For the second year in a row, the Wrangell-Petersburg area has the lowest rental housing vacancy rate among 11 areas covered in the state’s annual survey.
The combined vacancy rate for single-family rental homes and apartments in the two communities in March 2026 was 1.1%.
That is far below the statewide median of 5.4%.
This year’s Wrangell-Petersburg vacancy rate was much tighter than the 3.4% combined rate for rentals in the two communities in the 2025 survey.
The rates were reported in the September issue of the Alaska Economic Trends magazine, produced by the Alaska Department of Labor research and analysis section.
“Every March, we survey thousands of landlords and property managers in selected areas of Alaska, in cooperation with the Alaska Housing Finance Corp.,” the report explained.
This year’s survey included 184 rental units in Wrangell and Petersburg, of which only two were vacant in March. The 2025 survey found six vacancies out of 178 surveyed units.
As tight as the rental market is in Wrangell and Petersburg, the average adjusted monthly rent in the two communities for a two-bedroom apartment— rent plus estimated utilities — was the lowest among the 11 areas covered in the state survey, at $1,288.
That is a 4.3% increase from last year.
