Does anybody have any information or advice about buying property in Nikiski? We have a few wooded lots we're going to look at and possibly buy for camping now and possibly a small cabin later on.

I've been reading as much as I can online and am getting two different views. One is that it has a quiet militia presence (not a concern) and a large oil refinery (also not a concern) but is a friendly and nice place, although it's my understanding that it's unincorporated so not really a town?

The other view is that it's crime-ridden and a "rust belt of the Kenai". Since the Troopers are over 30 minutes away everybody is apparently going to die, or something like that. I don't really buy that, but we're going to check it out this weekend to see.

Words of wisdom? We already live in Anchorage and have the money for the property so this isn't another "I want to move to Alaska but never actually do it" threads. While we will be splitting our time between Anchorage and Nikiski (or possibly somewhere else), we want to be involved in the community and make it our second home, not just a vacation spot.

Thanks!

So you want to voluntarily drive the Seward highway on the weekends?  Sounds like a horrible idea

Just moving there I can't think of any good reasons not too. An hour further south puts you in much better fishing.

I can't argue with the Seward highway issue and we did take it into consideration. We thought about buying property up north around Willow but decided we want to be down by the coast more. We're not dead set on Nikiski so if the property isn't what we're after then we'll look further south.

I have been there many times.

There are some very strange people living in Nikiski.

Very trashy people as well, along with extreme poverty.

Land is cheap there for a reason.

Look for land to the east of Soldotna in Sterling. Cooper Landing is very expensive if you can even find land.

Kasilof is another decent location as well.

In my experience your two opposing views on Nikiski are both correct.  The trashy folks are refered to as "North Roaders".  I've seen Facebook posts of entire buildings being stolen in that area.  The entire cabin, just gone.

I would look closer at Kasilof, nilnilchik, anchor point.

Thanks guys, I appreciate the information. We're going to check it out tomorrow and I'll see if I can line up some other property viewings for tomorrow a little more south.

Nikiski wasn't bad at all, maybe coming from rural Montana I have different standards, though.

We found a different property that's not in Nikiski and put an offer in. It was more land than we were hoping for and way under our budget