There is a supply and demand imbalance; Anchorage does not have enough housing options for everyone who wants to live here.

According to data collected from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED) database:

Median single family home listing price in Anchorage rose 43% in only three years from $311,000 in January 2020 to $446,000 in May 2023, putting home ownership further out of reach.

Rent prices have increased by over 7% in the last year.

Anchorage should be a place with abundant and diverse housing opportunities so that everyone who wants to live here can find a place to live that fits their preferences for budget, size, character, and location.

Watch the full program video on our events page of the recent Community Housing Action Summit Nov. 3, held during the Anchorage Housing Action Week, Oct. 30–Nov. 4, 2023.

Anchorage’s housing shortage

is an everyone problem.

OUR COMMUNITY’S FUTURE

Affordable, accessible, and stable housing is critical to our community’s future economic growth and quality of life, and our current housing shortage is at the root of many other issues, including homelessness, outmigration and the workforce shortage.

ANCHORAGE HOUSING CRISIS
Anchorage has been experiencing a housing shortage and affordability crisis for several years, documented as a policy issue for over a decade in reports such as the Anchorage Housing Market Analysis (2012), work of AEDC’s Live Work Play Housing Committee, 2040 Land Use Plan (2017), and other publications.

The housing shortage has been further exacerbated by supply chain issues created by the COVID-19 pandemic, inflationary cost increases for building materials, rising interest rates for loans, a workforce shortage, and major increases in home sale and rental prices, which also increases the urgency for meaningful actions to address this problem.

ENVISIONING SOLUTIONS
The Assembly has set housing action as one of its top priorities for the past two years and through that work sets a broad vision for the Municipality in the areas of economic and workforce development. Identifying actionable strategies to address the housing shortage and adopting general principles for future housing policy decisions will help to enable change and expedite progress.

URGENT COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
The Anchorage Assembly has spent the past five months creating the Anchorage Assembly Housing Action Plan and gathering significant community feedback on that plan. With the urgency and amount of work to do in the arena of local housing policy, the Assembly can accomplish more with the plan’s clear set of goals, specific actions, shared commitment to focus, and working in parallel with partners.

The Assembly Housing Action Plan will serve as a guide for the Assembly’s work on housing over the next few years, and will allow the public to understand what the Assembly is working on and welcome the local community to engage in that work.

Explore Anchorage Assembly’s initiatives, policies and more aimed at finding and solving the local housing shortage crisis.

  • Explore housing issues, legislative agenda, news, policies, community resources and more on our Anchorage Assembly site.

  • The Assembly invited industry experts, including planners, builders and realtors, to a roundtable discussion on the topic of housing. The session informed a list of policy ideas to be explored, developed and considered in the months to come. Review the roundtable takeaways report (pdf) HERE.

  • Housing action is a team effort. The Assembly's collaborative work is guided by the Anchorage 2040 Land Use Plan, a community-based plan which recommends strategies for future growth, development and sustainability. Review the land use plan (pdf) HERE.

  • BRINGING BACK THE TRIPLEX

    Policy#AO2023-103: Aims to​ resolve the red tape issues to make it easier to build small multifamily homes in residential zones where they are​​ already allowed. Between 1970 and 1985 there were 326 triplexes built in Anchorage, about 22 per year. Since 1999, we’ve only built 31. Read more about this proposal (pdf) HERE.

    SHORT TERM RENTAL PERMITTING

    Policy#AO2023-110: A proposal to establish an annual $400 permitting process for properties to be used as short term rentals, including AirBnB, VRBOs and independent rentals. The licenses would be issued to property owners. The ordinance is scheduled for a public hearing on 10/24/2023.

    HOME INITIATIVE

    “Housing Opportunities in the Municipality for Everyone (HOME) Initiative,” consolidates current Title 21 residential zones into broader, more flexible, and more inclusionary zones. The initiative aims to simplify existing zones by converting some residential zones into new, broadly flexible zones. Review HOME initiative (pdf) HERE.

  • COMMITTEE ON HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS

    Finds specific and tangible action the Assembly and the Anchorage Community can take to combat the housing shortage crisis in Anchorage. Learn more HERE.

    Meetings are held on the third Wednesday of each month. Volunteer opportunities can be found HERE.

    SHARE YOUR HOUSING STORY with us for Housing Action Week! To share your story, click HERE.

  • Is Anchorage a Strong Town?

    Anchorage should be a place where everyone can live in a welcoming, safe place that meets their needs. We’re proud to bring Strong Towns to Anchorage. Hear from Charles Marohn, founder and president of Strong Towns, at the Community Housing Action Summit

  • In May 2023, the Assembly joined industry experts, planners, builders and development agencies in a full-day Assembly Retreat on Housing Action.

    Building on a fall 2022 session that produced the list of policy ideas currently in progress, the retreat grounded policy makers in local housing data, lessons learned and expert advice to drive housing action through the rest of the year. The conversation was so good, we recorded the entire thing!

    Explore the sessions and materials from the Assembly's Retreat on Housing Action HERE.