More Alaskans lost their homes last year than in any year since 1993, when Alaska's housing market was recovering from a nearly 10-year slump, a new state report says.
Foreclosures in Alaska increased by 36 percent last year. But the news isn't all bad. Alaska's foreclosure rate was one of the lowest in the country. Only Wyoming and South Dakota had lower rates, according to the report, published by the Alaska Department of Labor & Workforce Development.
Where did most of the foreclosures happen? Anchorage and the most populated areas of the Valley, the report said.
Will increasing numbers of Alaskans continue to lose their homes this year? That depends on what happens with the state's economy, and right now, the economy is volatile and hard to predict, economists and Anchorage real estate analysts said.
For now, Alaska's economy is cooling, but the job losses that have occurred here so far are modest compared to the carnage in many parts of the Lower 48.
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