Sterling, Alaska.
Typical home $362,299 (+6.5% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$924 (+94%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $22,087 +6%
- $340,212$362,299 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $48,174 +15%
- $314,126$362,299 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.
- Sterling$1,902
- Alaska$2,089
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 24 years.
Typical home values in Sterling, AK rose 6.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Sterling, Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska
Sterling, in Kenai Peninsula Borough, had 5,918 people in the 2020 census. 87% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 13% are rented. 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 residents 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Sterling is a small community on the Kenai Peninsula, and most homes here are lived in by their owners, a good deal more than is typical across the country. Few residents live below the poverty line, and about as many adults hold a four-year degree as not. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month, and summers stay cool, with July the warmest, while precipitation arrives as a mix of rain and melted snow.
Work. Residents work mainly in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by the building trades, farming, forestry and mining, and manufacturing. Across Kenai Peninsula Borough, the largest workplaces include Central Peninsula General Hospital, the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District and South Peninsula Hospital. Jobs across the borough grew slightly last year, unemployment there is low and close to where it stood a year earlier, and a good number of people work from home.
Things to do. The Kenai River is the best known place nearby, a river a longer drive away. Skilak Lake and the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, a lake and a protected area, are also a longer drive away. Captain Cook State Recreation Area, another protected area, lies a longer drive away as well.
Report a mistake
- 2,718households
- 29%of adults have a degree
- 5%below the poverty line
- 30 mintypical commute
- 15%work from home
What residents 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 22° and lows near 8°; warmest in July, with highs near 66° and lows near 49°. About 23 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Sterling 6SW weather station, 5 miles 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; Sterling 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
- WildfireVery high
- EarthquakesVery high
- Winter weatherVery high
- AvalanchesVery high
- LandslidesRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Sterling’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.
Sterling home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Sterling$362,299
- Alaska$397,932
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Sterling listings — the market is roughly in balance.
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.
- Sterling37.77%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Sterling35
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Sterling9
Zip codes with a Sterling address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Sterling — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.