Rising interest rates leave home owners struggling to sell

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Tanny Walker and her husband have called 6801 Meadow Street in Anchorage home for over 7 years.

“It holds a lot of memories, this house,” Walker said.

But now the Walker family needs more room, and they’re trying to sell their current home and find one with room to grow.

“It’s been a little frustrating with it not moving, not getting any offers.”

Walker said she has already dropped her asking price four times. She said waiting for offers to come in was not expected when she placed their house on the market.

“We were thinking maybe a few weeks at that, so we were hopeful. We were super hopeful,” Walker said. “We’ve had friends that put their house on the market a month before us and they got multiple offers like within weeks, or days.”

For sale signs staying up for long periods of time is become increasingly common. According to Department of Labor and Workforce Development analyst Rob Krieger, interest rates have gone up since 2021.

Last year, Anchorage saw a tight market: there weren’t many houses on the market, but there were masses of buyers looking to find their perfect home.

“I think a lot of that demand was driven by, at the time, you know, very low interest rates — record low interest rates,” Kreiger said of 2021′s interest rates.

According to Kreiger, the sea of home buyers has dwindled due to the rise of interest rates making homes less affordable.

“You know, a small increase in interest rates can have a significant impact on what someone is able to afford,” Kreiger said.

Kreiger said he expects to see this trend continue as interest rates rise.

The Walkers said if they are unable to see their house, they plan to place it on the renters market.

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