Rents remain high and vacancies low in Juneau’s housing market, according to state data. However, unemployment is also relatively high amid the pandemic, and that worries city officials about what might happen as federal benefits dry up.
“The natural seasonal work period is ending, the eviction moratorium has ended, there’s less amount of resources,” said Scott Ciambor, chief housing officer for the City and Borough of Juneau, referring to the various payments from state and federal agencies which have either expired or will soon end.
Monday, the state announced the Federal Emergency Management Agency approved a federal grant for Alaska that will result in a $300 per week increase in unemployment benefits. It is expected to take about eight weeks for funds to be dispersed, according to the state, and the increase will be retroactive to when $600 federal unemployment payments ended.
The lack of a summer tourist season doesn’t seem to have affected the housing market in Juneau as much as some other Southeast communities, according to the August issue of Trends magazine from the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Despite the pandemic, rents and vacancy rates in the city also remain relatively stable from last year.
The state’s labor department conducted a landlord survey in March before any travel restrictions were in place in Alaska, said Rob Kreiger, an economist for the department. Late February and March is when seasonal workers typically start to arrive, Kreiger said, but in their interviews with landlords, DOL researchers learned those workers weren’t showing up, particularly in smaller communities with less diverse economies.
“Sitka had very high vacancy rates, which is unusual,” Kreiger said in a phone interview with the Empire Monday. Landlords in interviews “specifically called out the fact a lot of people who work in Sitka for the summer arrive in February and March weren’t showing up.”
DOL data show Sitka’s vacancy rate in March at 13.8%, the second highest of the communities surveyed behind Fairbanks North Star Borough at an even 19%. Juneau’s 4.4% vacancy rate was the lowest of the communities surveyed by DOL. Juneau’s reported vacancy rate is less than statewide average of 9.2%.
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State data for Juneau show little change in Juneau’s housing market from previous years.
“Juneau may be more muted,” he said. “There’s more than just the large seasonal component.”
But while the city’s rents have remained steady, unemployment has spiked.
In April, unemployment in Juneau jumped from 4.1% in March to 10.9%. That number peaked in June at 11.7% before declining in July to 10.2% according to state data.
Some seasonal workers were still able to find work in restaurants and what tourism industry there was this summer, Ciambor said, which may account for Juneau’s vacancy numbers remaining steady.
The average total rent per area in Juneau is $1,257 according to state data, which factors in the price of utilities to better approximate the actual cost of housing, Kreiger said. That’s above average among surveyed communities, but not the highest in the state or Southeast Alaska.
Sitka was the most expensive region surveyed by DOL with an average of $1,300. Wrangell was the cheapest at $903 and the statewide average rent per area was $1,155, according to DOL.
It’s difficult to say exactly why Juneau’s housing market remained largely unaffected by the loss of a summer tourism season, Kreiger said, adding the pandemic had introduced variables making predictions even more difficult than under normal circumstances.
“I don’t think there’s been anything really unusual with price activity in Juneau,” he said. “Juneau will generally come in with lower vacancy and higher rates, that was not unusual in previous years. It’s always a tight market.”
The city mostly relies on DOL’s data for housing, Ciambor said, but the city is gathering its own information through its rental assistance program, set up earlier this year to help those who lost work due to the pandemic.
Ciambor said he didn’t have any hard numbers, but anecdotally city staff told him many of the applicants for the program are first-time assistance seekers who recently lost their jobs. In fact, applicants to the program have been relatively low, he said.
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But other assistance programs from the state or federal government are ending, and Ciambor said city officials have worked on an extensive media campaign to make Juneauites aware of the program in the coming months.
The city set up the rental assistance program in May after receiving federal COVID-19 relief funds. The program was allocated $200,000, Ciambor said, but so far, only 12 households have applied and the city’s only spent about $22,000.
“There’s a lot of concerns about the fall,” he said. “What’s going to happen is just super hard to predict. We’ve kind of weathered the storm so far, but loss of all those federal benefits is just a huge unknown. People should know that if they should need it, this resource is available.”
• Contact reporter Peter Segall at psegall@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @SegallJnoEmpire.
