Only two houses on our multiple listing tour this week and one sold before we had the tour. Our market continues to be very strong and no one knows why. There is some jitteriness caused by the fact the legislature keeps talking about a $4 billion deficit and we have no way of dealing with it.
Nevertheless, the housing market is strong. It is odd but one cannot say it makes no sense. As long as interest rates are so incredibly low it may be that some of the world's money is find its way to our small little hamlet. And it doesn't take much here to keep our market strong.
Anyway my hunch is, as long as interest rates remain low, no matter what happens Juneau is probably going to be one of he safest real estate market in the United States. Here's why I say that:
Juneau only has 32,000 people. It is the capitol for the state, It is the regional center for the federal government. Is also the regional center for myriad other organizations like native corporations that operate in Southeast Alaska. It is the regional center for all of Southeast Alaska with regard to goods and services.
Juneau has 1 million tourists a year, a Costco, i.e. Home Depot, a first-class hospital, a vibrant fishing industry, two world-class precious and base metals mines that will last 100 years, and soon is going to be the pot capital of Southeast Alaska.
As far as the state goes, even though there's a lot of resistance to taxes and other means of mitigating the budget deficit, the fact remains Alaska, as of this moment, is sitting with $60 billion invested around the world that is generating tremendous revenue. Including a lot of high interest bonds it owns that yield tremendous revenue.
Last there really is just no land left in Juneau to build on it that isn't going to be very costly and very difficult with regard to both the price of the land and the site preparation. The site preparation costs in Juneau are skyrocketing because for 50 years we built on this Mendenhall Valley glacial Moraine.. It is the cheapest and easiest place to build and all of Southeast Alaska. It is flat Flat gravel with water and sewer. All you needed was a backhoe and pour a foundation and hook it up to the local city water and sewer. That's all gone now, built up, now they have to carve lots out of swamps and cliffs, etc. |
