The first quarter of this year saw home prices in the Mat-Su Valley fall just 4% from the same period last year.  Many markets in the rest of the country had a similar decline.  The big difference between them and us is that we didn’t have the huge drop from 2007 to 2008 that they had.

Cumulative price erosion over that two-year period in the lower 48 is as high as 50% in some markets.  Our prices have dropped only about 5% in the first quarter from 2007 prices.   Our volume of sales, (total homes sold,)  dropped about 20% from 2007 to 2008. The volume decrease outside was much worse. Many markets saw their sales volumes drop by half.

	Sold Volume			Average Sales Price
2008 to 2007 Comparison
Area	Last Year	This Year	% Chg	Last Year	This Year	% Chg
BG - Big Lake	50	43	-14	184,006	206,698	12
CN - Chickaloon/Anthracite Ridge	0	1	100	0	145,000
HO - Houston	28	13	-53	141,600	160,962	13
LL - Lake Louise	1	0	-	55,900	0
MG - Mat Glacier/Glacier View	2	1	-50	116,750	224,000	91
ML - Meadow Lakes	95	72	-24	201,883	189,772	-5
PA - Palmer	329	285	-13	232,911	234,128
PM - Pt McKenzie	2	1	-50	250,425	190,000	-24
PV - Trapper Crk/Petersville	10	5	-50	143,870	68,300	-52
SU - Sutton	4	8	100	95,250	115,662	21
TA - Talkeetna/Montana	31	25	-19	153,923	129,640	-15
TR - Talkeetna Remote	5	0	-	139,500	0	-
WA - Wasilla	883	713	-19	233,264	232,205	0
WI - Willow	46	32	-30	168,485	133,803	-20
Residential Totals:	1495	1204	-19	221,547	221,534	0

So we are in relatively good shape. There is a very good chance that we will recover along with the rest of the country. And our recovery will begin from a much better position than almost any other real estate market in the country.  Alaska and the Mat-Su Valley is a good place to be right now!