By Connie Yoshimura Anchorage has a long road ahead of them to reach an annual goal of 1,000 new housing units in the coming years. Over the last seven years, Anchorage has averaged only 376 permits, including single family, duplex or multi-family. Continue Reading
Future of Anchorage Housing Hangs on Urgent Need for Affordability Solutions
By Connie Yoshimura Anchorage housing continues its first-class trajectory resulting in more and more buyers shut out of the market. According to MLS statistics, the first five months of 2024 showed an 11.95% increase in closed volume but only a 4.01% Continue Reading
What Home Buyers Really Want…..Continued
Published in Anchorage Daily News on 5.15.2024 By Connie Yoshimura Housing affordability has buckled under the weight of a 30% increase in home prices, according to a National Association of Home Builders 2024 study. Here in Continue Reading
Mortgage Lenders React to Market Shifts with New Loan Programs
Mortgage lenders and their back-end investors are reacting with aggressive new and revised loan programs to help potential buyers disappointed with higher interest rates while they struggle to find an affordable home. Despite the increased 5.75% for today’s Continue Reading
Still a Sunny Market
All Anchorage MLS districts have had a 25% jump in sales volume year to date with downtown Anchorage leading all districts with a 220.32 per cent increase. Except, I should clarify for District 101, Girdwood-Turnagain Arm, which has had a 39.13 per cent decline due a Continue Reading
How to Make Your Best Offer Better
In my forty years of assisting buyers and sellers navigate the purchase or sale of their home, which is for most their largest investment, I’ve never seen a market quite like the one Alaska is currently experiencing. An almost decade long lack of new housing Continue Reading
Low Mortgage Rates Entice the Small Investor
Historic low mortgage rates are not just for the single family/condo home buyer. Mortgage rates are also a major factor in profitability for the small investor who chooses to begin with an owner-occupied property. According to Madona Rhine-Stack at Alaska Continue Reading
Alaska’s Ever Changing Real Estate Market
More people are leaving Alaska than moving in. According to the Department of Labor, Alaska has lost more movers than it’s gained every year since 2013. As of July 2020, the population had fallen to 728,903 from 740,637 in 2016. Like many economic factors, the Continue Reading
VA Financing Helps Promote Home Ownership
At ten percent, Alaska has the highest per capita share of veterans than any other state. And according to the 2016 Housing Assistance Council, Alaskan veterans have a home ownership rate of 69.5% which is higher than the homeownership rate for Continue Reading
How Real Estate Is Changing
Driving down C street on my way to work, I can’t help but reflect how in just a few short weeks the real estate industry has changed. I now carry in my tote a face mask and rubber gloves. My iPhone has the zoom app and virtual tours are taking the place of most open Continue Reading
Connie Yoshimura, Owner/Broker of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Alaska Realty.