Some Juneau Questions.... (Craig, Hope, Eagle: appointed, ski resort, for sale by owner)

[JR82]

I have been trying to locate houses or even apartments in Juneau via the web. Now, I have been searching by conventional means, I.E realtor.com, ebay, alaska realestate, rent.net, and i just cant seem to find anything....For the time being i would rather not contact a realtor....

As for cost of living, I understand Juneau is expensive, but in comparison to what? Most expensive in the state?

thanks.

[rambrush]

[quote=JR82;81758]I have been trying to locate houses or even apartments in Juneau via the web. Now, I have been searching by conventional means, I.E realtor.com, ebay, alaska realestate, rent.net, and i just cant seem to find anything....For the time being i would rather not contact a realtor....

As for cost of living, I understand Juneau is expensive, but in comparison to what? Most expensive in the state?

thanks
As someone who has only visited and got very wet hiking around Mendenhall glacier I recalled there was a news paper there.
http://classifieds.juneauempire.com/classifieds-bin/classifieds?classification=REAL%20ESTATE%20FOR%20S ALE&category_number=0720&temp_type=detail (broken link)

the link did not go as planned but there is houses for sale there.
Saw several at century 21 as well. searched Google Juneau Alaska real estate and found several.

Hope this helps.

[JR82]

Yea, Ive googled Juneau Real Estate and usually every realtors page has yielded insufficient results, but I have found a few good pages. What I am more curious about however, are Apartments. I am going to be up there in a few weeks so Ill be able to check some out. If anyone has any advice or words of wisdom as to living in Juneau, Id love to hear it. Thanks

Appreciate the links rambrush.

[rambrush]

Downtown was beautiful, But every cruise liner known to man docks there it seems. Very crowded
We stayed at a small bed and breakfast downtown which was a nice find.
I understood the realtor thing and thats why I gave you the link for the local newspaper. Was hoping it would have for sale by owner listings to avoid the realtor situation.
Good Luck

[Coldjoe]

Not sure when you posted your message, but I've got a couple of rentals in the Lemon Creek area available. The rent is comparable to other units.....2 bedroom=$850./mo and 1 bedroom=$700/mo. If you're interested give a shout. CJ

[Xa'at]

Have no fear, Xa'at's here!
There've been quite a few posts about people wanting to move Juneau lately... and if all the u-hauls on the ferry were any indication apparently they're making it here.
Yes we have a paper: the Juneau Empire. It's a small town type newspaper, but it's really great. When I was living down south I was very disappointed in the quality of the "home town" papers. The Empire is really great, but I wouldn't look for a house there.
If you haven't been to Juneau, you may not understand the various "region names", so I'll break it down for you.
Douglas
Across the Gastineau channel (we just call it the Channel) from downtown on Douglas Island. Consists of downtown Douglas, which gets a reputation of being rather hickish, but it's a cute little village area with a skating rink and a nice sandy beach, Blueberry Hill, where all the mansions are, and North Douglas, the highway which runs north along the edge of the island. The ski resort, Eaglecrest, is on Douglas Island.
Downtown
What is generally known as Juneau. The waterfront is pretty, but dominated by tourism in the summer. Up the hill is where the real downtown is- a lovely place full of quaint businesses, along with the capitol building and lots of the state and federal buildings. Houses here tend to be very expensive- and make sure you get a view of the outside; further up the hill, you cannot always drive right up to them. Some have long staircases because of the steepness of the mountain. Downtown Juneau is politically very liberal, the only district in Alaska to cast a majority vote for the democratic candidate in the last pres. election.
(Mendenhall) Valley
The "suburb" of Juneau. Houses here are less expensive, and there are more of them. Some have excellent views of the glacier or river. The valley has most of the larger chain stores: freddies, home depot, all manner of restaurants, the Nugget Mall, etc, along with every church ever conceived of and the int'l airport. The road connecting downtown and the valley is called Egan (Expressway) and along that road are the Lemon Creek (named after the glacier) and Salmon Creek areas.

Auke Bay/Out the Road
Auke Bay is a little fishing hamlet past the Valley, on Glacier Highway. This is where the regional university (University of Alaska Southeast) is located, along with the ferry terminal and more housing. Past Auke Bay and you get into the area called "Out The Road", which is basically just more houses that get increasingly remote until the road finally dead ends.

Hopefully that helps you get an idea of the area when you're looking at ads. A few other things that you may or may not know, but really should, before deciding to move here:

-We are off the road system. This means that you cannot, unless your car has a submarine feature, drive to Juneau from anywhere. There are two ways to get out: the Alaska Marine Highway and Alaska Airlines.
-We are in a temperate rainforest- think a slightly colder Seattle. Most of the year it rains, August is our driest month, not sure what the wettest is. It does snow some, but usually the snow does not last long. Right now we have about half an inch, with forecasts for more. The most important thing to remember is that it does not get hot (read: above 70F), and summers are probably different than you are used to. If you do not like rain, change your plans now.

[EDIT: Ugh! Just noticed that this is an old post! All my wisdom, WASTED. Someone better learn something from this...]

[expdxer]

Xa'at--I have found your posts about Juneau very helpful. I am thinking of moving there and I am applying for jobs. My question is, do many people live there without a car? I have checked out Capital Transit's website and it looks like a good system and I have read articles that it is widely used. (But I do notice there is no service on Sunday evenings, not so great.) My guess is that it is best to live downtown if you don't have a car? How far is it to walk from West Juneau or Douglas to downtown? Thanks!

[DannyL]

you can get along in juneau without a car. lot's of people do it ( and some of them own cars).

[cobolt]

You can get along with a car so long as you travel between downtown and Auke bay. If you want to hike the Eagle or Herbert glacier or anything like that, the bus doesn't run that far. But I"ve known people to buddy up for rides when they need them and bike it the rest of the time. It just depends.

I'd be very wary of Lemon Creek. It's really sketchy...not in a lower 48 sort of way...but there are better areas. You won't find much in the way of apartment complexes in Juneau...which to me is a good thing...lots of people have rental property...rent out little back apartments etc...outside of the Empire and Craigslist though, I could'nt tell you where to look except word of mouth. I wouldn't rent someplace without checking it out....regardless of how many pictures you see on the internet. This is just from personal experience.

Yes it costs more to live in Juneau....food is expensive, but after you're there a while, you get used to it and when you can take your cross country skiis and ski ontop Mendenhall Lake to the glacier, or smell the sweetness of the air or just hear silence...well then paying 4.85 for a 64 ounce bottle of V-8 or 2 dollars for a green pepper isn't so much of a big deal.

[DannyL]

if we've said it once, we've said it a hundred times. DON'T RENT ANYTHING IN JUNEAU SIGHT-UNSEEN. Maybe if you have a friend or family here who could check it out in advance, but don't just send money or sign a lease without reconing it out. A "bargain rental" at 600.00 a month may come with a 400.00 a month heating bill. Most trailers here really should be condemed.
Rentals here are also getting a bit more restrictive. No pets, no smoking, etc.
Word of mouth is the best way. With the transient nature of this town, a lot of landlords are a bit hesitant to rent to a total stranger without a hefty security/damage deposit.
Face-to-Face is the best way to secure a rental here.

And Cobolt is correct on the expense here. Juneau is more expensive probably overall, but you get used to it.