I am sure many of you are confused by all of the information you are receiving regarding the real estate market and foreclosures.  What's true, what's not?  The truth is we are experiencing some foreclosures in Alaska.  According to the Anchorage Daily News article in Monday's paper, foreclosure filings for the 4th quarter of 2007 were .19% for Anchorage and the Mat-Su combined.  Not 19%, but .19%, meaning less than 1% of all households in Anchorage and the Mat Su are in foreclosure. 

If you add up all of the foreclosure filings for the entire year, less than 1% of the households in Anchorage and the Mat Su are in foreclosure.  Most of these foreclosures are because of the sub-prime loans that were made in the last few years.  Sub-prime loans were rampant in the lower 48; not so, here in Alaska.   According to the ADN, through the 2nd quarter of 2007, there were 13,580 Alaskans that had acquired sub-prime loans.  That is a small number compared to the number of overall home loans. 

So what does this all mean?  True there are some foreclosures in Alaska; but fewer by far than the lower 48 average.  True: the real estate market in the Valley is stable for homes under $300,000, interest rates are lower than they have been in 2 years, and job growth and population growth continued in the Valley in 2007.  Does that mean we are insulated from the National economic slow down?  No not totally, but we aren't going to be affected as much as those states who saw huge appreciation in short period of time (like Southwest Florida, Las Vegas, Arizona, California) and who also had a lot higher percentage of exotic sub-prime loans.  As I mentioned earlier this week, if you would like to see Neal Fried's (economist for the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development) Mat Su Economic presentation he gave on Wednesday, just email me.