Best PlacesAnchorage, AK Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Anchorage metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Distance to the water drives a lot of the difference between one part and the next. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Harley D. Nygren, via commons
Anchorage ranks 56th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 10 minutes away. Its strengths are heat safety and clean air. The cost shows up in cell coverage, childcare costs, and state infrastructure.
The best neighborhoods in the Anchorage metro
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.
The best areas in Anchorage
The towns and districts of the Anchorage metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Eagle River & Chugiak
Local pay stretches further, incomes run higher, and more adults hold degrees.
Downtown Anchorage
Fewer homes sit empty, though fewer households have young kids.
Wasilla, Palmer & Tanaina
Crime runs lower, though biking is worse.
Girdwood
Big Lake
Streets are more walkable, though prices have run up more.
Knik-Fairview, Fort Richardson & Elmendorf AFB
Fewer residents vote and health care is harder to reach.
Meadow Lakes & Houston
It is quieter, though commutes are longer.
Anchorage shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 8% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Anchorage's strengths and weaknesses
Anchorage ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Heat safety is the standout, in the top 1% of metro areas. Clean air and low taxes follow.
The one real hole is cell coverage, near the bottom of the country. Childcare costs and state infrastructure also cost it ground. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Anchorage ranks high
- Heat safetyBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Household income$108,201 median, better than 93% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than 92% of metro areas
Where Anchorage ranks low
- Cell coverageBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$1,473 a month, better than only 6% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than only 15% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 18% of metro areas
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 25% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Anchorage
A household needs to earn about $105,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Anchorage home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $108,201, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
Where the monthly payment goes
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 Anchorage's effective rate of 1.10%, 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 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Anchorage
Anchorage runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Anchorage.
Who works in Anchorage, and how
Work in Anchorage centers on health care & social and public administration. Unemployment is close to the national rate.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 82%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Anchorage
Anchorage has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and more parkland per resident than 92% of metro areas. The coast is about 10 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Anchorage and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Anchorage growing, and who is moving in?
Anchorage has grown about 2% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Kenai Peninsula Borough, AK.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Anchorage go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Anchorage, month by month
Anchorage sees roughly 128 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 70 degrees. January highs sit near 26, with lows near 9. The comfortable stretch runs June through August.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 26° | 18° | 9° |
| April | 48° | 39° | 29° |
| July | 70° | 61° | 54° |
| October | 46° | 38° | 29° |
Flying in and out of Anchorage
The nearest airport, Merrill Field, is about 3 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Ted Stevens Anchorage International, about 5 miles away.
The best schools in and around Anchorage
Schools across Anchorage average a C+, better than 34% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Huffman ElementaryA+ · 75% proficient
- Bear Valley ElementaryA+ · 73% proficient
- Northern Lights Abc K-8 SchoolA · 70% proficient
Top middle schools
- Goldenview Middle SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
- Gruening Middle SchoolB+ · 51% proficient
- Mirror Lake Middle SchoolB · 46% proficient
Top high schools
- Steller Secondary SchoolA− · 63% proficient
- Eagle River High SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
- River City AcademyB · 50% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Anchorage school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Anchorage 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 Anchorage against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Anchorage suits
Families
Schools land around the 34th percentile and crime safety beats 57%.
Retirees
The weather beats 78% of metro areas and it is quieter than 88%.
Common questions about living in Anchorage
Is Anchorage a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Anchorage ranks 56th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on heat safety, clean air, and low taxes, and lowest on cell coverage and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Anchorage expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $385,565. The overall cost of living runs about 16% above the national average. Set against a $108,201 median income, cost of living beats 64% of metro areas.
Is Anchorage safe?
Yes, Anchorage is safer than 57% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $531 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Anchorage?
July highs average about 70 degrees, and January highs near 26 with lows near 9. That works out to about 128 pleasant days a year, more than 78% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Anchorage?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Eagle River & Chugiak, Downtown Anchorage, and Wasilla, Palmer & Tanaina. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Anchorage good for families?
Schools beat 34% of metro areas, crime safety beats 57%, and childcare runs $1,473 a month.
Is Anchorage good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 64% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 34% of metro areas. About 12% of workers already work from home.
Compare Anchorage with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Anchorage. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Anchorage 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.
Anchorage detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Anchorage: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Anchorage: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Anchorage: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Anchorage: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Anchorage detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.