Looking at buying a house in Anchorage (Eagle: insurance, condos)

[doug1980]

I have lived in Alaska for a little over a year now and we have decided to stay for another 5 years with the Military. Currently we live on Base but would like to buy in Anchorage or as far out as Eagle River. Was wondering where some of the better neighborhoods are in town. We don't get off the main roads much and looking on the internet is hard to tell what the area is like. Our budget is, well, not all that great for up here at only 200k. Any help would be great.

[FloridaKash]

For $200 area you are going to be heard pressed to find anything other than possibly a condo. Since you live on Base you would probably be best at looking in Muldoon or Boniface, they may have some properties that fit your budget. Bascially, if you look at a map look between Mulddon and Boniface and as far west as Tudor but you probably won;t find anything west of Northern Lights. You can Private Message me if you find a house and want to know if the area is any good. I was born and raised in the Muldoon area.

~Kash

[dmills]

I agree with AlaskaKash, $200k is not that much. You can either buy a not that great single family home or a fairly decent condo/townhouse/zero lot line. I'd choose the latter option if I were you. That's just my $.02.

[roadfamily6now]

We looked at $200K houses last year and if you want Anchorage, that will buy you a townhouse or condo. Not many single family homes are selling that low.

But if you buy now, you can get that sweet $8000 credit! And use the Alaska first time home buyer plus your VA and you wont have to put any money down.

[roadfamily6now]

oh I wanted to add that property taxes in Anchorage are pretty high. Plan on adding $300+ to your mortgage bill each month.

[doug1980]

Yeah we can't use that $8,000.00 cause I still own a house back home. I am a bit iffy on buying a house because I am not sure we could actually afford it right now. My wife, however, seems to think we can. But after you add the taxes and insurance, plus utilities it would be a lot more than we pay now. Besides the house we have on base is super nice.

[FloridaKash]

I say rent.

[richelles]

We looked at condos around Anchorage and finaly settled on one in the Campbell Creek Greenbelt area. The cost for what is a small condo was within the range you say you can afford. After carefully checking all the costs associated we made a decision to buy a newer unit with a two car garage. I was not taken with many of the condos we looked at being the construction in the Anchorage area isn't really up to what I've seen in the lower 48. My wife is an Alaska Native and we have visited here many times since 1990. I've done construction inspection for many years and I have found over the years we been coming here that the quality of construction in this area is lacking the finishing touches. Our unit is nice enough but then I've been trained to see what many people would overlook. I saw some units under construction in the last year and the standard of the hidden portion of construction was beneath what I would have wanted to see. I didn't look at any units in the Eagle River area so my comments are limited to within Anchorage itself.