Move to Alaska?

[Marbles]

The border is open if you are “moving” to Alaska. They do limit the time to traverse the provinces. Different border crossings are more or less strict on your “proof of move”.

This.

Also, just do it. Seriously. In December of 2016 I asked my wife about moving. She said yes, so I started looking for jobs. Got of the ferry in Ketchikan in May of 2017 with a job lined up, but no apartment, did not know anyone, and had never been in AK before. It was totally worth it.

I need to get out of Anchorage (it is my favorite City out of all I have visited, but still a city), but right now Anchorage is the best place for us unfortunately.

 

[adventure907]

Hopefully driving through Canada will be a little easier when you decide to make the move. As far as the requirements now, they are pretty strict when it comes to essential travel. Saying that you are "moving" is probably not good enough. It has to qualify as non-discretionary, essential travel. If you are saying that you are moving to Alaska for your retirement, they would possibly say that that doesn't qualify as essential, and turn you around.

They want to see proof that you have a job lined up at your final destination, or that you relinquished a job from where you are moving. Ultimately it will just depend on what the individual border guard you are dealing with thinks, and probably what kind of mood they are in that day. There are specific border crossings that you are required to use when transiting from the states to Alaska, be sure to do your research before making the drive.

The border agent will give you a temporary visitor permit and a date that you are required to complete the trip by, along with a rearview mirror hang tag that shows you are in transit. The Yukon gives you 24 hours to transit their province. They ask that you use drive through's if you need food, to pay at the pump when getting fuel, and to not make any unnecessary stops. I would not want to risk the fines involved for violating their covid mandates.

As of now, they require that you have a negative PCR Covid test taken within 72 hours or entering the country. They will also either administer a covid test at the border, or they will give you two "take home" self administered covid tests, which you then mail to a lab. The first test is to be taken on your first day in country, with the second to be taken on day 10.

Anyway, not to be long winded, but hopefully this helps anybody thinking of making the drive to or from Alaska in current state of affairs.

 

[gbflyer]

It’s hovering around $4K each way on the ferry with an 18’ vehicle and a stateroom now Bellingham to Whittier. Looks like it’s about once a month.

The drive is nice. You get pretty tired of Canada, it’s big. Hopefully the border restrictions ease off soon.

It’s a big state, lots of choices. There is more to Alaska than what you find in the SW, valley, and interior. Most people are more comfortable near civilization and with options to drive away so those places will be more people’d. If that isn’t important and you don’t mind substituting rain for snow and cold, SE is impossible to beat. Some properties here are still very affordable, other places such as Juneau (state government) and Sitka (private islands and big boat harbor, haves and have - nots) are very expensive.

Kodiak Island is awesome too.

Good luck in your search. 4 generations of my family pulled out of CO lock, stock, and barrel in 1995 following a crazy dream. It stuck and we’re still here. I don’t know what I would change if I could.

 

[Crusader]

Marbles and gbflyer, just curious, what to you do for a living? And, did you find that job in a career field you were already in or did you start new careers?

 

[deadwolf]

Summer in Alaska is like a meeting a beautiful blonde who likes beer, football, fishing and can field dress a deer and change her own oil. You fall head over heels in love. The summer will suck you in then 5 months of winter rolls around and the love of Alaska turns into thin tolerance.

Or in the case of this winter....7 mo and still going!


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[Marbles]

Marbles and gbflyer, just curious, what to you do for a living? And, did you find that job in a career field you were already in or did you start new careers?

I'm an RN, I switched from pediatric ICU to Emergency Department when I moved as ED jobs where easier to find than adult ICU jobs at the time. Being in healthcare certainly provides more flexibility in location than many other professions.

Lots of people in AK have multiple income sources to deal with the seasonality of tourism, fishing, Etc.

