Ketchikan, Alaska.
Typical home $405,239 (+5.0% in a year). Ketchikan, AK metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$995 (+88%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $19,476 +5%
- $385,763$405,239 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $60,838 +18%
- $344,401$405,239 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.
- Ketchikan$2,127
- Alaska$2,089
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 21 years.
Typical home values in Ketchikan, AK rose 5.0% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Ketchikan, Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Alaska
Ketchikan is a city of 8,192 people in Ketchikan Gateway Borough. Half its households earn more than $85,275 a year and half less, against $92,885 across Ketchikan Gateway Borough; 11% of its people live below the poverty line. 61% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 39% are rented. Unemployment in Ketchikan Gateway Borough was 2.5% in August 2026, and the county had 0.9% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then restaurants and hotels.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Ketchikan is a small city on the Alaska coast, with a population somewhat younger than the typical American town's. Most households own the home they live in, and incomes run a little below those across the borough. Winters are mild for Alaska, hovering around freezing, and summers stay cool; it is a very wet place, with far more rain and melted snow than most of the country.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, and plenty more in restaurants, hotels and entertainment or in shops. Among the largest workplaces in Ketchikan are the Ketchikan Gateway Borough School District, Ketchikan Medical Center and Silver Bay Seafoods. Getting to work is quick, and the job market has been roughly steady, with unemployment lower than a year earlier.
Things to do. The Totem Heritage Center is a museum in or beside town, and Totem Bight State Historical Park is a short drive away. Ward Lake, also a short drive away, is a good spot for time by the water.
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- 3,415households
- 24%of adults have a degree
- 11%below the poverty line
- 11 mintypical commute
- 6%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Ketchikan Gateway Borough had 7,211 jobs in 2025, 0.9% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 39° and lows near 32°; warmest in August, with highs near 67° and lows near 54°. About 157 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Beaver Falls weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Ketchikan
- Ketchikan Gateway Borough School DistrictSchool district389FTE
- Ketchikan Medical CenterCritical access hospital358FTE
- City of KetchikanExecutive and legislative office combinations168
- Silver Bay SeafoodsFreezing fish130
- Alaska General Seafoods - KetchikanSeafood and seafood products manufacturing72
- Forest ServiceFederal government · Department of Agriculture53
- State of Alaska49
- Madison Lumber & HardwareHome improvement centers39
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 12 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,060 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24), hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and federal offices from OPM's federal workforce data (2026); 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
- Winter weatherRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Ketchikan’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, very low. 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 Ketchikan Gateway Borough and the Ketchikan, AK metro.
Ketchikan home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Ketchikan$405,239
- Alaska$397,932
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 6 Ketchikan listings — the market is cooling.
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.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Ketchikan17.98%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Ketchikan76
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Ketchikan15
Zip codes with a Ketchikan address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Ketchikan — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.