Rising costs force some Interior Alaska residents Outside
Published Sunday, August 17, 2008
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Stumble It!FAIRBANKS — Fairbanks residents loading up and moving out of Alaska before winter could be fleeing the high costs of living here or could be just part of the state’s typical transience. Although local businesses confirm they are renting lots of one-way U-Hauls and are selling and consigning more used cars than normal, do the signs add up to a trend — or are they just projected worry of an exodus? While moving companies haven’t felt a rush, others in the relocation business are spotting signs of a potential exodus.
“Between the long winters that people don’t like, and now with the high energy costs, they’re throwing in the towel,” said Jim Arpino, manager of Affordable Used Cars. “I’m on the front line, so I’m seeing it first.”
Arpino has been talking to an increased number of customers who have come to him this summer to sell their cars. In past years, he’d usually see five such customers a week. These days, he sees about five per day. What bothers him the most is seeing longtime Alaskans say goodbye because they can’t afford to live here anymore.
“It’s not people that just moved here a couple weeks ago,” he said. “These are people that own homes, have kids in school.”
Susan Carey, a salesperson at Variety Motors, also has observed two or three customers a day — more than usual — trying to unload their vehicles, especially trucks and SUVs. While the majority of the customers just want relief from car payments and gas guzzlers, she said, others are selling their cars in order to head south.
“We see a lot of longtime Alaskans from Delta and Tok, and it’s sad they’re considering leaving the place they love because they can’t afford to live here,” Carey said.
Many customers are military families who have a family member deploying to Iraq, she added.
“A lot of the wives and girlfriends aren’t staying. They’re going home for the year.”
That observation was echoed by other local businesses and the mayor’s office, which said even if only 10 percent of the families of married troopers left Fairbanks, it would still equal some 225 people.
While the mayor’s office is concerned about helping businesses through a tough winter, it doesn’t sense an exodus, said Kathryn Dodge, economic development specialist for the Fairbanks North Star Borough. She said the borough doesn’t have a way to track this kind of trend, however.
“We’re kind of triangulating around things because we don’t have specific data,” she said.
The housing market should be considered as well, she added. According to Multiple Listing Service, commonly known as MLS, a national real estate report used by real estate agents, Alaska had the second-healthiest housing market in the United States during June.
“We certainly have more on the market than we usually do,” she said. “But if we had a mass exodus, you’d see empty houses and you would see evidence in the housing market.”
One danger in hunting for a trend is accidentally imagining one up, she said.
With the bumpy economy and expensive fuel on everyone’s minds, people in Fairbanks may have turned up their radar for signs of flight, she said. Dodge offered the “yellow Volkswagon” analogy.
“One day, you buy a yellow Volkswagen and all of a sudden you think, ‘Wow, I never realized how many yellow Volkswagens were on the road. ... You see what you’re looking for,” she said.
Interior moving companies haven’t noticed a trend in locals moving out of state. Business is no swifter than usual for companies such as American Relocation Services and North American Van Lines. They would expect to be bypassed anyway, moving agents from both companies said, because people moving for economic reasons probably wouldn’t hire a moving company due to the cost.
U-Haul rents between five and 10 trailers or trucks for one-way trips per week, according to service agent Robin Bell.
“I’ve had people come in who have lived here for 40 years or more that are leaving because of the expense,” she said. “They cant survive the winters here anymore, and they’re just heartbroken.”
She has noticed one-way rentals skewing toward older couples as well as military families leaving because of the deployment. Customers are headed to locations across the Lower 48, she said.
But this summer is no different than last summer, she said.
“Last year around this time, it got really busy,” she said.
Travel agencies are observing equally-tenuous patterns. At U.S. Travel, this is the first summer manager Linda Hilliard has seen customers buy one-way tickets out of Alaska, she said.
“That’s the first time I’ve seen anybody want to leave,” Hilliard said.
Most are single men, she said, because families would drive out instead of fly.
However, the current flows both ways, she said. People are buying one-way tickets into Alaska in anticipation of the natural gas pipeline, she said.
“We’re kind of seeing both scenarios,” she said. “I can’t see one over the other.”
Evidence of mass moving also would show up in the newspaper classifieds section. Dave Slater, classified ad manager for the News-Miner, hasn’t seen an increase in the average 10 to 15 garage sales advertised each week during the summer.
