Destination profile
Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska
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Cost of living and taxes
Effective property tax rate
0.99%
Alaska county average: 1.08%
Median property tax bill
$3,776
On a median home of $379,500
This is the rate actually paid on the median home in Matanuska-Susitna Borough — the median bill divided by the median value. It is not the headline millage, and it does not include any senior or homestead exemption you may qualify for.
Income tax, sales tax, insurance and everyday prices for AK are handled in the moving-cost calculator, which lets you put your own income and home value in.
Source: county median property tax and median home value, tax year 2026, loaded 2026.
Health care
Nearest emergency room
MAT-SU REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER
6.5 miles
3 of 5 CMS stars
Straight-line distance from the county’s population centre. Road travel is longer.
Nearest major teaching hospital
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON MEDICAL CTR
1,432 miles
Major medical-school affiliation on the Medicare Provider of Services file — where complex care and specialist referrals usually end up.
Primary-care doctors per 100,000 people
46.8
Alaska county median: 73.4 per 100,000
Specialists: 57.0 per 100,000
Hospital beds: 1.06 per 1,000
HRSA designates part of this county — a service area or a specific population group — a Health Professional Shortage Area for primary care. Whether it affects you depends on where in the county you land.
Sources: HRSA Area Health Resources File 2024–25 (physicians, beds, shortage areas); CMS Hospital General Information and Provider of Services file, 2026 release.
Physicians are counted where they practise, not where patients live, so a county next to a medical hub can look thinner than it is — which is why we lead with distance to the nearest hospital.
Climate
Average January low
2°F
Average July high
60°F
Climate burden: not classified
Degree-day total unavailable.
Source: NOAA nClimDiv county climate normals, 1991–2020 (2020 release).
Arts and culture
Places you can name in Matanuska-Susitna Borough
- Alaska Central Rail Road — Museum
- Alaska Live Steamers — Museum
- Alpine Historical Park — Museum
- Artists Uncorked — Museum
- Colony House Museum — Museum
- Dorothy G. Page Museum — Museum
Museums and performing-arts venues in the county
21
Alaska county median: 2
In and around, within about an hour
21
Includes venues in neighbouring counties within 60 miles of this county’s population centre — not just the county itself.
Places on the National Register of Historic Places
23
Alaska county median: 6
Active arts and museum nonprofits
6
Combined annual revenue: $722,587
Businesses on the Census County Business Patterns file
- Theatre companies
- Fewer than 3 (withheld)
- Event and music promoters
- Fewer than 3 (withheld)
- Museums
- 3
- Historic sites
- Fewer than 3 (withheld)
The Census withholds any count below three to protect individual businesses, so “fewer than 3” means exactly that — it does not mean none.
Sources: Overture Maps Foundation places (venue names and locations, CDLA-Permissive-2.0); National Park Service National Register of Historic Places; National Center for Charitable Statistics Business Master File at the Urban Institute (ODC-BY 1.0); Census County Business Patterns 2023.
These are counts of what exists, not a rating of how good it is. A county with one much-loved theatre can be a better fit than one with a dozen you would never visit.
Family proximity
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Nearest commercial airport
Merrill Field (MRI) is 74 miles away.
No nonstop count is published for MRI — the airlines serving it are below the federal reporting threshold, so treat its service as thin.
Sources: OurAirports (airport names and locations, public domain); Bureau of Transportation Statistics On-Time Performance, 2026 (nonstop destinations flown by reporting carriers in the most recent month). Distances are great-circle from the county centre point.
Every figure above is named by source and vintage. See our data & methodology for the agency, licence and limits behind each dimension.