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Support for Alaska Public Media on Demand comes from Siri, an Alaska Native corporation with operations and investments spanning five continents, 45 states and two US territories.
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Some people that would have bought a house if mortgage costs were at more typical levels will not buy a house because of where they are.
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High mortgages are leading to high rents and pricing Alaskans out of homes. From Alaska Public Media, this is statewide news on Alaska News nightly for Wednesday, September 10th. Good evening. I'm Casey Grove. Also tonight, record breaking rain in the Northwest Arctic threatens communities with flooding and erosion.
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August was an excessively wet month all across Northwest Arctic borough and indeed much of the western interior.
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Those stories and more tonight on Alaska News Nightly. It's getting harder for Alaskans to afford a place to live, whether that means buying a house or renting. That's the main takeaway from this month's Economic Trends magazine that focused on mortgage and rent prices. Alaska Public Media's Ava White has more.
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When adjusted for inflation, monthly mortgage rate payments around the state are the highest they've been in over three decades, according to the report. And the increase has been dramatic. 2024, the principal and interest payment on a typical mortgage was roughly $2,300 per month, 75% higher than in 2021, according to the study. Gunner Schultz is an economist with the state and co authored the report. He says that much of an increase is unusual in a relatively short time frame.
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We had a like a full decade of relatively low mortgage rates during the 2010s, and we had even lower rates during COVID But I think that combination of low rates, prices bid up with limited inventory, followed by steep rate increases is what led to that big jump.
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That price surge doesn't include other expenses like utilities or property taxes. The report says a 20% down payment on a single family home in the state increased by $25,000 since 2019. That combination of soaring mortgage rates plus inflated down payments have widened the gap between renting and homeownership in recent years. In Anchorage, the report says it costs almost $900 more to buy than to rent. The study shows one third of Alaskans rent, though Schultz says they don't know how that number compares to prior years. But he says there are some general trends. When it gets more expensive to buy.
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A home, when the cost of home buying rises, specifically talking about mortgage costs, more people will rent. I mean, just because those things are substitutes, some people that would have bought a house if mortgage costs were at more typical levels will not buy a house because where they are, it's getting.
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More expensive for renters, too. Throughout the state, rental prices jumped almost 5% this year, almost twice as high as the nearly 15 year average of 3%. That continues a trend of higher than normal rent increases that have become common since 2021, spur in part by a tight housing market. The low vacancy rate gives more power to landlords to raise rents, the report says, because renters don't have many options. The Matanuska Su Sitna borough saw one of the highest increases in rent prices compared to the year prior. Schulz said the area has a unique situation that could be contributing to the hike.
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They have something that lots of other places don't and that is they've had consistent population growth. They also have had the most building of areas around the state.
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Schultz says it's hard to say what rent prices might look like next year because of market uncertainty. Reporting in Anchorage, I'm Ava White Communities.
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In the Northwest Arctic saw record breaking rainfall in August, which led to flooding, erosion and high water throughout the region. KOTZ's Desiree Hagan reports that with freeze up months away, residents are cautiously waiting for potentially more rain.
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Last month was the rainiest August in Kotzebue's history, two and a half times the normal amount and just fractions of an inch from being the single wettest month on record. That's according to Rick Thoman, a climate specialist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
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August was an excessively wet month all across Northwest Arctic Borough and indeed much of kind of the western interior Northwest Arctic Borough, most of the north slope, thoman says.
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At one weather station in the Upper Noatak river it rained three inches more than the previous record.
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This much rain is really remarkable there, thoman says.
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Significant additional rainfall and coastal flooding is possible for several more weeks until the sea ice forms. The region has seen big storms in fall, like Typhoon murbach back in 2022. Two families in Kotzebue lost their homes in a late October flooding event. While the majority of the damage from those storms was in coastal areas, Thoman says the recent rains are affecting river communities inland as well. Jeff Luther is the environmental coordinator for the native village of Noatak along the Noatak River. He launches his drone when conditions allow to observe and monitor the land and river for drastic changes.
