Anchorage Municipality, AK

Key HUD figures for Anchorage Municipality, AK

Bedroom size moves the Anchorage figure more than usual

A four-bedroom costs 2.4 times a studio here

The spread across the Anchorage schedule is wide: $1,152 for a studio against $2,736 for a four-bedroom, a ratio of 2.375. Measured across all 4,764 HUD records GovCalculator publishes, that sits at the 95th percentile — the typical record spreads 1.93.

The consequence is that Anchorage's position in Alaska depends on which bedroom count you ask about. On the two-bedroom figure it is eighth; on the four-bedroom figure it is fourth, behind only Aleutians West, Fairbanks North Star Borough and Kodiak Island. Fairbanks makes the point cleanly: its two-bedroom rent is $1,676, just $45 above Anchorage, but its four-bedroom rent is $2,812, $76 above. And Anchorage's four-bedroom figure of $2,736 is higher than the largest two-bedroom Fair Market Rent anywhere in Alaska, the $2,191 published for Aleutians West Census Area. A household's size changes which of those worlds it is comparing.

HUD income limits by household size

Eighth of 30 Alaska county records on two-bedroom rent

The seven records above it, and the $19 that separate the next three

The seven Alaska records with a higher two-bedroom Fair Market Rent are Aleutians West ($2,191), Kodiak Island ($2,075), Bethel Census Area ($1,938), Northwest Arctic ($1,930), Juneau ($1,758), Fairbanks North Star ($1,676) and Skagway ($1,644).

Rank eight is a more precise number than the data behind it. Skagway at $1,644, Anchorage at $1,631, and Ketchikan Gateway and North Slope both at $1,625 are four separate Alaska housing markets inside a $19 band. The step from seventh place to eighth is $13 a month, so the rank is better read as "upper third" than as a measured gap.

Expensive in dollars, moderate against the area's income benchmark

Why this benchmark lands where it does

14.5% is a low share for a market with Alaska's eighth-highest rent, and the reason is the denominator rather than the rent. Anchorage's HUD Median Family Income of $135,100 is the fourth highest of the state's 30 records.

The contrast worth holding is Bethel Census Area: a higher two-bedroom Fair Market Rent than Anchorage at $1,938, against an area median family income of $83,000, which produces a benchmark of 28.0% — nearly double Anchorage's. At the other end, Denali Borough pairs the state's highest area income ($146,200) with a $1,187 two-bedroom rent for a 9.7% benchmark. Alaska's benchmark range runs from that 9.7% to Bethel's 28.0%, and Anchorage sits in the lower half of it.

Neither figure is a measurement of what Anchorage households actually pay. Both inputs are HUD area benchmarks, and the share is a ratio between them.

HUD area for this county

National economic context

The figures below are federal and national. They are not specific to Anchorage Municipality and do not vary between counties.

Inflation (official BLS CPI-U national series)

Purchasing power decision engine

IRS reference

Publication 15-T (2026) — Federal Income Tax Withholding Methods. Official IRS publication →

Reference only. GovCalculator does not compute federal income tax withholding. The publication's withholding methods and tables are not ingested or modelled here.

Sources & methodology

HUD income limits and Fair Market Rents are taken from the fiscal-year tables HUD publishes per HUD-defined area — which can include more than one county — and joined to this county record. State comparisons are computed across the 2BR Fair Market Rents of the county records in the same state; the median uses the middle value and is not weighted by households or population, rank 1 is the highest rent in the state, and county records with identical rents share a rank.

The income figure used throughout this page is HUD's Median Family Income for the HUD area above. It is not a Census median household income and the two are not interchangeable.

The CPI-U series is the official BLS CUUR0000SA0 index, not seasonally adjusted, taken from the published BLS series: 36 published monthly observations. Months BLS did not publish are not interpolated. IRS Publication 15-T is cited as an official reference only — no federal withholding is calculated anywhere on this site.

Verify eligibility requirements with local program administrators: household size, deductions, and program-specific definitions can materially change outcomes.

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