About the survey

Each year in March we partner with the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation to survey Alaska landlords in selected areas.

How we collect the data and which units the survey includes 

Every March we send surveys to thousands of potential landlords, which we identify using several sources including assessors, business licenses, past survey respondents, and other online resources.

For each unit, our survey collects information on location; contract rent; vacancy status; building type; number of bedrooms and bathrooms; energy types used for heat, hot water, and cooking; and which utilities are included in contract rent (heat, lights, hot water, water, garbage, sewer, and snow removal).

Our rental market survey includes occupied, vacant, and temporarily unavailable market-rate residential rental units.

Our rental market survey excludes non-market-rate residential rental units, including:

  • Nonresidential rental units
  • Cabins (without plumbing)
  • Units with shared bathrooms or kitchens
  • Rooms for rent in boarding houses, hotels, or homes
  • Units rented on a nightly basis (short-term rentals)
  • Units where rent is reduced for low-income tenants or special groups such as disabled persons or senior citizens (such as units funded by USDA, HUD, or LIHTC).
    • One exception is market-rate units where a landlord receives a housing subsidy and the tenant pays the difference. Section 8 tenant-based Housing Choice Vouchers are an example.

Rental survey results

Survey results include average and median contract and adjusted rents, number of units surveyed, number and percentage of surveyed units that were vacant (vacancy rate), and the percentage of units that included each utility in contract rent by building type (single-family and apartment) and number of bedrooms for each area we survey. See rental survey definitions below.

Please note sample sizes as they vary by area and unit type and can be very small for some combinations. Also, the proportion of any single unit type in our survey sample may differ from its proportion at the population level.

Rental survey definitions 

Contract rent is the amount paid to a landlord each month and may or may not include some utilities.

  • If the tenant receives a subsidy of any kind, reported rents include the subsidy.
  • If the unit is vacant, landlords report the monthly rent the next tenant will pay.

Adjusted rent is the amount paid to the landlord each month (contract rent) plus an adjustment for any utility costs it does not include. Link to HUD utility allowances: https://www.ahfc.us/tenants/resources/utility-allowances.

Vacant units were unoccupied or expected to be vacant during the week of March 11th and include temporarily unavailable vacant units.

Apartments are all unit types except for single-family houses. Apartments for this survey include duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, structures with five or more units, condominiums, and “other” (e.g., accessory dwelling units/mother-in-law apartments).