Mayor LaFrance has set a goal of 10,000 homes in the next 10 years in Anchorage to address housing affordability. Reaching this number will require building thousands of new housing units, as well as rehabilitating existing vacant and abandoned properties into new housing.
Read the housing plan here.
Housing
Actions taken to address housing:
Passed tax incentive to encourage new housing development
Passed tax incentive to encourage rehabilitation of vacant and abandoned residential properties into housing
Increased flexibility of design standards and other rules that make it hard to build housing in Anchorage
Met regularly with local developers to understand housing challenges and implement effective solutions
Identified $5.5 million in federal housing assistance to help residents get housed and stay housed
Results to date
371 new housing permits issued in the first nine months of 2025, compared to 299 in all of 2024
166 new multi-family units (developments with 5+ units) permitted in 2025, compared to 34 in 2024
600 households expected to get housed or keep their housing in 2025 through financial assistance
Deeper dive
When Mayor LaFrance took office, average rents and mortgage payments were at an all-time high in Anchorage. New housing production was at a multi-year low.
Mayor LaFrance has set a goal of 10,000 housing units over the next 10 years. Many of the administration’s actions will take time to take effect, such as new tax incentives going into effect this year.
The key question is: Is Anchorage moving in the right direction on housing?
Housing affordability in Anchorage
One of Mayor LaFrance’s campaign commitments was to make Anchorage a more affordable place to live. When she took office in 2024, housing in Anchorage was the least affordable it had been in two decades (“Soaring rents, mortgages and home prices: What new data shows about Anchorage’s housing crunch,” ADN).
Research shows that one way to drive costs down is to increase supply, or add more housing units (Local Housing Solutions).
Between 2018-2024, average rents in Anchorage increased 24%. Average mortgage payments were up 52% over the same period.
New housing production in Anchorage
Estimates show that Anchorage needs 1,000 housing units each year over the next 10 years to meet demand. This includes a combination of new units and rehabilitation of existing residential properties.
The administration has introduced several measures to boost new housing production, including a new tax incentive to encourage multi-family housing production. It will take time to see the full effects of new laws that are just going into effect. However, local data shows that more units are already on the way.
299 housing permits were issued in all of 2024.
371 housing permits have already been issued in the first 9 months of 2025.
New housing units permitted
Nearly five times as many multi-family units have been permitted in 2025 as all of 2024.
New multi-family units permitted
Turning vacant and abandoned properties into housing
The LaFrance administration also introduced a new tax incentive that would encourage residential property owners to turn their vacant and abandoned properties into housing. The measure passed the Assembly unanimously in August and is now in effect.