Alabama real estate, AL - America Real Estate Directory

Alabama Real Estate

Welcome to the America Real Estate Directory.

Alabama is located in the east south central United States, at the southern end of the Appalachian Mountains and on the Gulf of Mexico. It is one of the principal states of the South and is often referred to as the Heart of Dixie. In the course of about 450 years, Spanish, French, British, and Confederate flags, as well as the Stars and Stripes, have flown over Alabama, and residents of the state have a deep-seated sense of history. A 2006 real estate survey has estimated the population of Alabama at 4,600,000.

From the early 19th century, Alabama’s economy was dominated by one crop—cotton. After 1915, however, the boll weevil, a beetle that infests cotton plants, so damaged the state’s cotton crop that farmers began to concentrate on raising livestock and crops other than cotton. Manufacturing began to be important to Alabama with the growth of the iron and steel industry during the early 20th century. Beginning in the 1930s low-cost power provided by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), a federal agency, encouraged industrial development. In the late 1990s manufacturing remained the dominant economic sector. Also significantly contributing to Alabama’s gross product were the government and service sectors.

Realtors, click here to register on this site.

Albertville

Don Spurlin

E-mail: don@spurlin-realestate.com

Auburn click here

Auburn is located in Lee County between Montgomery and Opelika along Highway 14. Auburn maintains a small varied industrial base. Chewacla State Park and Tuskegee National Forest are southwest of Auburn. A 2003 real estate survey has estimated the population of Auburn, Alabama at 46,923.

Birmingham click here

Birmingham is located in the Jones Valley of north central Alabama at the southern end of the Appalachian Mountains. It lies between Montgomery and Decatur, on the banks of the Cahaba River. It is the largest city in Alabama and is a regional hub of transportation, commercial, and cultural activity. The city also is a health-care center for the surrounding region. Birmingham has a diversified industrial base; manufactures include railroad and aircraft equipment, chemicals, valves, automotive parts and equipment, and plastics.

Daphne

Dana M. Scott, ABR, ARC, GRI, LTG, e-PRO

E-mail: DanaScott@dauphinrealty.com

Fairhope

Heather Augustin

Fairhope Real Estate

Foley

Younnie Wingate Veal

E-mail: younnie@eraclass.com

Guntersville

John Sweitzer

Helena

Jamie Shields

E-mail: jreal@bellsouth.net

Homewood

Jamie Shields

E-mail: jreal@bellsouth.net

Hoover

Jamie Shields

E-mail: jreal@bellsouth.net

Huntsville click here

Huntsville is located in northern Alabama, near the Tennessee River. Long a trade and distribution center for agricultural products, Huntsville developed into a major aerospace and military research, development, and manufacturing center after 1950. Other manufactures include computer hardware and software, automotive electronics, vehicle tires, and electronic transmission devices.

Millbrook

Karen Nault
1st Rate Real Estate LLC
Phone: 334-491-5478

Millbrook Real Estate
We service Montgomery, Elmore and Autauga counties.

Mobile click here

Mobile is the seat of Mobile County and serves as a port of entry on Mobile Bay at the mouth of the Mobile River. It is Alabama’s only seaport, and one of the busiest in the United States; a deepwater channel in Mobile Bay links the city with the Gulf of Mexico and the Intracoastal Waterway. Major local manufactures include paper, ships, chemicals, forest products, textiles, processed food, aerospace equipment, and refined petroleum.

Montgomery click here

A port on the Alabama River, Montgomery is a major cotton and livestock market and a manufacturing center situated in the rich Black Belt agricultural region. Principal manufactures of the area include water heaters, computer software, paper products, machinery, furniture, textiles, and processed food. Tourism, construction, government activity, and financial institutions are also important to the economy of the city, as is nearby Maxwell Air Force Base.

Oak Mountain

Jamie Shields

E-mail: jreal@bellsouth.net

Prattville

Karen Nault
1st Rate Real Estate LLC
Phone: 334-491-5478

Prattville Real Estate
We service Montgomery, Elmore and Autauga counties.

Vestavia

Jamie Shields

E-mail: jreal@bellsouth.net

Wetumpka

Karen Nault
1st Rate Real Estate LLC
Phone: 334-491-5478

Wetumpka Real Estate
We service Montgomery, Elmore and Autauga counties.

