Marty Van Diest, Your Alaskan Realtor

I attended the Great Palmer Chamber of Commerce yesterday to hear Kathy Wells of the Friends of Mat-Su present the draft Green Infrastructure plan for the Mat-Su Valley.

Friends of Mat-Su has been contracted by the Matanuska-Susitna Borough to develop a green infrastructure plan for the core area of the valley. They are working hand-in-hand with the planning department of the borough to bring this plan to the assembly.

“Green Infrastructure” is a term used to incorporate environmental planning into the overall future infrastructure of the borough. They use “green infrastructure” as a term opposed to “grey infrastructure” which consists of roads, utilities, bridges, etc. The borough feels that “green infrastructure” is just as important in planning as is “grey infrastructure”.

Obviously, the core area is surrounded by Green Infrastructure and this is recognized in the plan. These areas are called green “super hubs”. They include the Palmer Hay Flats, Chugach Mountains, Matanuska Moose Range, Talkeetna Mountains, the Matanuska and Knik Rivers and numerous lakes and creeks. The Green Infrastructure Plans calls for creating green “mini-hubs” inside those “super hubs” and connecting them all together with green corridors so that animals and people can migrate between the hubs while staying in a green area.

One of the green “mini-hubs” is already recognized by many as a green zone. It is owned largely by the State of Alaska, the University of Alaska, and the Mat-Su Borough. This is the area surrounding the central landfill and Crevasse-Morraine Trail on the north, extending west to the Experimental Farm, and south to the Kepler/Bradley Lakes Recreation area. The other “mini-hubs” are mostly in areas of private land.

No restrictions on these areas are currently being discussed. The borough and Friends of Mat-Su are both saying that this is an educational effort at this time. But of course, if it is placed into the planning department at the borough, these educational guidelines will eventually have teeth.

Now is your chance to have input. These plans will come up for public review in the near future, if you are concerned about what you can do with your land if you live in a green zone you should pay attention.

Alaska is slowly becoming a leader in Alternative Energy solutions. There are several factors that tend to bend Alaska in that direction.

One of the reasons Alaska is moving out in front in the alternative/renewable energy field is the many different options that are available. We have rivers galore, tidal and wave action in the oceans, geothermal possibilities all over the place, wind and more wind, and believe it or not we get a lot of sun. Actually, we get a lot of sun in the summer…not so much in the winter.

The fact that hydro-fuels are so expensive in many communities makes people wonder if there are less expensive ways to make power than burning $ 8 per gallon diesel. The high cost of energy is the number one reason Alaskans keep tinkering with alternatives. Although the environment is always a consideration, the cost of the power is at the forefront of peoples minds. If the cost of alternative energy is expensive, then it is impractical, and Alaskans are practical people.

For the rest of this post go to valleymarket.com

I got an Iphone today. It made me aware of how much technology has changed the way we do business.

I remember my first experience on the Internet when I was the tech worker at the University of Alaska library in Fairbanks back in 1981. I kept the copy machines running, microfilmed old books, operated the only fax machine on campus, and sent an occasional message on a computer over the Internet for some VIP on campus.

Then we got cell phones, digital cameras, and more.

Now I can update my blog from my Iphone.

If you would like me to use technology to send you the deals of the week that just went out yesterday, drop me an email.

Btw..this Iphone is nice but I think I’ll type my next update from a regular keyboard.

You get more house for your money…that’s why!

Anyone who shops homes in Anchorage and then comes out to the Valley can see that there is a significant difference in prices. I thought I would quantify it so that you know how much more of a home you get in the Valley compared to Anchorage.

I narrowed the Valley down to the Wasilla and Palmer core area. This excludes most of the land mass of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough but includes at least 80% of the population. If I would have included the whole borough the contrast would have been even more striking.

Real estate professionals often refer to the “3,2 and 2″. That is a description of the most common house sold. It has three bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a 2 car garage. I decided to compare these homes in Anchorage to the Valley.

Below is the chart that shows all the sales on the Alaska MLS system of these homes in the past year.

3 bed, 2 bath
2 car garage Total Sales
4/11/2008-4/11/2009 Median Price

Wasilla-Palmer	249	$209,900
Anchorage	349	$265,000

You will notice that only 100 more of these homes sold in Anchorage even though Anchorage has a population at least 4 times larger than the Palmer/Wasilla core area.

Significantly, the median price of a typical three bedroom home in the Wasilla and Palmer areas is $56,000 less than it’s counterpart in Anchorage. Not only is this true, but the homes in the Valley tend to have more land, are newer, and are more energy efficient.

They have more land because the Wasilla/Palmer area is more rural so most of the lots are at least 1/2 acre in size. They are newer because the Valley has grown more in population than has Anchorage in the recent past. They are more energy efficient primarily because they are newer. That is not to say that you cannot find newer, energy efficient houses with some land in Anchorage. You can, but if you do you will spend even more for those houses.

I took a look at what would happen if you compared the two locations with a 3,2, and 2 and at least 1/2 acre of land.

Wow!…what a difference that made. Only 25 homes sold in Anchorage while the Valley sales only went down by 13. In addition, the median price in the Valley rose by only $100 but the price in Anchorage went up by $68,000. Now there is a difference of about $123,000. That is huge.

3 bed, 2 bath
2 car garage Total Sales
4/11/2008-4/11/2009 Median Price

Wasilla-Palmer	236	$210,000
Anchorage	25	$333,000

So if you want at least 1/2 acre of land with your house you will pay dearly for it in Anchorage.

Since 1992 Alaska Housing Finance Corporation<(AHFC), has required new homes that hope to receive financing through them to meet certain energy standards. If you buy a home that does not meet those standards you can work with AHFC to bring improve the energy efficiency. Up to a point AHFC will even pay you to do that.

Most of the homes built since 2000 used good energy efficient building methods. Of the 349 sold in Anchorage only 25% were built since 2000 while 48% of the houses in Alaska were built since that date. Almost 1/2 of the 3,2,2 homes sold in the valley were built since 2000.

So, to sum it up…

You get a newer, more energy efficient home with more land, for less money, if you buy in the valley as opposed to Anchorage.

Hopefully this will be the coldest day of the year!