Anchorage Daily News

PALMER -- Longtime local home builder Jess Hall gets the occasional visitor hoping to cash in on the subprime loan debacle triggering angst in real-estate markets around the country.

A few potential buyers at Hall Quality Homes ask for $10,000 or $20,000 discounts, seeing as the real-estate market is in such bad shape, Hall said.

"I tell them, 'Sorry ... our market's really pretty stable," he relayed to the members of the Greater Palmer Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday.

The relative health of Alaska's housing market is a message that Hall and the Alaska Housing Finance Corp. are spreading around the Valley and Anchorage. AHFC is running television and radio spots as part of the "Alaska's Housing Market: Built to Last" campaign reassuring Alaskans that our real-estate markets are stable, benefit from low interest rates, and Alaska's economy is strong.

Hall cited statistics that show Alaska's foreclosure rate at 0.64 percent, compared to 1.7 percent nationally. Alaskans have largely escaped the pain of risky subprime, or adjustable rate mortgages, he said.

Other sources tell a grimmer story. While Alaskans aren't seeing the number of failed loans as some places in the Lower 48, plenty of people in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough are feeling the pain of bad home-buying decisions.

Real estate agents in the Mat-Su area last year said they started seeing a dramatic rise in the number of foreclosure sales.

In 2007, there were 369 foreclosure filings in the borough, according to statistics compiled by RealtyTrac, a California firm that tracks foreclosures around the country. That's much higher than 2006, but not much more than 2005.

The number of people seeking foreclosure counseling -- mostly linked to subprime loans -- at the Anchorage office of the Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Alaska rose sharply in recent months.

"The Valley is one area in the state where foreclosures are definitely increasing," said Wendy Romberg, education coordinator for the nonprofit credit counseling service. Foreclosures in the Mat-Su area rose from 283 in February to 290 this month, Romberg said. Those numbers are based on RealtyTrac data, she said.

About a third of the people dealing with borough foreclosure cases end up in the counseling service offices for help, Romberg said.

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