Alaska’s state-backed home lender is restarting a rebate program aimed at boosting energy-efficient construction as the state continues to struggle with a housing shortage.
The Alaska Housing Finance Corp. will offer a $10,000 credit for roughly 650 new homes that receive a five-plus or six-star energy efficiency rating. Alaska Housing CEO and Executive Director Bryan Butcher said in an interview that he hopes to boost supply.
“We anticipate that hopefully we do see a jump in new homes, because it’s so needed,” Butcher said. “There’s literally not a community in Alaska that doesn’t have a great need and the number of people looking to purchase new homes exceeding, and in some cases, far exceeding, the number of homes available.”
A similar rebate program funded some 3,600 new homes starting in 2008 until funding ran out in 2016. Butcher said the state saw two main benefits from the earlier effort.Â
“One we saw a lot was that homebuilders said they were far more likely to build knowing they had this rebate available to homebuyers,” Butcher said. “But also it resulted in a lot more energy efficient homes being built.”
The $7 million that lawmakers set aside for the rebates comes from the Alaska Housing Finance Corp.’s dividend, essentially the profit it makes on the mortgages it buys from banks that originate the loans. Alaska Housing’s dividend doubled to nearly $48 million this year as interest rates grew, and state-backed loans now account for roughly a third of all home purchases in Alaska.
Butcher said he’d rather see lower interest rates across the board to allow more Alaskans to purchase homes.Â
“But if there is a silver lining to a little bit higher interest rates, it is that we do better at Alaska Housing — our dividend gets larger, and we’re able to do things like this that we wouldn’t be able to do when interest rates were very low,” Butcher said.
The rebate program is one of several housing initiatives funded by the Legislature this past session. Alaska Housing is also taking comments on a plan to reduce the minimum down payment on a mortgage from 5% to 3% after lawmakers passed a bill allowing it to do so.
The energy efficiency rebate will be open to construction that begins after Jan. 2. Builders can apply starting that day to reserve their rebate ahead of construction. There’s more information at AHFC.us/efficiency.
Eric Stone covers state government, tracking the Alaska Legislature, state policy and its impact on all Alaskans. Reach him at estone@alaskapublic.org and follow him on X at @eriwinsto. Read more about Eric here.
