By: Yereth Rosen, Alaska Beacon Apartment rents in Alaska rose 2.1% over the past year, the most modest increase in five years, according to analysis by the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development. The statistics on rental costs are part of a package of articles about housing costs published in the September issue of Alaska Economic Trends, the monthly magazine of the department’s research section. Rental statistics, based on prices recorded in March of this year, show some striking geographic differences. The Wrangell-Petersburg area in Southeast Alaska had the cheapest rent of the 11 cities and areas analyzed, with a median monthly rate of $1,288 for a two-bedroom apartment. Bethel, a rural hub in Western Alaska, had the highest rents, with a median of $2,030 a month for a two-bedroom apartment. Kodiak, Anchorage, the Fairbanks North Star Borough and Juneau were behind Bethel with monthly median rentals above $1,700.The Matanuska-Susitna Borough, just north of Anchorage, was on the low side for median rents, at $1,567 a month, but it had the biggest yearly increase, measured at 12.8%. That reflects demographic characteristics in the bustling borough, where many residents are commuters who work in Anchorage, said Gunnar Schultz, a state labor economist