My neighbor, who moved up last summer as his woman got accepted into a graduate program at UAA still has not found good paying work. The construction jobs he has looked or taken don't pay well and by his own admission few make good money as a personal trainer (what his masters is in). So, it just depends.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

The medical field is where its at in Alaska. It also seems like teachers can pretty much look at a map and choose where they want to live.

 

[AKDoc]

We have lived in Alaska since 1986, and we have no intentions of moving elsewhere. Over the years I have seen many come and go. I'm not sure the specific demographics of that variable, but it is likely available.

Reflecting back on my life thus far, I personally rank moving to Alaska as the 3rd best decision that I have made in my life....marrying my college sweetheart is #1 and having two wonderful children is #2...and both my children are very outdoor active Alaskans.

 

[Marbles]

We have lived in Alaska since 1986, and we have no intentions of moving elsewhere. Over the years I have seen many come and go. I'm not sure the specific demographics of that variable, but it is likely available.

Reflecting back on my life thus far, I personally rank moving to Alaska as the 3rd best decision that I have made in my life....marrying my college sweetheart is #1 and having two wonderful children is #2...and both my children are very outdoor active Alaskans.

A month or so back my wife actually told me we where not allowed to move out of Alaska. I have no complaints with that mandate. Of course, you moved up here a year before I was born, so we are only starting out in comparison.

 

[BFR]

Thanks for all the responses. To fill in a little info, we’re in our 70s, relatively healthy, will be fully vaccinated for COVID, travel is flexible, driving is first choice, ferry second, if we have to fly, so be it. My wife lived in Anchorage as a kid in the 50s. We’ve looked at the historical weather pattern, take with a grain of salt, not enough difference from here to matter. BUT, we do tend to find ourselves in Nevada or Arizona for Dec thru Jan/Feb as it is, so it’ll probably be the same. Being retired has its advantages. We are looking at southeast area, Wasilla/Eagle River, Soldotna/Kenai, possibly Homer, if we find the right home while there we will buy it, not limited to any timeframe, well at least til Thanksgiving anyway. We will either sell our or rent our Montana house, we have another in California that’s rented now and would sell if necessary, both have substantial equity. We’re not rich but are very comfortable financially. TOYS, you can never have too many toys, right? Hunting and fishing, I’ll just have to make it work as best I can.
We are looking forward to the whole thing, if it doesn’t work out then we’ll have had a long enjoyable vacation.

 

[william schmaltz]

The medical field is where its at in Alaska. It also seems like teachers can pretty much look at a map and choose where they want to live.

Yeup, if anyone is reading this in the medical field and wants to move to AK, I'm not sure what you're waiting for! We moved up here right after my wife graduated with her DPT so her first job out of school was in AK. When kicked around moving back to the L48 a few years ago, everywhere we looked was a 30-40% pay cut for her.

We were able to lock in a fully furnished month-to-month rental in Wasilla before we moved up here and we just timed our arrival with it's availability. It worked out very well for us. We didn't have to move a bunch of stuff up or buy a bunch of stuff once we arrived and it allowed us to learn the area for about 6 months before we decided where we actually wanted to live. Might be something worth looking into.

 

[AKBorn]

Thanks for all the responses. To fill in a little info, we’re in our 70s, relatively healthy, will be fully vaccinated for COVID, travel is flexible, driving is first choice, ferry second, if we have to fly, so be it. My wife lived in Anchorage as a kid in the 50s. We’ve looked at the historical weather pattern, take with a grain of salt, not enough difference from here to matter. BUT, we do tend to find ourselves in Nevada or Arizona for Dec thru Jan/Feb as it is, so it’ll probably be the same. Being retired has its advantages. We are looking at southeast area, Wasilla/Eagle River, Soldotna/Kenai, possibly Homer, if we find the right home while there we will buy it, not limited to any timeframe, well at least til Thanksgiving anyway. We will either sell our or rent our Montana house, we have another in California that’s rented now and would sell if necessary, both have substantial equity. We’re not rich but are very comfortable financially. TOYS, you can never have too many toys, right? Hunting and fishing, I’ll just have to make it work as best I can.
We are looking forward to the whole thing, if it doesn’t work out then we’ll have had a long enjoyable vacation.

