The housing market in 2021 across the Central Kenai Peninsula was very hot. Inventory for houses is low and demand has been increasing with buyers getting into bidding wars in order to secure a home. This was part of a presentation at the 2022 KPEDD Industry Outlook Forum, where Dale Bagley, President Elect of the Alaska Association of Realtors, spoke on the state of real estate in the region.
Bagley spoke on how crazy demand has been to get a home:
“I can probably talk quite a bit about the learning curve that realtors on the Kenai Peninsula had with multiple offers. I can tell you the first thing we learned is everyone would do accelerator clauses. We will pay $1,000 more than the next highest offer up to $40,000 over the price of a house. The problem is that the house won’t appraise for that. That was a learning curve for everyone there. The next tricky thing that everyone started to do was pay all of the seller’s closing costs and including the condition to try to make the net to the seller better and the appraisal would still come in, hopefully, somewhat close. I would say now that a lot of the appraisals that have come in around the Kenai Peninsula are coming in at higher values than we’ve seen, so we don’t have quite a challenge. Real estate has slowed down this winter a little bit. I’m hoping this year will definitely not be anything it was last year.”
The average sales price for residential homes on the Central Kenai Peninsula was $308,816, up 14%. In Homer/Anchor Point, it was $333,667, up 10%. In Seward/Cooper Landing, it was $352,568, up 19%. In addition, days on the market across all three decreased substantially. Central Peninsula residential homes were on the market, on average, 41 days, a decrease of 46%; Homer/Anchor Point was 62 days, a decrease of 55%; and Seward/Cooper Landing was 44 days, a decrease of 35%. Bagley said that people from Anchorage and the lower 48 are moving to the Kenai Peninsula because they like the quality of life and because of the area’s hot job market.
He says that, due to inflation, the feds are projected to make several increases to interest rates this year. He predicts that there won’t be a real estate crash, but there potentially could be a slow leak.
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This feature is part of a continuing series by KSRM News highlighting KPEDD’s 2022 Industry Outlook Forum.
