fish Hook, that whole area, like, it's got to just be, you've got to be, like, stuck there once you buy something for at least five years at this point. Yeah. Yeah, to recoup. Yeah, to recoup and just give yourself a chance. Yeah, I agree. Like, yeah. Anyway, okay. Now, if you ever think of buying a nice night to have a house there. Sooner than sooner than later, we have regrets. And we've got to do it. Yeah, that's what we're doing. Well, you know what? Now you can buy their entire property and his family already moved. I'm Well, it's, it's just that, um, starting that's something that you want to look at. If you have a, a, a lot that's next to you. Either you're going to want to buy it if you want more space, or you're going to have to realize there's going to be someone there. And that can happen at any time. At any time. to Yeah, and kind of what I'm realizing lately, you can't just assume, oh, it's a pretty remote area, speak. I'm buying it, we can wait like five years or so. It's like, unfortunately, the way it goes, like, you're looking at an area. There's a really good chance there's a lot of other people looking there, too. They have to assume someone else is also interested in it. I was talking with some folks recently. I mean, kind of the same deal. Bought some raw land over in the big lake area. It's on a nice little lake. We're looking at a little piece of land right next to it. We're like, okay, it would be okay waiting a little bit. We made an offer. The seller wasn't real impressed. We're like, okay, let's just give them some time here and let them soften on the price. And, yeah, hold it off market within a couple months.