Best Places99736, AK Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood inside ZIP code 99736, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

99736 ranks 29,252nd of 33,110 U.S. zip codes on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and a weak job market ranks lowest.

#29,252
of 33,110 zip codes
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 33,110 zip codes
Your rank
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The best neighborhoods in 99736

Map of the best neighborhoods in the 99736 area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.

99736's strengths and weaknesses

Top 1%Clean air
Top 1%Short commutes
Top 1%Low property taxes
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare 99736 with other zip codes.

Where 99736 ranks high

  • Air qualityBetter than 99% of zip codes
  • Short commute5.7 minutes each way, better than 99% of zip codes
  • Low property taxBetter than 99% of zip codes
  • Heat safetyBetter than 99% of zip codes
  • Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 99% of zip codes

Where 99736 ranks low

  • Local economyBetter than only 1% of zip codes
  • Healthcare accessBetter than only 1% of zip codes
  • BikingBetter than only 1% of zip codes
  • Crime safetyBetter than only 2% of zip codes
  • Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 3% of zip codes

What it costs to buy a home in 99736

A household needs to earn about $25,000 a year to comfortably buy the median 99736 home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $58,922, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$25,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$580
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $93,900 home
Median rent
$820
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$479
Property tax$70
Homeowners insurance$31

Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses a national 0.90% effective rate, since no local rate is published, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.

Renting versus buying

At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 3 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in 99736

99736 runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.

Median age
24
younger than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
7%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
3.8
above the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1838%
18 to 3429%
35 to 4915%
50 to 6411%
65 and older7%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for 99736.


Who works in 99736, and how

Work in 99736 centers on public administration and education. Unemployment runs well above the national rate.

Work from home
12%
below the national average
Unemployment
19.3%
above the national average

Largest industries

Public administration38%
Education16%
Other services8%
Mining & oil & gas8%
Utilities8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 11%
  • Work from home 12%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 77%

Life in 99736

The coast is about 0 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across 99736, which the map shows.

To the coast
0 min
drive to the nearest ocean beaches

What the weather is like in 99736, month by month

99736 sees roughly 111 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 64 degrees. January highs sit near 10, with lows near -6. The comfortable stretch runs July.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January10°-6°
April29°21°12°
July64°55°46°
October39°33°25°

Flying in and out of 99736

The nearest airport, Buckland, is about 46 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Ted Stevens Anchorage International, about 516 miles away.

Nearest airport
BVK
Buckland, about 46 miles
Airport size
Nonprimary
Average drive
65 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around 99736

Schools across 99736 average a D+, better than 18% of zip codes.

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every 99736 school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


99736 measure by measure

Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare 99736 against the other 33,109 zip codes.


Common questions about living in 99736

Is 99736 a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, 99736 ranks 29,252nd of 33,110 zip codes. It scores highest on clean air, short commutes, and low property taxes, and lowest on a weak job market and thin health care access. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is 99736 expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $93,900. The overall cost of living runs about 44% above the national average. Set against a $58,922 median income, cost of living beats 3% of zip codes.

Is 99736 safe?

99736 is safer than 2% of zip codes. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $1,640 per resident a year.


Compare 99736 with other zip codes


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to 99736. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in 99736 represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.

99736 detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for 99736: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in 99736: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of 99736: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in 99736: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

99736 detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.