Where is the best place in Alaska to live? (Anchorage: apartment complexes, to rent)

[roadfamily6now]

Fairbanks

[Marty Van Diest]

Palmer...of course.

[stiffnecked]

If you're seriously interested in Ketchikan you've got to start making phone calls to secure housing. Many seasonal employers are ramping up and hiring for the upcoming tourist season. That always makes housing in short supply. It can be found, it's just harder. The normal places to look are SITNEWS, Ketchikan Daily News and with all the real estate agents in town. While most of the real estate agents have good websites phone calls are the the best bet for checking on housing.

As for employment this is a good time of year to make that move. It's not hard to pick up a seasonal job while you're looking for something better. People do that every year. It gives you an edge since you are physically in town. Good luck with your move.

[richelles]

Originally Posted by KasieS

I haven't spent a lot of time in the three locations you have fallen in love with but I don't think you have fallen in love with Alaska but with the view of the water. I've been in the three places you mention during the months of May and September and I'll have to agree the Inside Passage is lovely at that time of the year when the weather is nice. But did you see the cloudy weather? The rain and cold dampness? The isolation because you almost can't get there from here? And then you mention your income, without working, as if that solves everything. I moved there with an income four times what you're pointing to and found things expensive (Maybe that WORD should be in Capital Letters) to the point we watched our expenses.

Before you jump out of the frying pan into the fire I suggest you look carefully at the area around Seattle, Puget Sound and the Straits of Juan de Fuca, because that is very similar scenery but with some distinct advantages. You can drive from there to the rest of the area. The costs are much less for everything because shipping isn't such a high percentage of the final price. Although I was able to get medical treatment in Alaska's largest city they still ship many people to Seattle for medical treatment as a normal part of life. The weather is similar but definitely better overall in Washington.

If the wet view is what has you so enchanted you might find the closer trip to be suitable. I managed to see Alaska from Ketchikan to Dutch Harbor and admit the ocean views are spectacular but water is only part of what makes Alaska what it is. It is further North and even with the moderating influence of the water the overall weather is different and visiting during the summer and seeing it at it's best isn't much of a reason to make a quick decision when you haven't observed it most of the time yet. Is there some reason why time is so pressing the move has to be made in the short time frame you mention?

[tidelines]

Ketchikan can be the first jumping off spot for new folks because it's the cheapest place to get to by ferry. By the time they figure out they don't like it or can't afford it, they're stuck - and that is a great misfortune.

If you're from Utah, you have no inkling about what rain means. Let's be generous and come up with a conservative number, say, 200. Imagine 200 days of waking up and looking out to gray. Drizzle? Maybe. Raindrops bouncing ankle-high? Likely. Pavement worn to potholes and filled with water, spraying on everything with every passing vehicle? Absolutely. Donning rubber gear over everything, sliding through stores dripping wet, leaving the seat in your car soaked. Down your neck, up your sleeves, in your boots. It's wetter than anything you can imagine living in Utah. It's not just spring, it's not just fall, it's all year. And snow? Oh yeah, heavy and thick and then then it rains. Hills and ice aren't easily negotiated, and narrow streets don't make it any better. On a dreary day maybe you'll load up the kids and go to the store or the laundromat, wipers going skreak-skreak-skreak, kids tussling, windows fogged over, and you just can't remember when the last day was that you could go anywhere without the wipers going skreak-skreak-skreak, or bringing the groceries in without running from car to door, ducking the rain. And don't forget wet dogs... Oh yeah, you have no clue what rain is.

Heh-heh, but that's what I love about southeast. It's the very thing used to discourage the faint of heart, the easily-discouraged, and the fairweather Alaskans. If you're not daunted by a little rain, you may fare as well as the rest of us, thrive even. Get your feet wet. Get your face wet. And then get on with living.

[RedJacket]

Originally Posted by tidelines

If you're from Utah, you have no inkling about what rain means. Let's be generous and come up with a conservative number, say, 200. Imagine 200 days of waking up and looking out to gray. Drizzle? Maybe. Raindrops bouncing ankle-high? Likely. Pavement worn to potholes and filled with water, spraying on everything with every passing vehicle? Absolutely. Donning rubber gear over everything, sliding through stores dripping wet, leaving the seat in your car soaked. Down your neck, up your sleeves, in your boots. It's wetter than anything you can imagine living in Utah. It's not just spring, it's not just fall, it's all year. And snow? Oh yeah, heavy and thick and then then it rains. Hills and ice aren't easily negotiated, and narrow streets don't make it any better. On a dreary day maybe you'll load up the kids and go to the store or the laundromat, wipers going skreak-skreak-skreak, kids tussling, windows fogged over, and you just can't remember when the last day was that you could go anywhere without the wipers going skreak-skreak-skreak, or bringing the groceries in without running from car to door, ducking the rain. And don't forget wet dogs... Oh yeah, you have no clue what rain is.

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/5...olnpopcorn.gif That's me poppin' Prozac while reading your comment. If your intentions were to keep people like me to hell out of Ketchikan, it worked beautifully.

[tidelines]

Hardly. But a picture is worth a thousand words, don't you think?

[Metlakatla]

This is something that's important to remember about the rain in SE: A lot of people who live in places like the American Southwest and the interior West say that they "love" rain, but what they really love are rainstorms. Rainstorms are when you remain indoors feeling all cozy and everything because you don't have to be out in it and you know that within a few hours the rainstorm will be gone. But the rain in SE is different. You'll have to be out in it if you're going to be out at all and sometimes it'll come at you sideways and otherwise pummel you from all directions.

I like Ketchikan though, as a community. I can see how you could build a good life there.

[Wynternight]

Originally Posted by KasieS

Thanks I am glad I am not the only "Crazy Person" around!!

How YOU doin'?

[AKStafford]

For cost of living, transportation, and housing I would recommend Anchorage, Eagle River or the Mat-Su Valley.
But this region is quite different than what you saw on your cruise through South East.