Apartment rents in the Wrangell-Petersburg area are higher than last year and the 3.4% vacancy rate is lower, according to an annual state survey.

The vacancy rate on rental units is the lowest in the state among the 11 areas covered in the Alaska Department of Labor survey.

“The survey combines the Wrangell and Petersburg boroughs because of their small sizes,” according to the survey report in the September issue of Trends, the monthly magazine produced by the department’s Research and Analysis Division.

The Wrangell-Petersburg 2025 vacancy rate of 3.4% is lower than the 2010-2025 median rate of 5.1%, indicating that the rental housing market has tightened — which comes as no surprise to anyone who has looked for an apartment in recent years.

The Fairbanks North Star Borough led the state in rental housing availability in the survey, which was conducted in March, with a 13.5% vacancy rate, followed by Bethel at 12.2%.

In Southeast, the vacancy rate in Ketchikan was reported at 7%, down from the 2010-2025 median of 9.9%. The rate was 6.1% in Sitka and 4% in Juneau.

A tight housing market can be a factor in driving up rents, the report said.

“Our annual survey of rental costs in Alaska’s largest markets showed continuing increases in 2025 that were well above the 15-year average,” the report said. “Vacancy rates remained below historical averages, with a few exceptions.”

It’s gotten worse since the COVID-19 pandemic. “Higher-than-average rent increases have been common since 2021, a notable shift from the pre-pandemic years,” the report said. “Median rents rose an average of 5% across surveyed areas in 2025, similar to last year and well above the 15-year average of 3%.”

Higher operating costs and increased utility costs may have contributed to rent increases, the report added.

About a third of Alaska households rent.

And although the median rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Wrangell-Petersburg in March 2025 was 14.2% higher than a year ago, according to the survey, the small sample size can skew the results, said Gunnar Schultz, an economist and one of the authors of the report.

“Median monthly rent” is the number in the middle of the survey results, with half of the rents above the number and half below.

The survey of landlords is voluntary, Schultz explained. Depending on who responds to the questionnaire, and with a small sample size, the inclusion of just even one new, higher rent and the loss of a lower rent can greatly affect the results.

That’s less of an issue in larger communities with many more landlords reporting their rents.

“The sample can change over time,” Schultz said, as landlords come and go from participating in the survey.

The department mails survey forms to known and possible landlords, based on their business licenses, he explained.

Even with the increase, the median two-bedroom rental, utilities included, in Wrangell-Petersburg, at $1,235 a month, was the second-lowest among the 11 areas counted in the report.

The Kenai Peninsula Borough was the lowest at $1,203.

There was no change reported in the average rent in the Ketchikan Gateway Borough between 2024 and 2025, with the rate holding at $1,600 a month. Sitka’s average rent increased 3.6%, to $1,564.

The median rent in Anchorage is $1,680 a month.

Wrangell has been at the bottom for rent in the state, or one step above the lowest rung, going back at least 20 years.

Lower rents than elsewhere in the state match with Wrangell’s lower median household income.

The median income for an Alaska household in 2024 was $95,665, according to the American Community Survey on the U.S. Census Bureau website. That compares to $64,545 in Wrangell in 2023 (latest numbers available), and $77,026 in Petersburg.