Housing (Anchorage, Wasilla, Eagle: for sale, houses, to live in)

[iwiamandaiwi]

We're moving to Anchorage in a few weeks and I will be working at Elmendorf. I was wondering if it would be cheaper to live in Eagle River even though the housing is more epensive as opposed to the Valley because of the cost of gas and the longer commute? I heard it was a good hour from the valley to ANC where it is only 15-20 minutes from Eagle River.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Thank You

[Marty Van Diest]

OK...lets take a look.

Assume that you are driving 50 miles each way...100 miles a day.

Your car gets 25 mpg and you are paying an average of $3.50 cents a gallon for gas. That will be $14 a day for gas.

Also assume that you are working 51 weeks a year. That is 255 days of commuting at $14 a day or $3,570 a year or $297 per month.

So you can afford to pay $300 a month more for housing in Eagle River over the valley if you don't count the value of your time.

The median price of a 3 bed, 2 bath, 2 car garage house in Wasilla is $212,275 or $1,272.70 per month at 6% interest for Principle and Interest. There are 130 of these
houses to choose from.

The median price of a 3 bed, 2 bath, 2 car garage house in Eagle River is $279,900 or $1,678.14 per month at 6% interest for Principle and Interest. There are only 21 of these homes available.

So it averages out to about $400 per month...not counting your extra time commuting. Of course, we didn't figure anything into the deal for extra mileage on your car, either.

Another big difference is that most of the houses in Wasilla have at least one acre of land, and most of the houses in Eagle River are on city lots of 1/4 acre or less.


BTW...this should be a sticky

[iwiamandaiwi]

Thank You, that's very helpful

[Alaskapat528]

Originally Posted by Marty Van Diest

OK...lets take a look.

Assume that you are driving 50 miles each way...100 miles a day.

Your car gets 25 mpg and you are paying an average of $3.50 cents a gallon for gas. That will be $14 a day for gas.

Also assume that you are working 51 weeks a year. That is 255 days of commuting at $14 a day or $3,570 a year or $297 per month.

So you can afford to pay $300 a month more for housing in Eagle River over the valley if you don't count the value of your time.

The median price of a 3 bed, 2 bath, 2 car garage house in Wasilla is $212,275 or $1,272.70 per month at 6% interest for Principle and Interest. There are 130 of these
houses to choose from.

The median price of a 3 bed, 2 bath, 2 car garage house in Eagle River is $279,900 or $1,678.14 per month at 6% interest for Principle and Interest. There are only 21 of these homes available.

So it averages out to about $400 per month...not counting your extra time commuting. Of course, we didn't figure anything into the deal for extra mileage on your car, either.

Another big difference is that most of the houses in Wasilla have at least one acre of land, and most of the houses in Eagle River are on city lots of 1/4 acre or less.


BTW...this should be a sticky

Excellent information Marty!!

[Barkingowl]

Marty I know of one house for sale in Eagle River that comes with 15 acres but its also $700k+...

[Marty Van Diest]

Yeah...I looked at the median of the 21 houses in Eagle River and the lot size was 0.11 of an acre. In Wasilla of the 130 homes for sale, the median lot size was 0.92 of an acre.