Alabama Land for Sale

The full moon over Alabama isn’t really bigger there than it is any place else – it just looks that way on hot summer nights. Alabama’s centuries long traditions of graceful living and hospitality have been tempered by the lessons taught by history. The result? A place where personal freedom is every citizen’s heritage, whose charm and scenic beauty are second to none. Alabama Land for Sale is your passport to a new revitalized South.

From the rolling foothills in the north where the Appalachian Mountains get their start to the white sand beaches along the Gulf of Mexico; from the pristine waters of its many lakes to the steep stone cliffs guarding the Delta’s secluded waterways, Alabama is a showcase for nature in all its beauty. The Yellowhammer State’s system of navigable rivers is almost 1,300 miles long; Alabama’s Scenic River Trail encompass approximately half that length, seven rivers and two creeks that make a perfect venue for every type of kayaking, rafting and paddling adventure.

Birmingham, home of the University of Alabama, is the state’s largest city. A boom town built on railroads and steel during Reconstruction days, Birmingham has seen its economic base begin to shift to biotechnology and medical research in recent decades though the steel industry is still an important presence there with $100 million worth of new steel mills and expansions planned over the next few years. Mobile, at the mouth of the river of the same name, is a historic seaport; the original capital of colonial Louisiana under French rule, Mobil is the place where Mardi Gras began. Montgomery, the state capital, is rich with the solemn history of America’s Civil Rights Movement as well as the site of an annual Shakespeare Festival that is the only one outside Great Britain invited to fly the flag of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Huntsville, along the Tennessee River, is the center of U.S. rocket-propulsion research, home to both the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command and the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center.

Alabama winters are mild: temperatures seldom slip below 40 degrees Fahrenheit though occasional snow flurries are not uncommon in the north. Summer days might almost be too hot were it not for the frequent afternoon thunderstorms that cool things off in a hurry. Tornadoes are such a frequent occurrence that the area of the state that’s most affected has been nicknamed “Dixie Alley” (after the famous “Tornado Alley” of the Southern Plains.) Alabama’s stretch of coastline along the Gulf of Mexico sees its fair share of tropical storms and hurricanes.

Alabama’s state government has created a taxation and regulatory environment that is strongly pro-business, and the state never suffered the speculative housing bubble that launched the national recession. It’s true that Birmingham, with its heavy manufacturing base, is one of the Southern cities that has felt the economic downturn most keenly: unemployment in Birmingham is over 11%, higher than the national figure. But many economists are bullish about Alabama’s recovery prospects, noting the fact that commercial real estate vacancy rates – a bellwether of sorts – are actually lower in many Alabama cities now than they were before the recession began. Alabama’s auto, chemicals, paper, metals and machinery industries all stand to benefit from the expansion of the export economic sector and a recently opened $4.65 billion complex, built in Calvert by ThyssenKrupp to supply steel to the local auto industry, bears testimony to the giant German industrial conglomerate’s optimism about Alabama’s profitable future. Alabama Land for Sale may be in the “Heart of Dixie,” but nobody’s whistling Dixie about Alabama’s bright economic outlook.