BREAKING DOWN 'Strategic Default'. Strategic defaults are often employed by borrowers when the value of their property has dropped substantially within a fairly short time. If the value of the property dips below the mortgage balance then a strategic default provides a way to minimize the property owner's loss.
Fairbanks is the largest city in the Interior region of Alaska. Estimates put the population of the city proper at 32,324, and the population of the Fairbanks North Star Borough at 100,807, making it the second most populous metro area in Alaska (after Anchorage).
By March 1898, residents boasted that Skagway was the Metropolis of Alaska and the most prosperous town on the North Pacific Coast. A population estimate reported 8,000 residents during the spring of 1898 with approximately 1,000 stampeders passing through town each week. By June 1898, with a population estimated at between 8,800 and 10,000, Skagway was the largest city in Alaska. Skagway's settlers were anxious to set up stores to sell supplies and services to their neighbors and stampeders.