Kodiak is home to the highest average rent costs in the state. That’s according to a new survey the public, self-supported Alaska Housing Finance Corporation released on June 19.
Based on a recent rental market survey from the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation (AHFC), the median rent in Kodiak this year is $1,450. That’s 20.83% higher than last year’s average rent, rising from $1,200 in 2023 to $1,450 in 2024; a figure that applies to rental properties of all sizes without including the cost of utilities.
“We can definitively say the numbers have gone up. And the methodology has been consistent over time. The market appears to be very tight," Daniel Delfino, the director of planning and program development at AHFC said.
AHFC provides mortgages, affordable housing programs and other benefits to help Alaskans secure housing.
He said that average is based on roughly 400 responses from landlords surveyed within the Kodiak area during a specific week in March of this year. That’s compared to surveys done in the same time period last year and in prior years going back to the 1990s. Kodiak’s median rent was higher than Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau and the statewide average. Although some individual, rural communities not named in the survey, like Nome or Bethel, could potentially have higher median rent prices than Kodiak.
Delfino said the housing market in Kodiak, like most places, has gone up and down over the years. Now, however, it’s more of a bubble where home and rent prices have increased significantly in a short period of time.
“Where we see the numbers where the rents are going up to $1,450, that’s a pretty substantial increase year over year, and we see that vacancy rates are down around 3%; that tells us that maybe it’s not on the bubble like it was a couple years ago. It looks like maybe the market has swung back into ‘uh oh, we need more housing,’ because this isn’t good for people when rents go up 20% year over year.”
According to the Department of Labor and Workforce Development’s “Alaska Economic Trends magazine”, for the whole Kodiak Island Borough, the median rent for a two-bedroom apartment plus utilities is just over $1,700. Delfino said the underlying data from the AHFC rental market survey is the same as what the Department of Labor and Workforce Development used, but how each entity analyses the data was different.
AHFC’s survey indicates many will have a hard time finding places locally to rent, as the vacancy rate for Kodiak rentals dropped from 5.21% to 3.33% and has been on a downward trend since at least 2017 according to the annual rental market survey Delfino cited. He points out that the survey data does not include Kodiak Island Housing Authority units that require income limitations to live there, whether that be a minimum income or maximum income.
Oshiana Black is moving to Kodiak from Cordova next month and has a job secured as a teacher at North Star Elementary School. But she said that she was on the fence about coming because she couldn’t find housing.
“I almost didn’t come. I actually told the principal that I didn’t think I was going to be able to come over there [to Kodiak] and that I needed more time to think about it," Black said.
But in the end Black was able to secure a one-bedroom for her and her daughter on Gull Drive, and put a security deposit down already. Others aren’t as lucky.
A Facebook page dedicated to the local housing market is filled with dozens of people looking for rentals. But one such prospective renter, Sarah Palmer, told KMXT that prices she saw of "$1,500 to $1,800 for a one-bedroom apartment were ridiculous," especially when adding up additional costs for utilities and a security deposit. Palmer also has a dog which she said limited her options for housing, as many local landowners and rentals do not allow pets or charge high and prohibitive fees to allow pets.
For those seeking financial help with affording higher rent prices, Delfino encourages Kodiak residents to reach out to the corporation and apply for some of their rental assistance programs, such as the Housing Choice Vouchers.
