Consuming Juneau: Cost of living 27% above US average; home prices highest in Alaska

Annual studies also show capital city ranks better for renters than buyers and some other costs are getting relatively cheaper

It’s hard to put an affordable spin on these facts: Juneau is Alaska’s highest-cost major city, has the state’s highest house prices, and nationally has the second-highest grocery and health care costs among major cities.

Yet, while Alaska’s capital city is indeed expensive by any average standard, those headline-grabbing factoids don’t quite tell the full story.

Mortgage payments are higher in Juneau than Anchorage or Fairbanks, for instance, but people renting homes in Juneau pay less than in those bigger cities — due to factors such as much higher utility costs in Fairbanks. Also, some of the statistics are from different sources and thus not necessarily directly comparable. Plus the data is one to two years old and quite a bit has shaken up the economic landscape since.

The bottom-line number for Juneau is 127.2, the capital city’s overall cost of living compared to 264 other U.S. cities with a cost average of 100, according to an article in the July 2025 issue of Trends, the in-house publication of the Alaska Department of Labor and Workplace Development. The article compiled data from several sources to show household spending patterns statewide during the past several years.

The overall cost factor was for "upper-income households compared by city in 2024" as reported by The Council for Community and Economic Research. Individual categories for Juneau in that annual study were groceries (128.2), housing (122.8), utilities (142.5), transportation (120.5), health (150.9) and miscellaneous (125.0).

"Juneau had the second-highest grocery costs nationwide (28 percent higher), the second-highest health care costs (51 percent), and the third-highest prices for miscellaneous goods and services (25 percent)," the Trends article notes.

Those numbers are largely similar to a year ago when the overall score was 127.8. The biggest increases were groceries (122.7 last year) and housing (130.5), while utilities and transportation saw small drops this year compared to last.

Juneau, Anchorage and Fairbanks are the three Alaska cities included in the economic council’s nationwide assessment. The Trends article notes costs in those three cities were high compared to the national averages — and yet there are individual categories where cities in other states are far more costly.

"All three (Alaska cities) ranked among the 25 most expensive cities in the survey and had multiple components in the top five," the article notes. "Alaska cities claimed the highest three spots for health care costs and were surpassed by just one U.S. city for groceries."

"But despite their high rankings, they didn’t approach the outliers at the top of the list. New York City’s most expensive boroughs, Honolulu, and California’s costliest San Francisco Bay Area cities had living costs from 61 to 131 percent higher than average. Large urban and commercial hubs on the coasts dominated the top positions in the index, and their housing costs were the main reason."

Yet another cost-of-living study — conducted by the military, and thus including everything except housing since service members get a separate allowance for those costs — puts Juneau’s score at 138 out of 100.

Juneau’s housing prices highest in statewide study

The average house price in Juneau was $524,312 in 2024, 14% above the average of $459,089 for municipalities statewide, according to data from the state labor department and the Alaska Housing Finance Corp. Ketchikan ranked second at $518,220 and Anchorage third at $509,261. Fairbanks has the least-expensive homes at $362,481.

But utility costs for Fairbanks largely offset the low housing prices in terms of overall household spending. The nationwide study gives Fairbanks a cost score of 203.4, compared to 112.6 for Anchorage.

Renters fare better in Juneau with an average cost of $1,661 a month, ranking fifth among 11 municipalities in the state’s survey. Bethel had the highest rent at $2,075, with Anchorage at $1,680 and Fairbanks at $1,676.

"To make areas comparable, we adjust rents to include all utility costs, whether part of the rent payment or paid separately," the Trends article notes. "The survey excludes subsidized housing, short-term rentals, recreational cabins, and other non-market-rate rentals."

Changing spending patterns — known and not-yet-known

"Alaskans have significantly altered their spending patterns over the last five years amid rapidly changing economic conditions," the Trends article notes. Yet, because most of the data is based on spending in 2023 and 2024 it omits the large shifts that have occurred this year in food prices and other items due to economic uncertainties fueled by the Trump administration.

Alaskans spent 22% of their budget on food and beverages in 2021, compared to 12% in 2023, according to U.S. Department of Labor statistics cited by Trends. But the skyrocketing price of eggs — and some other items — became a headline campaign issue in the 2024 presidential election, and some steep increases in grocery prices have occurred in recent months due to President Donald Trump’s on-again/off-again tariffs.

However, the article noted that, despite widespread concerns about inflation, the overall rate has stabilized since the COVID-19 pandemic in particular caused a sharp upward spike.

"Many consumers still believe inflation is high, although it may be a misunderstanding of the terms. Price levels are indeed high after rising about 18 percent in Alaska since 2020, and the overall price level almost never goes down. But annual price increases, or inflation, have stabilized, meaning prices are rising slower again."

• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com (907) 957-2306.