Moving to anchorage in 30ish days, help us find an area to live!

[kit-kat-55]

----> As it has been said, "The best thing about living in Anchorage is that it is only half an hour from Alaska".

don't hate me - but, when I was in Anchorage - I was so disappointed! I wanted log cabin bars, men with big fur hats, natives, snowy landscapes... but, I found it was a big dirty city. too much concrete, and the snow blowers blow dirty snow all over.

I need to go back to AK and see the stuff I wanted. go fishing, hunting, see snow, nature, and Northern Lights, etc.

k

[Need4Seasons]

Originally Posted by kit-kat-55

----> As it has been said, "The best thing about living in Anchorage is that it is only half an hour from Alaska".

don't hate me - but, when I was in Anchorage - I was so disappointed! I wanted log cabin bars, men with big fur hats, natives, snowy landscapes... but, I found it was a big dirty city. too much concrete, and the snow blowers blow dirty snow all over.

I need to go back to AK and see the stuff I wanted. go fishing, hunting, see snow, nature, and Northern Lights, etc.

k

Anchorage is what you imagined. It only gets dirty the way you described when the weather warms up and we have mud and slush and all that slush gets splattered everywhere by the plow trucks. Then we get a fresh cover of snow to hide it all. So we do get that beautiful snowy landscape that you imagined about perhaps 80% of the time. Come back and visit us again! Winter and Summers are best times to visit depending on your preference in activities. Worse times are spring which we call "break-up" with all the snow melting and ice breaking up.

[Need4Seasons]

Originally Posted by hatingthemidwest

My family is moving to Anchorage at the end of this month. Can you guys recommend some good areas to live in? Have been looking into Eagle River, and Chugiak areas north of anchorage and also looking south of anchorage (even open to nice areas of the city itself).

We are planning on renting/leasing a home at first.

Budget for home rental can be anywhere between 1000-3000 a month with 3000 being on the pricey end for a 2-3 bedroom home with a yard (would like to avoid paying 3k)

Looking for a safe and well kept area. Would prefer not to be in the heart of the city of Anchorage.

For your budget you can live anywhere you like. It is hard to recommend one specific area as you really didn't tell us what you like. Where will you be working? For the higher end of your price point, that would be South Anchorage and Eagle River. South Anchorage also host two additional distinct areas: lower hillside and upper hillside with upper hillside being the rich part of town such as homes starting from 775K to millions of dollars and lower hillside being 775K to 500K in price point mixed in with "average" priced homes of 350K. Rentals will most likely be found in the lower hillside and "South Anchorage" part of town. Shopping is Dimond Mall.

For your price point, I wouldn't recommend West Anchorage. It has a very hippy vibe to it. It is hard to explain but the best way I know how to put it is, while the rest of Anchorage grew, West side kind of got stuck in time. Not to mention it was once "red light" district. It's been cleaned up well. With that said, besides hillside, Anchorage has nice homes with pockets of bad areas only two distinct bad area to stay out of: Mountain View and Fairview. Closest shopping is Sears Mall in Midtown and 5th Avenue Mall in Downtown.

East Anchorage has the newest and largest shopping center in all of Alaska (Tikahtnu Commons) with an Imax Theatre.
Eagle River is has a small town feel and is built mostly along mountain side so be careful in choosing a place to rent, you might not get good sun. Although lot's of people commute into Anchorage, Eagle River has a pretty strong community of it's own. One of their big events is called Bear Paw and people from Anchorage attends those events. Most of the commuters will be coming from the valley (Wasilla,Palmer,etc) and the Glenn gets bottle necked in Eagle River.

Without knowing more about what your needs are it's hard but I tried to high light each area the best I could without being too lengthy. Good luck!

[AKRaven]

Anchorage averages about 16 inches of precipitation a year - an inch or so more than Los Angeles. Less than half of Seattle. But it comes down slower than LA - more drizzly days. And much of it comes in the form of snow in the winter. But generally the cold is also dry. And there are good neighborhoods all over. Personally, I'd rather be as close to work as possible - the every day commute is what adds miles to your car and takes your time.

[Rosey737]

Depends on where you work n want to do for "play." If you're a skier then look into Girdwood (~30 miles south of anch). South anch is nice too. I went to Craigslist & looked for places & asked how far away from anch it was. Anch/mat-su on Craig's.

[GaGal71]

Originally Posted by hatingthemidwest

My family is moving to Anchorage at the end of this month. Can you guys recommend some good areas to live in? Have been looking into Eagle River, and Chugiak areas north of anchorage and also looking south of anchorage (even open to nice areas of the city itself).

We are planning on renting/leasing a home at first.

Budget for home rental can be anywhere between 1000-3000 a month with 3000 being on the pricey end for a 2-3 bedroom home with a yard (would like to avoid paying 3k)

Looking for a safe and well kept area. Would prefer not to be in the heart of the city of Anchorage.

Hey there,
I daydream about moving to AK... please tell me, which area are you in now? How do you like it? Anything you can add is great; I'd just like to hear how it's going. Thanks!

[phlinak]

Originally Posted by dragracing57

Expect rain, rain, and more rain.....The places mention to live are perfect. You are going to love it specially the outdoors, it's awesome. This is a noiseless city and at night you can really rest. someone said the other day: "It's like going back 40 years". We moved three months ago and it's has been better every day. The touch of Alaska is very special. Found people that came for a week or a month and been here 15, 20, 40 years......Good Luck!...

Maybe in the Southeast but not so much around here or the Valley.