For more than 25 years, we have surveyed landlords in cooperation with the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation to assess rental costs and vacancy rates in selected areas.

Since Alaska entered a recession in late 2015, prices for single-family homes have remained relatively stable overall and have even continued rising in more populated areas.

Inflation hovered near a record low for a third straight year in 2017, with the Anchorage Consumer Price Index increasing just 0.5 percent. This is the first time inflation in Alaska hasn't topped half a percentage point for three years in a row.

Debt often has a bad connotation, but it's a financial tool that's neither positive nor negative on its face. Taking on debt can represent anything from a sound long-term investment to current consumption at the expense of future financial options.

Alaska's marijuana industry is still in its infancy. Voters legalized recreational use in 2014, but marijuana wasn't available commercially until 2016. Most licenses are less than a year old, and many licensed marijuana businesses don't yet show up in wage and salary records because they don't have employees. However, initial data show a steady increase in tax revenue, wages and employment, and the number of licenses in Alaska.

The Fairbanks North Star Borough, at the center of Alaska's interior in the Tanana Valley, is North America's northernmost settlement of its size. While the borough has just two incorporated cities - Fairbanks and North Pole - and a handful of smaller communities, its land mass is about the size of New Jersey.

Alaska has the highest population turnover of any state, with large numbers of people moving both in and out each year regardless of economic conditions. Although the percentage of residents born in Alaska has risen over time - 41 percent today versus 32 percent in 1980 - Alaska's population remains highly migratory compared to the rest of the U.S.

Prudhoe Bay, home to the nation's largest oil field, is what single-handedly transformed Alaska into an oil-producing powerhouse and became the source of the state's greatest wealth. According to historian Terrance Cole, The balance sheet of Alaskan history is simple: One Prudhoe Bay is worth more in real dollars than everything that has been dug out, cut down, caught, or killed in Alaska since the beginning of time. And yet, it's a place few Alaskans ever visit.

Alaska is expected to lose jobs again in 2018, although the losses appear to be tapering. Total employment is forecasted to decline by 0.5 percent in 2018 (-1,800 jobs) after falling 1.1 percent in 2017 and 1.9 percent in 2016. Losses were deepest in 2016 when the state's economy shed 6,300 jobs, primarily in oil and gas and in state government. Then in 2017, Alaska lost an estimated 3,600 jobs. If it hadn't been for strong health care growth, the overall job loss would have been deeper.

It's no secret that the state is in a recession. Alaska has been losing jobs since the fourth quarter of 2015, and total and average wages have both declined. At the same time, Alaska's unemployment rate has slowly increased from a low of 6.4 percent in mid-2015 to 7.2 percent in October 2017. This triggered extended benefits for unemployment insurance, effective as of November. EB allows for up to an additional 13 weeks of benefits on top of the regular allowed maximum of 26 weeks.