Hope, Alaska.
Typical home $257,568 (+6.1% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$679 (+101%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $14,752 +6%
- $242,816$257,568 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $38,082 +17%
- $219,486$257,568 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Hope$1,352
- Alaska$2,089
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 22 years.
Typical home values in Hope, AK rose 6.1% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Hope, Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska
Hope, in Kenai Peninsula Borough, had 161 people in the 2020 census. Unemployment in Kenai Peninsula Borough was 3.4% in August 2026, and the county had 1.2% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Kenai Peninsula Borough work in schools and health care, then construction.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Hope is a very small community on the Kenai Peninsula, with far fewer people than most towns, so neighbors tend to know one another. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month and daytime highs staying below freezing, while summers are cool and mild, with July the warmest month. Homes here are valued at a level well below what many Americans pay, though that is a general picture of the community rather than any single street.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in the building trades, in government, and in shops. Across Kenai Peninsula Borough, unemployment is low and has held steady over the past year, and the number of jobs has edged up. Among the borough's largest workplaces are Central Peninsula General Hospital, the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District and South Peninsula Hospital.
Things to do. Close by, Sunrise is an archaeological site a short drive away, and Beluga Point Site is another archaeological site within a short drive. A longer drive brings you to Chugach State Park, a protected area for those who like to be outdoors, and Portage Lake, a lake set among the mountains.
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What people in Kenai Peninsula Borough work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Kenai Peninsula Borough had 21,722 jobs in 2025, 1.2% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 25° and lows near 10°; warmest in July, with highs near 66° and lows near 49°.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Hope weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Kenai Peninsula Borough
- Central Peninsula General HospitalGeneral hospital1,116FTE
- Kenai Peninsula Borough School DistrictSchool district1,112FTE
- South Peninsula HospitalCritical access hospital448FTE
- Kenaitze Indian TribeAmerican indian or alaska native tribal councils400
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters301
- Marathon Petroleum CompanyPetroleum refineries262
- Fred Meyer StoresWarehouse clubs and supercenters248
- State of Alaska138
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 42 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 4,331 people in all across the county; Hope has none of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- AvalanchesVery high
- LandslidesRelatively high
- EarthquakesRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Hope’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, very high. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Kenai Peninsula Borough.
Hope home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Hope$257,568
- Alaska$397,932
- United States$366,157
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Zip codes with a Hope address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Hope — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.