Help W/relocating to Anchorage AK

H.~
Well, fist off, welcome to anchorage! Are you military, or volentarily moving? If you're military, you may want to concider Eagle River. Post/Base are at the very egde of town and a lot closer to Eagle River then the rest of Anchorage. If you do find something in Anchorage, definitly stay way from the Spenard, Fair view and Mountain view area...very scetchy neighborhoods. Parts of Muldoon are a little hair too, but not all of it. I'm in the South end, up on hillside, so I'm a little biased to this part of town. It all depends upon what you are looking for and more importantly, what you can afford. There are a lot of really nice neighborhoods in all price ranges at this end, everything shopping-wise is pretty excessable too. We are Army, but my hubby is a recruiter working out of the mall, so we choose to live at this end...I think I would have made him make the trip through town anyway, though! Talk to a realiter, let them know what you are looking for.
Good luck!

Hello my name is C. and I live in Anchorage, AK. I lived here my whole life. This is an awesome place to live especially if love the outdoors. If you are military the best place to live that is close to the bases is Eagle River. If you are not military or dont care it can take 30 to 40 minutes to get to work then the South side or Dimond area of Anchorage is great place to live. Feel free to ask if you have more questions.

C.

HI, I have just relocated to Anchorage myself from the Wasilla area here in Alaska. It is a buyers market here with low interest. I can give you a realitors name and he will help you find the perfect home. He also rents homes as well. Anchorage is a wonderful place to live with lots to offer. Good areas here in Anchorage is on the south side. I live in the Mt. View area and it had its problems but it is turning around. They community with other agencies are trying to get rid of all the big rentals and making it back into owner single family homes. There is other good area's of Anchorage as well but the area to stay out of is Spenard, and Down Town.

I am a stay home mom with two boys of 11 and almost 8 years that I homeschool. I am a pampered chef Consultant on the side to have a little me time every once in a while. If you are interested in contacting me to get to know more about the Anchorage area please do.

If you are working in Anchorage I suggest finding a place in Anchorage so you do not commute from neighboring towns. The roads in the winter and traffic can be a bother. Believe me we use to live in Houston Alaska and my husband drove it 5 days a week and spent at the least 2 hours on the road but if there was major weather and accidents it took longer and he never got to see the family.

Where are you moving from?

Well good luck on your move to Alaska I love it here and been here all my life. Lots to do in the summer and winter if you enjoy getting outdoors. I am here if you need any other questions answered.

Sincerely
A. C.

Well I guess i'll be the first to say Welcome to Anchorage.
South side is your higher end side of town it is nice. But there is plenty of nice neiborhoods mixed all around. I live off of Northern Lights on the east side and I love my Neiborhood and my sons School (Baxter Elem. Neiborhoods to stay away from Fairview and Mountain View. Were you are you relocating from? Well I hope i have been some help and if I can help any more just drop me a line.

There are many wonderful areas to live here in Anchorage, just depends what you are looking for. Also if you are looking to rent or buy. In either case, I can give you some names of realtors and I also have a friend who works with rentals. When will you be arriving?

I find that on the southside you have more of a chance for a little land, and there are many 'suburban'-type communities.
You can usually find a little more for your money in Eagle River, but you would need to commute about 15 miles to get into Anchorage.
There are also some that are a little less desireable, mtn view, fairview.

Feel free to email me offlist: ____@____.com

Hi H.,
Are you guys military? If so, I highly recommend moving onto base as this will be the easiest way to mesh with finding other military moms to become friends with.

If however, you are looking to purchase, whether you are military or not, Eagle River seems to be a nice place to go, far away enough from the city and it seems to be quiet with bigger homes for your money and more yard area.

The Anchorage area is very nice. Right now, because we are heading towards breakup, it's sloppy on some days, icy on others, and everyone is anxiously awaiting spring. The days are getting longer (we are currently at about 10 hours of sunlight, in the summer we will have 22 hours of sunlight with 2 hours of visible light, which is weird). It dries up really quickly after the ice and snow melts because of how much sun there is. Families are generally up until like 10:00 pm playing because the sun is still out shining as if it's 3 in the afternoon; seriously. Life is very different here because everyone soaks up as much sun as they can in the summer.