“If there were a major trend, we’d see more ad revenue from people selling their cars and garage sales, and we’re not,” he said.
While trends are tough to nail down, that doesn’t change what Arpino sees at his car lot everyday: folks rooted in the community planning to leave Alaska before winter strikes. Energy costs, cold winters or another whim could be driving them to hit the road.
Community Discussion
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Anyone driving to the lower 48, could you make a little room for uncle Ted and baby Ben?
DenaliGuy: I'm sure the feds will arrange transportation.
Good article, Molly. Its thoughtful and well balanced.
Now consider a story about the number of homes on the market here compared to past years, as well as the number of days homes are on the market.
There are lots of places in California. If you can pay $1200-$2000 for rent or buy one of the overpriced McMansions that are for sale here. Property takes per year are on the order of 1-1 1/2% per of the value of the property. and then there's the sales tax and the income tax. Gas prices are up as well, and utilities, since there is a general moratorium on drilling for oil, operating refineries, importing power made by non-renewable technologies, and a disruption of the water supply from the north due to the Delta Smelt and other endangered aquatic life.
So come on down. Join us in line to wait for traffic, in line at the Wal-Mart, or at your favorite amusement. Don't worry if the people that serve you at the coprorate outlet stores don't know you, they just got here too.
Your new friends from other parts of the world are used to the crowding and the smells. Deodorizers are on Aisle 9.
Or, you can sit in the empty saunas, lounge by the empty pools and sip your $4 iced coffees, and enjoy life. Leave the air conditioner OFF.
Let's see what happens after the PFD and resource rebate checks are issued.
jonpauls, that isn't a bad price for a mini mansion. Some of the people I know by the time they pay their mortgage,property taxes, heating fuel,electricity and water are paying $5,000 a month or more. How often does the temperature in California drop below zero? How many days in the winter do you experience 3 to 4 hours of daylight? Fairbanks has the highest property taxes in Alaska and we are not ocean front property. Water cost 8 cents a gallon to deliver. Using heat tapes in the winter, additional lighting and heating and having to plug your car in can double your electric bill. Ever pay $12 for a water melon? The myths that bring people to the interior for many soon become nightmares. Anyone planning on moving up here needs to do their homework. I hope the travel agents are telling their clients coming up in anticipation of the pipeline, that this is years away and may not happen.
I'm writing from Dawson Creek, on our way south. We sold our home and after a quarter of a century in Fairbanks are leaving for a town of 19,000 in WA state.
Our decision was based upon work (no future with company after 23-years of employment), high property taxes, concern truckers might strike with the high cost of diesel and paying a premium for energy in one of the coldest places on earth.
We loved Fairbanks and would have stayed even longer. Unfortunately, we don't see costs easing anytime soon and winter will be a bad time to be job hunting.
While arranging our move, we spoke with realtors who are seeing another trend: people from the villages moving to Fairbanks. I think this is why Fairbanks is not seeing a housing crisis this year.
I expect an exodus to take place after PFD's and energy checks go out. Those folks living on the edge will have the ways and means to make the move.
Here in Dawson Creek, Canadians are paying 1.37CA a liter for unleaded. That's 6.19CA a gallon. I expect fuel to continue to adjust (rise) to what the rest of the world is paying and has payed for years.
I expect to get hammered from the public by this comment, but this is what is happening with us. My comment adds to this newspaper article of a subject that needs even more coverage than it has been receiving. Remember, Alaska is always 2-years beyond the lower 48 in most all things.
Good story. I had wondered if anyone else had noticed what is happening especially in the housing market. Has anyone looked at the hundreds of homes being built at the Fort. Folks are dropping rental property like snow melting in the spring. Anyone remember the mid 80s. I don't think we have seen anything yet. I had planned a new business did my homework, checked with the bank and all looked pretty good but after checking the reality of our economy, I think I shall wait a bit.
I have lived here a many years, but with taxes, etc don't really know how much longer I can make it. Sara's $1200 will probably buy 100 gals of fuel oil after our Uncle Sam gets finished. Personally I think that was just one more of her "make you feel good and beholden to her generosity" then any real thought process put into it. Same goes for our legislators.
Hey check out the response to a Newsminer Editorial in the Juneau paper.
http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/0817...
Maybe them gang bangers shooting up our town will leave also.