Just FYI that if/when you talk to Alaskans about this, the Wasilla/Eagle River areas are in Southcentral as opposed to southeast...

I often do remote flyout hunts out of Tok Alaska (the first small town people hit after crossing the border from Canada) in September. After the hunt is over and I am driving back to Anchorage, I see a fair amount of RVs towing cars heading towards Canada and the lower 48. Seems a decent number of people like to spend the fair weather months in Alaska, and head back to the lower 48 before winter comes sometime in October.

Best of luck to you, however you decide to shape this adventure.

 

[AK Troutbum]

We have lived in Alaska since 1986, and we have no intentions of moving elsewhere. Over the years I have seen many come and go. I'm not sure the specific demographics of that variable, but it is likely available.

Reflecting back on my life thus far, I personally rank moving to Alaska as the 3rd best decision that I have made in my life....marrying my college sweetheart is #1 and having two wonderful children is #2...and both my children are very outdoor active Alaskans.

Man, if you came up in ‘86, had a solid, good paying job, and purchased a home, you killed it! Assuming you’re in south central. I came up a few years later, but started college at UAA, and wasn’t able to buy my first house until ‘94. I did very well with that place when I sold in ‘07, but, man I think about the cheap property to be had up here in the mid 1980’s, and it kills me that I missed out but I was still in HS at the time.
In regards to property, I can’t speak for the rest of the state, but here in SC home prices are very high, and inventory is very low, so it’s definitely a sellers market right now, and has been for a while.
Good luck if you do decide to make the move, like AKDoc, it was also one of the best decisions of my life. Now if only I could figure out a way to afford a winter home on Maui.


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[thinhorn_AK]

Man, if you came up in ‘86, had a solid, good paying job, and purchased a home, you killed it! Assuming you’re in south central. I came up a few years later, but started college at UAA, and wasn’t able to buy my first house until ‘94. I did very well with that place when I sold in ‘07, but, man I think about the cheap property to be had up here in the mid 1980’s, and it kills me that I missed out but I was still in HS at the time.
In regards to property, I can’t speak for the rest of the state, but here in SC home prices are very high, and inventory is very low, so it’s definitely a sellers market right now, and has been for a while.
Good luck if you do decide to make the move, like AKDoc, it was also one of the best decisions of my life. Now if only I could figure out a way to afford a winter home on Maui.


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I bought a place in town back in 2015, I Dont live in Anchorage even but just the other day I was thinking that places looked a lot more expensive than even a few years ago.

 

[Doc Holliday]

Great thread. For those who moved to AK and left family/inlaws in the lower 48, I wonder what if any stress there is there. My wife is very close to her family, talks to them almost daily on the phone, they all live within an hour of where we do now in Florida, and I don't see us being able to move anywhere as long as they are alive.

 

[Crusader]

Doc Holliday, I have the same situation but in Missouri!

 

[william schmaltz]

We bought our house a couple years ago and we viewed it two hours after it went on the market (first people) and we were one of three offers in by the end of that day. At that point we missed out on 3 houses because we didn't find them on day 1. We're on the East end of Wasilla in the prime commute area. I can think of 6 houses in our neighborhood that have sold in the last couple months. Five of them never had a for sale sign up; just right to a sold sign. The other one was asking a CRAZY amount so it took a little longer to sell - 4 days. It's a perfect storm if you live in a good commuter area in the valley. Housing shortage and people are running from Anchorage. We are having very serious talks about selling and living in an RV for 1-2 years.

Great thread. For those who moved to AK and left family/inlaws in the lower 48, I wonder what if any stress there is there. My wife is very close to her family, talks to them almost daily on the phone, they all live within an hour of where we do now in Florida, and I don't see us being able to move anywhere as long as they are alive.

