Anchorage property assessments show huge jump in condo values across city

Jan. 23—Residents in Anchorage are receiving green postcards in their mailboxes this month, the city’s assessment of what their property is worth.

The estimated value of single-family homes, which constitute the largest share of taxable property in the municipality, increased by 6% last year, according to data from the city’s property appraisal division.

That’s less than the 9.4% increase for such houses the prior year, but consistent with a steady upward trend in Anchorage property values.

Condominiums, though, saw a comparatively huge jump in assessed values.

“The big one here…condos (were) up over 15% on average, so that’s up significantly,” Municipal Assessor Jack Gadamus told members of the Anchorage Assembly during a work session earlier in January.

Gadamus said the sharp rise in condo values reflects a few things. One factor is the assessor’s office refining the methodology for how it tracks condominium sale prices. As a result, assessors have better data for what’s happening in the real-estate market that they can apply to the estimates that determining valuations.

“That 15% is really reflecting some catch-up on our (part),” he said.

But the more significant factor, he said, is the demand over the last couple years for smaller condos. The 15% average is not spread evenly condominium market, Gadamus explained. A few hundred units saw sale prices increase by 50% or more.

“A disproportionate amount were from Girdwood,” Gadamus said.

Over the last several years, the Girdwood real estate market exploded. A meager housing supply in the outlying ski community at the municipality’s southern edge was compounded by trends during the COVID-19 pandemic: low interest rates on loans, remote work, and a premium placed on easy access to outdoor recreation, which the area has plenty of.

Gadamus gave one representative example he’d tracked in sales data: An 800-square-foot Girdwood condo sold in 2021 for $224,000. The next year an identical unit in the same development went for $275,000. In 2024, the original condo sold again, this time for $398,000.

“Particularly in Girdwood this last year, we had new data that showed we were well out of alignment with the valuation of some of those condos. Part of it is the market has really spiked up,” Gadamus said.

Another explanation for the sharp rise in condo values is that amid Anchorage’s constricted housing market and higher borrowing rates, they are one of the few affordable entry points for new home-buyers. In 2024, the average price of a single family home in Anchorage hit $524,000, up 23% from four years prior. Gadamus said that prices for bigger three- and four-bedroom condos did not rise as dramatically as they did for the smaller one- and two-bedroom units.

“First-time homebuyers are begrudgingly looking for condos,” he said.

And they are competing with another demographic: more seniors who are downsizing, trading bigger, more spacious homes for smaller accommodations closer to services and amenities in denser neighborhoods around Anchorage.

Alaska is a nondisclosure state, meaning home sale prices are not automatically public, complicating how municipal assessors compile data to estimate property values.

Assessed values are used to calculate how much the owner owes in property taxes to the city. The municipality relies heavily on that money to pay for everything from road repairs and snow plows to police and homeless services. The specific tax bill depends on the mill rate, a number set each year by the Anchorage Assembly. The mill rate represents the amount of tax owed per $1,000 of a property’s assessed value. Last year’s mill rate was 16.145, which works out to a $1,614.50 tax obligation for every $100,000 of a property’s assessed value. For example, a home that received a green card from the city assessing its value at $450,000 would see a tax bill of $7,265.25, unless the owner was claiming exemptions.

Anyone wishing to file an appeal or dispute the appraised value of their home must contact the assessor’s office by mid-February.

According to the property appraisal division, the city estimates there is $42.3 billion worth of taxable property within the municipality.

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