Not only is every tenth house for sale, many businesses are looking to cash out as well. Here are a few comments that were sent to me from people on their way out.
"One last straw to break the camels back. I put a for sale sign up on my property yesterday. As soon as I can I'm leaving Alaska. For you who are staying, good luck and you can have my share of the Alaskan Dream... That is if you can afford it. "
"I have looked at the current leadership that exists in this state. I factored in costs, quality of life and chances of things getting better here in the future. I made a decision. I am leaving. There are a lot of people leaving! Try to get household goods shipped outbound from Alaska!"
"60 years here. Retired. Goodbye, home."
The high property taxes in the FNSB are directly the result of the school district. And with a whopping 55% graduation rate we are really getting out $$ worth too. Just think what the taxes must be other places with an average graduation rate nationally of 70-80%!
We will know better the numbers of people leaving here when the School District gets good solid numbers in of the students attending school this year. Also until there is a law in place that is eforced against price gouging, fuel companies will continue to profit at the expence of the econimic survival of the rest of the community. Crooked politics, weak laws.
I have a forced air furnace for my major heat source and a
monitor in the living room, but I heat my house with $11
dollar heating pad and the ambient temperature stays
around 65-68, even on cold, but not frigid days.
I take the top filter off of my furnace, put a square shaped
fan on top, air flow pointing down and put a heating pad or
a 60 watt oil pan heater on top and turn the fan on medium.
That circulated warm air throughout the house. I also
have a heat pad/fan at the end of the hallway, blowing
warm air down it. My fuel cost for one year was only
about $65-$80 a month. It takes awhile for the ambient
temperature to settle in and stabilize, but it will save you
money; until the really cold weather hits and you have
to turn on that monster furnace that really sucks down
the heating oil. I use an occasional burning candle,
to keep my hand's warm. By the oil pan heater at any
auto parts store and/or heating pad at Walfart.
I checked out the article in the Juneau site. Mostly complaining about rebate & Fairbanks. Typical Alaskans fighting over scraps. Reminds me of Seagulls. Fight over what somebody else has instead of going and getting your own. The one good question I saw was about how the legislature is spending the money. It might me just me, but instead of looking for things to spend it on, why don't they change the way they do business? Put the extra in the bank until it matches a reasonable budget. Then only spend what they brought in LAST year. Silly me. Politicians spending money like regular people.
I live on a 1 mile road that has 4 houses for sale now. I bought a wood furnace and 11 cords of wood this summer to be able to stay here. Last fall, I paid $2.70/gallon for heating oil, and it went to $3.83 for my last fillup in the first week of May. I spent over $5,000 for heat last season. And the price of heating oil is higher now. Thank Sarah Palin for recognizing that the Alaskan oil wealth should be used to help the citizens remain in the state.
For everyone leaving the Alaska dream. Please don't come to Kansas, we have enough quitters and gangbangers here. Dr. C., we'll leave a light on for you. LOL
The sky is falling the sky is falling. Lets get a grip people things are changing in our little town. Its not so little anymore in fact so lots of long/old timers are reaching retirement age and moving out. Others are just tired and need a change and yes some are smart and leaving or have no choice due to the cost of living here. If they dont have a good reason to stay than why not leave. Im sure others love it here and will miss it.
In my 31 years here I have seen many people come and go,seen many highs n lows, good times and bad times it all comes with the territory. My day will come too when I have choose whether to stay or go to some warmer sunnier climates. Till than God's speed my friends be safe and remember you are always welcome back.
Ive been to Kansas a few times and I wouldnt live there if the rest of the world was radioactive wasteland. The only redeeming feature of Kansas is its there, not here. Toto-land. We should ship our felony convicts to Kansas instead of Arizona; THAT would be true punishment.
Ad for kansas newspapers: Used senators; for sale cheap, or trade for wheat chaff. Will pay shipping.
DenaliGuy-- Guess I can cross you off my new neighbor list. We don't need no crooked senators, we got plenty. Felony convicts wouldn't last long, we still believe in target pratice. Old west you know.
Kind of funny, a week or so ago KSFLATLANDER denied being from Kansas.
LOL Actually, my dad lives in Wichita so there is at least ONE redeeming feature of Kansas!!!
hairbrain--- I still say I'm not from Kansas, I just happen to live here right now. You never know.
There ya go, lol.... I guess that says it all, lol
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