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You know, it's a concern for locals. They haven't seen, they haven't seen this type of erosion before. It's all new to us.
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Last fall, the state declared an emergency for Noatak after erosion unearthed pipes connecting the community's drinking water. Luther says his biggest concern right now is high water that threatens the community's power plant. He says four fuel tanks need to be moved before they fall into the Noatak River. But there's other issues, too. Luther is also concerned about the community store, which is close to the encroaching shoreline. Erosion threatens Noatak's airplane Runway. Luther says it has also washed out the community's boat launch, making it difficult for travel. And it's washed away access to the community's gravel pit, which could help repair damaged roads.
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We can't even construct a new road, a new gravel access road right now because the gravel pit is underwater.
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Over 100 miles southwest of Noatak, the small village of Kobuk faces its own issues from heavy rain. At least one resident said by phone last week that it had rained for eight days straight. The National Weather Service also issued a flood advisory for the community that had been in effect for over a week. Kobuk Vice Mayor Teresa Barr says it's been a challenge.
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Has a lot of rain and it's still raining out there. And yes, it affected a lot of people around here in Kubuk because people couldn't make it to stores. It's pretty hard when it comes like this. Everybody was moving stuff up and putting stuff by airport.
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Barr says the flooding closed school for a week and a half and cut off access to about half the town. Many residents had to commute to work using boats, and the ones without boats were unable to leave their homes. Barr says although the community flooded the last few years, she's noticed more water at higher elevations. This year, she says some of that water has receded, but the Kobuk river remains high and some residents are still commuting by boat. Meanwhile, she's nervous about more rain in the forecast. In Kotzebue, I'm Desiree Hagan.
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Republican candidate for governor Bernadette Wilson announced her running mate on Tuesday. State Senate Minority Leader Mike Schauer, a Wasilla Republican, will join Wilson's ticket as her pick for lieutenant governor. Schauer is a conservative who has served in the State Senate since 2018. He's a commercial cargo pilot and retired Air Force officer. He has focused some of his legislative work on election security, though his reforms have largely failed to find support in the state Legislature. Wilson highlighted that work in her announcement, calling him a deeply respected conservative leader. If elected, Schauer would be responsible for administering state election laws and appointing the head of the division of elections. In a statement, Schauer called Wilson the clear choice to be Alaska's next governor. Wilson Wilson is a business owner, conservative activist and former talk radio host. She has never held elected office and pitches herself as an outsider. Still to come on Alaska News Nightly, a new shuttle aims to bridge a food security gap for several Anchorage neighborhoods.
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For all these neighborhoods that no longer have safe access to food or pharmacy, it is a big deal.
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That's ahead. Stay with us. Anchorage police say bad blood between two men led to one fatally shooting the other last night outside a Spenard apartment. 20 year old Michael Sia Valua has been charged with second degree murder in the case. The victim has not yet been named by police in a charging document. Police say they responded at about 7:30pm Tuesday to reports of the shooting on West 26th Avenue. The victim was shot in the head and declared dead at the scene. Witnesses told police Cuvalua claimed the victim had attacked him before the shooting. He then left the building. About two hours later, Ciovalua turned himself in to police at an East Anchorage home. Officers arrested him and seized a handgun in the same caliber as shell casings at the shooting. Police say Ciovolua told detectives he had issues with the victim before the two met again outside Cuvalua's apartment. Cuvalua said he was walking away when the victim grabbed him from behind, then reached for the gun in his pocket, according to the charges. Ciovalua said the victim struck him, then again reached for the gun. That's when Ciovalua allegedly shot him. The shooting was the city's third yesterday after the bodies of a man and woman were found early Tuesday near Davis park in Mountain View. Tuesday's shootings bring Anchorage to 18 homicides so far this year. Last year, the city saw a near record total of 34 homicides. ConocoPhillips, the top oil producing company in Alaska, announced last week that it's planning significant layoffs. The Alaska Beacon reports that in a series of statements, the oil giant said it will be firing between 20% and 25% of its global workforce of about 13,000 people. That would mean between 2,600 and 3,250 layoffs worldwide. Rebecca Boyce, director of external affairs for ConocoPhillips Alaska, told the Beacon that the majority of the reductions would take place in 2025. She declined to say how many people the