Prices are another story. When we first moved here, I went to the commissary to buy some basics, and just about had sticker shock in the produce dept. I recommend purchasing in bulk at Costco for as many things as possible; their produce lasts the longest. Another thing you will be shocked at is shipping. Oh my heck, shipping is expensive. I probably have spent over $100 in shipping for Christmas gifts the past two years. And with my business, I use a pro lab for prints and other items and it's $15 a box. Props usually cost as much to ship as they are to purchase, and my lights cost almost $300 to ship. *ugh* But at least we are able to get these items fairly quickly. Ladies whom I know that sell Pampered Chef actually get their orders for their parties faster than in the lower 48.

Anyway, good luck on your move. These are the things I think everyone needs to know about when moving up here.

Talk to you later. If you have any more questions, please feel free to email me at ____@____.com.

Warmly,
M.

Welcome to Anchor Town! There are many fine areas in Anchorage to live. It all depends on if you prefer to live in a more urban "in town" or a more rural area like Eagle River or South Anchorage. Both areas have lots to offer for kids. I prefer to live in South Anchorage on "The Hillside" because my family enjoys having more land for the yard and natural woods surroundings. Getting involved on a M.O.P.S Group (Mothers of Preschoolers) Often times churches will sponsor these groups for the community. My neighbor attends a "Moms Group" like this at St. Elizabeths Church on Huffman Road each week for a play time with the kids and the Mom's discuss parenting and what not. Hope this helps. Camai! Kristine M. This means an Alaskan welcome in Yupik Eskimo.

I myself live in Anchorage.Born here and came back after growing up in the Wasilla area.There are many areas of town that are good to live in.Like any place some are better then others.Everyones pointed out good points but it also depends on whats affordable for your family.I live in mid-town....pretty quiet in my area considering we're kinda in the middle of a lot.We live in a smaller mobile home park and really haven't had any issues.We have a good size yard for the kids (I only have one but friends are over all the time with thiers) and my dog also. Everyone warns u of Spenard but in reality it's what part u choose..if your over by the airport there are very nice little nieghborhoods over there w/o any major issues (my mom lives over there).Welcome to Anchor-town!

I live on southside (hillside), horrible snoopy neighbors though always in your business, installed camera to spy on you, calling you in if you install windows claiming they are "spy windows" to the state, calls you in for an "illegal fence" which isnt one,stalks my children,stalks company that comes over, etc..It all started because i wanted to use my driveway so i could park my car. We gave them our asbuilt (property lines) that didnt work. So,warned them of a survey, got tired of it got a survey, removed 4 foot fence, installed a 6 foot fence because after the survey they screamed to the neigbhors we stole there property and was blocking our cars in our driveway. They didnt believe the survey guy that yes the property is mine (even though we had a 4 foot fence up all around our property before the neigbhor started to block off our backends of our vehicles with his truck ) so they hired another surveyor to check my surveyor
So it all depends on the sanity of your neighbors. By the way I am told this is normal?? but i never experienced this on my last home i lived in for 7 years

P.S..and no the police wont do anything about it called them for years.

But, all in all the south is better than mountain view, fairview, and spenard.
Debarr road is not bad. We use to live by Patterson street for 7 years before we moved up to the hillside area. Never had a problem besides the teacher at chester valley smaking my 5 year old child in the face and APD stated they wont do anything due to them worrying about her carrer. (even when a red mark was present on my childs face and she admitted to me by the phone she "could of done it")
Do not live in the apartments called the Club off lake otis nor the trailor parks. According to the police department they are known for deaths,drugs and lots of violence.

Welcome to our state. Hopefully you dont have to experience
what I and my neighbors are experiencing for years!
If you need a school later on I HIGHLY suggest Northern lights ABC or Polaris K-12..very good schools ( i finally put mine in them due to the violence in public schools) very family orientated schools, violence isnt tolerated, different learning experience, high academics and so on.
Im half asleep and I need coffee if you have any questions of the area you picked you can write me anytime.

Have a great week =)