It is what you make it. It's easier if family is wealthy and/or retired and they can visit whenever they want to. Our families are neither so we feel pretty obligated to visit so they can see grandkids. My family is spread out across 4 states and my wife's is in another. So it's not just one trip to the L48 and we can see everyone. When you live here with no family, half of your vacation time is spent on vising family. You literally get to hunt half as much as someone with family here. There is no help with kids from grandmas or siblings. No quick babysitters. No asking someone to pickup the kids if you're in a bind. No weekend at Grandmas so we can do something on our own. And if you want to go on vacation, you either need to fly up a grandma ($$$$) or take an extra couple days and extras flights ($$$$$$$$) to drop kids off and then onto your destination. We're to the point now where our Christmas/Birthday presents to our parents are annual plane tickets to Alaska. It's a sacrifice but worth it for us. Alaska was made for raising kids in.

 

[AK Troutbum]

We bought our house a couple years ago and we viewed it two hours after it went on the market (first people) and we were one of three offers in by the end of that day. At that point we missed out on 3 houses because we didn't find them on day 1. We're on the East end of Wasilla in the prime commute area. I can think of 6 houses in our neighborhood that have sold in the last couple months. Five of them never had a for sale sign up; just right to a sold sign. The other one was asking a CRAZY amount so it took a little longer to sell - 4 days. It's a perfect storm if you live in a good commuter area in the valley. Housing shortage and people are running from Anchorage. We are having very serious talks about selling and living in an RV for 1-2 years.

It is what you make it. It's easier if family is wealthy and/or retired and they can visit whenever they want to. Our families are neither so we feel pretty obligated to visit so they can see grandkids. My family is spread out across 4 states and my wife's is in another. So it's not just one trip to the L48 and we can see everyone. When you live here with no family, half of your vacation time is spent on vising family. You literally get to hunt half as much as someone with family here. There is no help with kids from grandmas or siblings. No quick babysitters. No asking someone to pickup the kids if you're in a bind. No weekend at Grandmas so we can do something on our own. And if you want to go on vacation, you either need to fly up a grandma ($$$$) or take an extra couple days and extras flights ($$$$$$$$) to drop kids off and then onto your destination. We're to the point now where our Christmas/Birthday presents to our parents are annual plane tickets to Alaska. It's a sacrifice but worth it for us. Alaska was made for raising kids in.

Yup, I can agree with all of this. We'll be sending our oldest off to college (Fairbanks), in Aug. Then it will be another 5 years before our youngest will be leaving, so our winter home in HI might be another decade down the road, but who knows. We've also had zero help in raising our kids, as my family all live in MT. and my wife's family is all in PA., but we wouldn't change that for anything and in many ways it's been the better situation. Plus I think it has instilled a sense of pride, in that we can honestly say that we have had no help in raising our children, and for better or for worse, they are a 100% reflection/example of our raising.

Edit: I apologize to the OP for getting off the subject.

 

[Clarktar]

It’s hovering around $4K each way on the ferry with an 18’ vehicle and a stateroom now Bellingham to Whittier. Looks like it’s about once a month.

The drive is nice. You get pretty tired of Canada, it’s big. Hopefully the border restrictions ease off soon.

It’s a big state, lots of choices. There is more to Alaska than what you find in the SW, valley, and interior. Most people are more comfortable near civilization and with options to drive away so those places will be more people’d. If that isn’t important and you don’t mind substituting rain for snow and cold, SE is impossible to beat. Some properties here are still very affordable, other places such as Juneau (state government) and Sitka (private islands and big boat harbor, haves and have - nots) are very expensive.

Kodiak Island is awesome too.

Good luck in your search. 4 generations of my family pulled out of CO lock, stock, and barrel in 1995 following a crazy dream. It stuck and we’re still here. I don’t know what I would change if I could.

What area(s) in SE are you referring to (being affordable)?

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[slick]

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