company employs in Alaska, but prior documents published by the company say that it has about 1,000 people in Alaska, and of those, about 80% live in the State University of Alaska Fairbank's administrators told the Board of Regents last week that they think UAF is set to become a top tier research institution in 2030. That corresponds to the later of two time frames the university has been eyeing since it launched a concerted push for Research 1 or R1 status. One of the goals in the UAF strategic plan is to achieve that status by 2027. The designation comes from the Carnegie classification system, which qualifies about 4% of US universities as R1. UAF is currently R2. Schools must meet certain thresholds to achieve the top tier, including spending $50 million on research annually and graduating an average of 70 PhD students each year. The Carnegie system evaluates universities on three year cycles, with the next two of those ending in 2027 and 2030. UAF Vice Chancellor of Research Laura Connor says the graduation numbers don't look like they'll add up for that earlier cycle. But she says she doesn't think federal headwinds will impact research dollars enough to foil UAF's efforts and that PhD recruitment is headed in the right direction even.
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In face of federal uncertainty.
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I don't think that that's going to.
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Be a problem going forward.
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We're trying to just increase the number of PhD students and I think we're.
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Well on track to reach the 2030 mark.
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UAF has a research budget more than four times Carnegie's minimum for R1, but the school needs to double its average annual PhD graduates. The Fairbanks institution had about three hundred and twenty PhD students enrolled as of the spring semester. UAF administrators told the board they'd enrolled a record number of PhD students this fall and that they are continuing to look for ways to accelerate graduation. Well after Fairview's only grocery store closed earlier this year, some residents of the Anchorage neighborhood struggled to buy food and fill prescriptions. Now the city and a local nonprofit have stepped in launching a shuttle service to help while a longer term fix gets underway. Alaska Public Media's Hannah Flor hopped on board and has this story.
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Will Kambos is on the new Fairview shuttle headed to the grocery store, but he's not sure he's going to be able to buy everything he needs.
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Just get why I could fit in this bag.
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Compost is a security guard working 12 hour night shifts. He used to shop at the cars in the neighborhood once, sometimes twice a day, but then it closed. The nearest grocery stores are about a mile away. Campos doesn't have a car, so in the couple months after the store shut down, he walked. That took a lot more time and A lot more planning.
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Yeah, it's been very just stressful and unfortunate.
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The thing is, Campos situation isn't uncommon in Fairview. A lot of people in the low income neighborhood tend to own a car and it can be tough to get groceries without one. The bus route only goes downtown, away from the closest stores. On foot, it's hilly and sidewalks are sometimes non existent or in the winter, buried in snow berms, cars whiz by at high speeds. That's why in the weeks after their corporate owner, Albertsons companies announced the store closure, a bunch of organizations and municipal agencies scrambled to find a way to connect the people of Fairview with the food and medicine they need. Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance was among them. She remembers the announcement in April. The store would close in May.
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It was like, what? This is horrible. This is devastating.
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What a blow.
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I mean, it's served such a need in that community.
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The Fairview Community Council held its monthly meeting just a couple days later. LaFrance decided to go connecting with the.
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Community, going and hearing firsthand from them about the concerns and about their ideas.
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Was very important to me, she says.
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It was clear residents were worried. But they also had all sorts of suggestions, like could the city create a new bus line to take them straight to the nearest grocery stores in Midtown, LaFrance says she talked with folks from the public transportation department. No, they said. Way too expensive. Millions of dollars plus it'd take years. But what about a reroute? By using existing bus stops, it can be done without extra funding. The only problem? Shift wouldn't be ready for months, late October. So while that got underway, the mayor's office reached out to NeighborWorks, a nonprofit that works to strengthen communities like Fairview. Could they put together a shuttle service to fill the void? Lindsay Heiduk is with the organization. She says it was an easy yes.
