Alaska Is Huge, And It’s Tiny

Alaska Is Huge

Every spring I get inquiries from people “outside” who have never been to Alaska about finding a piece of their Alaskan dream.  They want to buy a chunk of Alaska where they can have peace and privacy.  They know Alaska is big so they expect to get at least 10–100 acres of beautiful wilderness.

Of course, they also expect this to come with maintained roads, electricity, and hopefully public water and sewer as well.  It takes them awhile to come to grips with how hard to find and how expensive land is in Alaska.

Alaska IS huge, click on the top map to get a feel for just how big Alaska really is.  You could almost put one tip on New York City and the other on San Francisco. 

But less than 1% of Alaska is in private ownership.  Here is a map showing who owns Alaska.  Click on it to notice that it is actually a pie chart showing that the US Government owns most of the state. 

Alaska Is Tiny

Here are some more details on how tiny Alaska really is.

You will find that there is about as much private land in Alaska that you would find in the state of Massachusetts.  But much of that land is either remote, (you can’t drive to it), or swampy, or mountainous.  If we are talking about quality land in Alaska on which you can actually build a home, drive to, have telephone service, or farm and garden; it may be as small as the state of Rhode Island. 

You can find land in the wilderness, or on the ocean, (alaska has more than 34,000 miles of ocean front), on a river, or in the mountains.  But if you want all that and also want to drive to work in the morning you better have some big bucks. 

I can find you a piece of the Alaska wilderness for a low price.  But I can’t take you to it.  I don’t own a helicopter.

Palmer and Wasilla Are The Premier Alaska Locations

If you are looking for a real nice property that is close to all of the above, you are looking for a home in the Mat-Su Valley.  Almost any home in the Mat-Su valley is within a 20–30 minute drive of good hiking, mountain climbing, fishing, boating, hunting, skiing and more.  That is why the Wasilla and Palmer area is the bedroom community for the whole state of Alaska.

And that is why I live here and have stayed here for 40 years.  The Mat-Su Valley is the best place to live in the whole state of Alaska in my opinion.  If you are interested in a home here…send me a note by clicking on my contact link on the right.