Baltimore HUD Homes Blog

Shortly after Republican presidential nominee John McCain tapped Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, it put Palin and her hometown of Wasilla, Alaska, on the map. When Palin is not dashing off to her office in Juneau, AK, she resides with her husband, Todd, and five children in a single-family home located on Lake Lucille, in Wasilla.

According to Time Magazine,

The Palin family lives on Lake Lucille on the western end of town — she’s always maintained her residence here, even though the Capitol is a long flight away in Juneau. It’s a perfectly Alaskan lake: still waters ringed by evergreens and saw-toothed peaks, staged beneath a wolf-colored sky. You can just make out Palin’s house a stone’s throw from the public launch at the Best Western Hotel, by the red and white floatplane on the small dock out front (the governor’s husband is a pilot in addition to being an oil worker, commercial fisherman, prior Iron Dog snowmobile endurance race winner, and self-anointed “First Dude”).

Sarah Palin’s house, located at 1140 W Parks Hwy, Wasilla, AK 9965 is a two-story framed structure on a couple of acres, built in 2002 with a poured concrete foundation and no basement. According to Alaska magazine, the home was designed and built by “First Dude” husband, Todd. The home has an appraised value of $552,100, according to the Matanuska-Susitana Borough real property land details. You can see Palin’s home in the background here.

It looks like Sarah and Todd own more than their Wasilla property. We came across this post by MilwaukeeWorld who did some digging on the Palin real estate holdings and it looks like Sarah and Todd own some other undeveloped land with family friend Scott A. Richter. Not as many as running mate John McCain’s 7 houses, but they certainly love their land in Alaska.

Wasilla is a city of approximately 5,500, according to the City of Wasilla Web site (although other reports place it as high as 9,780) and it sits 43 miles northeast of Anchorage, AK, making it a bedroom community to Anchorage rather than a weekend or holiday destination.

Wasilla’s homes for sale range from the low thousands to millions and they’re not your typical real estate choices. Note these “items” for sale: airplane hangar condo, a money-making coffee shop, a snow-packed condo unit, a parcel on a swan-populated lake, the old Wasilla post office (photo, right) a parcel with private canal access for your floatplane (photo below), and homes with BIG garages.

Wasilla is headquarters of the Iditarod Sled Dog Race, but is no longer part of the race route because “real-estate developers in Wasilla have cut too many new driveways through the old sled trail, making it hazardous for the dogs to maneuver.” It’s clear that Wasilla was once a small town many Alaskans adored for its outdoor recreation and raw surroundings, but with Sarah Palin on the map, Wasilla is also on the map. It will be interesting to see how Wasilla evolves from the exposure of Palin’s stardom.

Read the full Wasilla, Alaska Real Estate and Sarah Palin’s House story