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When the community says, here's what we want to do. We want to be able to support them.
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In doing that, the assembly managed to find $75,000 for the shuttle that was just enough to contract with a private company to run it on the weekends. NeighborWorks took care of the details and got it launched by mid July, a couple months after cars closed. And they did outreach, trying to make sure everyone in the community knew about the service. Heidiuk says the effort is already a success. Ridership on the shuttle is averaging more than a dozen people per day. Those are great numbers, according to the Anchorage Transportation Department. And she says she's heard from people in the neighborhood that they're delighted and surprised that the Muni prioritized their food.
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Security to have the city step up and support this not just for Fairview, but for downtown, for Government Hill, for all these neighborhoods that no longer have safe access to food or pharmacy, it.
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Is a big deal, she says. She's glad that next month the rerouted bus line will plug the gap in a more permanent way. NeighborWorks contributed to that as well. It's important, Haiduk says, that the reroute really meets the community's needs. So the nonprofit partnered with the transportation department to survey Fairview residents about what would be best for them. Which city bus stops were most practical, what kind of route would be most useful. Gary Buchman lives right by the now closed Cars grocery store. On a recent Saturday, he's riding the Fairview shuttle home with a bag filled with cereal and milk and mild cheddar cheese. He says he's been using the service since it started in July. He grins as he looks around the shuttle.
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This is a blessing.
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I love it. I got a ride to the supermarket.
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Today causing this blessed child, buckman says. When the reroute comes online, he'll ride that, too. In Anchorage, I'm Hannah Floor.
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Twice a year, the Alaska Raptor center in Sitka re releases heeled bald eagles back into the wild after months of care. As KCAW's Ryan Cotter reports, the event is a meaningful union of community, with locals and tourists alike reminding all who witness it the importance of protecting the wildlife surrounding them.
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Over a hundred people are spread out over a wide patch of muskeg. Bright and early on a Saturday morning. Locals and tortoises stand shoulder to shoulder in a single file line across a gravel trail buzzing with anticipation for the beginning of one of Sitka's biggest biannual traditions the release of rehabilitation rehabilitated birds of prey back into the wild.
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We have put so many months and sometimes years into the care of these rehabilitated birds that have come into us with varying degrees of injuries, and it's up to us to get them back out in the wild.
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That's Sophie Nillis, an avian care specialist and education coordinator at the Alaska Raptor Center. Having worked here for about three years, she has been involved in over five raptor releases. And yet, for Nilus, the excitement that comes with a release never falters.
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And this is exactly why we do it. It's an indescribable feeling, and one that will never get old.
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As Nilis introduces the event to the eager spectators out on the muskeg, they stand in quiet Awe as they see for the first time the stars of the show. Four bald eagles carried onto the field by four of the center's wildlife interpreters. Wearing protective jackets and gloves, all four eagles are wearing leather blindfolds known as falconry hoods, which helps prevent sensory overload and keeps them calm as they're perched on their interpreter's arms, waiting for their time to take off.
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So I'm gonna go up to the bird, we're gonna take the hood off, and we're gonna start a countdown, okay? And I want you guys, we're gonna count down from three to one, and I want you guys to count down with me so that way we can get you all involved. And then on one, we're going to release that bird back out into the wild. All right? Three, two, one. There she goes.
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After tentatively stepping onto a wooden landing box, the newly released and de hooded bald eagle powerfully flaps its wings up into the sky, much to the delight of the audience in the muskeg below. All four bald eagles came to the Raptor center from all over southeast Alaska with a wide array of medical conditions. Having only worked at the center for four months, this event was the first time wildlife interpreter Shawn Weintfelder ever got to hold a bald eagle.
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It was a great honor. I heard that she had a very, very strong personality, but she was very, very cooperative.
