Property Tax in Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska

What the Matanuska-Susitna Borough numbers mean

A median is the middle household: half of owner-occupied households in Matanuska-Susitna Borough pay more than $3,512, and half pay less. Your own bill is set by your home's assessed value, the exemptions you qualify for, and the local taxing districts your property sits in — so individual bills vary widely around the median.

Dividing the median tax by the median home value gives a derived effective rate of 1.10% for Matanuska-Susitna Borough. It is an estimate built from two survey medians, not the county's official rate, but it is a fair way to compare the local tax burden with other counties where home values are very different.

The key figures for Matanuska-Susitna Borough

For context, the Alaska medians are $3,785 of tax on $333,300 of value, and the US medians are $2,969 on $303,400. *Derived figures are estimates from Census medians, not official rates.

Matanuska-Susitna Borough at a glance

• Median tax rank in Alaska: #4 of 26 counties
• Median home value rank in Alaska: #9 of 26
• Population rank in Alaska: #2 of 26 (110,677 residents)
• Population density rank: #4 of 26 (4 people per square mile)
• Land area rank in Alaska: #5 of 26 (24,707 sq mi, 5.1% of the combined county land area)
• Median tax as a monthly figure: $293; per $1,000 of home value: $1.10

How Matanuska-Susitna Borough compares

Set against its state, Matanuska-Susitna Borough's median bill of $3,512 is about 7% lower than the Alaska median ($3,785). Against the country as a whole it is about 18% higher than the US median ($2,969). That places the county #4 of 26 Alaska counties ranked by median taxes paid.

Remember what drives the ranking: bills follow home values as much as rates. Matanuska-Susitna Borough's median home, at $319,200, ranks #9 by value in Alaska, while its derived rate of 1.10% compares with a derived US figure of 0.98%.

Some extra context for Matanuska-Susitna Borough: the median bill works out to about $293 a month, and the derived rate equals roughly $1,100 of tax per $100,000 of home value. The county is home to 110,677 people — the #2 most populous county in Alaska, spread over 24,707 square miles, a density of about 4 people per square mile. Its median home value, $319,200, ranks #9 among the state's 26 counties with data.

Zooming out: of 3133 counties nationwide with published Census figures, only 306 record a higher median tax bill than Matanuska-Susitna Borough — it sits in the top 10% nationally. The county holds roughly 15.1% of Alaska's people. Its homes are worth less than the state norm (median $319,200 versus $333,300), and a decade at the derived rate of 1.10% adds up to about 11.00% of the median home's value in tax. The cheapest county in the state, Northwest Arctic Borough, medians $199 — $3,313 less than Matanuska-Susitna Borough per year.

Counties nearest Matanuska-Susitna Borough in the Alaska ranking

Matanuska-Susitna Borough and its population peers

Population is a useful lens on these figures, so the table below sets Matanuska-Susitna Borough beside the counties closest to it in population anywhere in the country — communities of a similar scale operating under different state and local tax systems. Ranked by median tax paid within this peer group of 9, Matanuska-Susitna Borough's $3,512 bill is #2 of 9.

The closest population match is Madison County, Mississippi (110,303 residents), where the median real estate tax paid is $2,071 on a median home value of $286,300 — $1,441 more than Matanuska-Susitna Borough pays.

Matanuska-Susitna Borough's nearest population neighbours within Alaska are Anchorage Municipality (289,069 residents, median tax $4,865 on a median value of $375,900); Fairbanks North Star Borough (95,555 residents, median tax $3,570 on a median value of $282,500); Kenai Peninsula Borough (59,843 residents, median tax $1,974 on a median value of $297,500). Comparing them is a reminder that even inside one state's rules, the bill follows local home values and local district rates more than anything decided at the state level.

How the tax is worked out

Think of the final bill as three ingredients: the assessed value of the property, the exemptions subtracted from it, and the combined rate of every district the property sits in. Matanuska-Susitna Borough's medians imply a derived rate of 1.10%; applied illustratively, a $400,000 home would owe about $4,400 a year, or around $367 a month spread evenly. Individual properties depart from the illustration in both directions.

Illustrative bills in Matanuska-Susitna Borough at the derived rate

The derived rate of 1.10% is only an estimate built from medians, but applying it to different home values gives a sense of scale for Matanuska-Susitna Borough — and a quick way to compare with the state derived rate of 1.14% and the US figure of 0.98%:

Illustration only: real bills are computed from the assessed value, exemptions, and the combined rates of the property's actual taxing districts.

Checking your assessment in Matanuska-Susitna Borough

Most successful appeals are won on facts, not arguments. Start with the property record card held by the Matanuska-Susitna Borough assessor: wrong square footage, an extra room, or a missing homestead exemption are common and fixable. Next, line your assessed value up against recent sales of genuinely similar homes nearby. Many disputes end at an informal conversation with the assessor's office; if yours does not, file the formal appeal with the review board named on your notice before its deadline, evidence attached, and keep paying the bill in the meantime so penalties do not build up.

More Alaska counties

• Fairbanks North Star Borough, AK — $3,570
• Kenai Peninsula Borough, AK — $1,974
• Juneau City and Borough, AK — $4,039
• Ketchikan Gateway Borough, AK — $2,588
• Kodiak Island Borough, AK — $3,509
• North Slope Borough, AK — $2,082

Frequently asked questions