An article about the high cost of living in Alaska

[Frostnip]

I don't think they're comparing apples to apples when they talk about price of a single family house, though. The housing in Anchorage or Juneau is almost universally actual professional construction, made to code, and generally larger, newer, and more modernized. A "single family home" somewhere like Glenallen or a bush village tends to look a lot different. Is housing in Anc really more expensive than housing in North Pole if in Anc I'm getting a new construction condo while in North Pole I'm paying 25% less but getting a used doublewide covered in insulation foam?

[Arktikos]

Originally Posted by Frostnip

..Is housing in Anc really more expensive than housing in North Pole if in Anc I'm getting a new construction condo while in North Pole I'm paying 25% less but getting a used doublewide covered in insulation foam?

Really? I don't know about that. You could have a point there.

The B and B we stayed at in Tok this summer seemed like a conventional home professionally built.

[riceme]

Originally Posted by Arktikos

Really? I don't know about that. You could have a point there.

The B and B we stayed at in Tok this summer seemed like a conventional home professionally built.

Most of the places I've rented in the greater Fairbanks area, to include NP, Fox, Two Rivers, and the Goldstream Valley, were sketchy in at least one way, and if not more. Oh, and one place in town that was a downright ***hole. Not a single one of them could have passed a conventional home inspection. They were all (barring the ***hole) considered pretty nice places to rent.

Thankfully, I bought a place a few years back and it is not, sketchy OR a ****hole, and it passed a conventional home inspection. That is what we call Fairbanks Fancy, my friends!

[RayinAK]

Originally Posted by Arktikos

Honolulu, San Francisco, LA, Seattle and San Diego ahead of us. Wow, that's some elite company. What happened to NYC?

Manhattan may have the highest cost of living in the US. CA, too.

[RayinAK]

Originally Posted by Frostnip

I don't think they're comparing apples to apples when they talk about price of a single family house, though. The housing in Anchorage or Juneau is almost universally actual professional construction, made to code, and generally larger, newer, and more modernized. A "single family home" somewhere like Glenallen or a bush village tends to look a lot different. Is housing in Anc really more expensive than housing in North Pole if in Anc I'm getting a new construction condo while in North Pole I'm paying 25% less but getting a used doublewide covered in insulation foam?

The construction codes are being followed in all the cities and boroughs now, at least for new construction. Then for the sale of older homes most of the codes have to be implemented before the sale takes place. The same applies to septic systems, electrical work, insulation, and so on.

[Frostnip]

Originally Posted by RayinAK

The construction codes are being followed in all the cities and boroughs now, at least for new construction. Then for the sale of older homes most of the codes have to be implemented before the sale takes place. The same applies to septic systems, electrical work, insulation, and so on.

Banks might require successful code inspection before they'll finance a home loan, but being up to code is not actually a legal requirement for sale of a property. It's quite possible to sell as-is. And while some municipalities and boroughs have stepped up their code requirements, the majority of the state is still "unorganized" and there's a lot of construction just beyond municipal limits for just this reason. And many cities, even if they do have a nominal code or building regulations, don't have enforcement capability (e.g. Nenana, Delta, Glenallen, etc).