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Weinfelder was in charge of releasing the eagle named Agnes Agnis was originally brought to the center this past May after being found in a backyard in downtown Sitka. Unable to fly, she suffered punctured wings and legs, likely a result of fighting with other eagles. Flash forward to the event, and agonist bursts out of Weinfelder's arms, taking off like a rocket into the Sitka sky.
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There we go. Once again, another beautiful flight after Agnes.
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The third and fourth eagles are released, and the show concludes. The audience slowly files out of the field, but Weinfelder lingers on the trail. He stands like a proud parent, tears streaming down his face as he watches Agnes perched atop a nearby tree. He walks down the trail to take closer pictures of her from below, making sure she is okay until she confidently takes off into the mountains of her native home.
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Oh, my goodness. I'm feeling so many different emotions. A lot of joy right now. I will say. I'm so glad that Agnes can be out there back in the wild where she belongs. Also, a sense of pride. Pride in what we do here at the Alaska Raptor Center. It's important that we take care of our wildlife here because it's part of what makes this place great, part of what makes the earth great.
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This fall, Raptor center staff will be hard at work caring for their current raptors in preparation for the spring release, which is scheduled to occur when plentiful herring will be swimming down the river. There the raptors wait for the day they'll spread their wings to rapturous applause. In Sitka, I'm Brian Kotter.
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Last year, the Klondike Road Relay got off to a late start when a tour bus crash delayed the race, forcing participants to skip the first few legs. This year, the event celebrated its biggest gathering despite broken infrastructure and ongoing political tension. KHNS reporter Melinda Munson has more from the starting line of the raucous race.
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3, 2, 1. This is the sound of the Klondike Road Relay starting in Skagway last weekend. Half party, half grueling mountain run, the 109 mile race stretches from downtown Skagway up the Klondike highway all the way to White Horse, Yukon. It retraces the steps of the gold miners, except these participants wear wild costumes, flashing lights, and are followed by support vehicles. One of those vehicles is an open trailer outfitted with a working hot tub. Julia Frost from Juneau almost missed this year's event. It's her first time running the relay. A mechanical issue on the Alaska Marine highway system made her long journey even more challenging. The Leconte broke down, so our three.
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Cars that we had booked could not come.
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So we scrambled yesterday and found one rental car and one Turo for an obscene amount of money. But we were coming. We were doing this. So how much did that broken down ferry cost? Frost Team The Turo was 1300 and.
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The rental was like 1,200.
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A lot. I mean, we're sharing it with 10.
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People, whatever, you know, it's the whole experience.
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So. Angean Johnson from Anchorage didn't so much want the Klondike Road Relay experience as much as her husband did not want to run two of the 10 legs. The couple flew to Juneau and made it to Skagway before the ferry mishap. But Johnson worried about how they'd get home to their two children if the vessel wasn't restored.
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We have not had any official communication.
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Yet, but we're trying to start making some backup plans just in case it's. Johnson's teammate, Aaron Kraves was less concerned.
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It's okay.
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We got plenty of beer, so we're.
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Good for you, Connor. Kirsten Madsen. The race was about restoring a relationship. I definitely had some qualms as we were driving. I said this is the first time I've crossed the border since Trump's election. And there have been other things that we didn't do so far this summer because of that. But this race and the kind of friendly feelings we have about Skagway made it an exception for me. Matson was part of Team Tiger Fire. It's a bit random, but we've got some tiger ears and a bow tie and a tail that's affixed in a not quite accurate location, but it'll work. Race coordinator Ryan Sykes says this is the biggest race ever at 2000 entries sold. One team had to cancel because of the broken ferry in Chicago. I'm Melinda Munson.
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And that's all for this edition of Alaska News nightly. We had reports tonight from Ava White, Chris, Clint and Hannah Floor in Anchorage, Desiree Hagan in Kotzebue, Eric Stone and Juno, Patrick Gilchrist in Fairbanks, Ryan Cotter in Sitka and Melinda Munson and Skagway. Our audio engineers, Chris Hobby. Madeline Rose is our producer. And I'm Casey Grove. Good night.