More about Alabama

The sale of livestock and livestock products accounted for 75 percent of the income generated on farms in 1998, with sales of crops accounting for the remainder. Alabama’s livestock and animal products include chickens, particularly broilers (young chickens used for food); beef cattle; eggs; hogs; and milk. The state’s chief crops are greenhouse and nursery products, peanuts, and cotton. Other crops raised in the state include hay, soybeans, corn, wheat, potatoes, oats, and sorghum. Some tobacco is grown, which is used in the manufacture of cigars.

The total income from fishing is relatively small in Alabama, just $47 million in 1998. However, the coastal waters yield quantities of shrimps, oysters, crabs, pompano, mullet, snapper, and many other sea fishes. Fishing vessels take their catch to Mobile and to other Alabama ports to be processed in local canneries or to be shipped to markets that are located farther away.

Lumbering has been carried on in Alabama since about 1830, but until the 20th century no effort was made to plan for a continued yield through selective cutting and reforestation. After 1930 the production of wood products expanded rapidly, and pine forests now supply the greater part of Alabama’s lumber, as well as valuable quantities of turpentine, tar, and rosin. Even scrub timber, once regarded as useless, is in demand for wood pulp, and many farmers sell such pulpwood to supplement their income.

Mineral resources have given Alabama a commanding lead among the Southern states in the production of iron and steel. Within a radius of about 25 km (about 15 mi) of the city of Birmingham are found deposits of the three basic raw materials required for steel production: iron ore, limestone, and bituminous coal. By the late 1970s, however, no iron ore was being mined in Alabama, and that used in the steel industry came from outside the state.

Natural gas is Alabama’s most valuable mineral, generating more than one-half of the state’s income from fossil fuels. Large deposits of bituminous coal are found in the northwestern section of the state, while deposits of lower-grade lignite are scattered around the coastal plain. Most of the coal extracted comes from underground mines, some of which are among the deepest in the United States. Tuscaloosa, Walker, and Jefferson are the leading coal-producing counties. Also important is petroleum, which along with natural gas comes mostly from wells in the southwestern counties of Mobile and Choctaw.

By value, principal nonfuel minerals produced in Alabama are cement, crushed and broken stone, lime, and sand and gravel. The state ranks fourth in the nation in lime production, while it is first in common clays and second in kaolin, a high-fire clay. Some of the world’s finest-grained marble is found in the Sylacauga area.

Manufacturing contributes more to personal income and more to the gross state product than any other economic sector in Alabama. In terms of the value added by manufacture, the leading industry in the state in 1996 was the manufacture of paper and associated products, with the leading employers in the sector being paper and pulp mills, producers of sanitary paper products, and firms making corrugated boxes. Other leading industries were chemical manufacturers, including those making chemicals for agriculture and other industries, organic fibers, and paints; primary metal manufacturers, including iron foundries, blast furnaces, and steel mills; firms making aluminum sheets and plates, and copper rolling mills; and textile mills, making woven cloths and yarns. Industries also employing a large number of Alabama residents are meatpackers; manufacturers of men’s and boys’ apparel; makers of vehicle tires; producers of motor vehicle parts; and lumber mills.

The Birmingham area accounts for a significant portion of the manufacturing income and employment in Alabama. The production of iron and steel and the fabrication of cast-iron pipe and of metal valves and fittings are the area’s leading industries. Beginning in the late 1970s, the area’s iron and steel industry, buffeted by national economic recessions and foreign competition, suffered a tremendous decline. Many steel mills were closed permanently, and thousands of workers lost their jobs. However, some of the decline in the iron and steel industry was offset by growth in the fabricated metals industry.

Huntsville has been the center for many developments in U.S. missile manufacturing. The United States Army’s Redstone Arsenal and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s George C. Marshall Space Flight Center are in the Huntsville area. Reduced government spending on aerospace activities in the 1970s led the city to seek economic diversity. By the early 1990s, Huntsville had attracted almost 100 new manufacturing firms, many of them engaged in high-technology areas such as computer electronics.

Mobile is an important center for the manufacture of paper products and chemicals. Its chemical industry produces fertilizer, paint, and varnish. Ship repair is also significant in the Mobile area.

The largest cities are Birmingham, Montgomery, Mobile, and Huntsville. Other major cities include Tuscaloosa, Dothan, Decatur, Gadsen, Florence, Prichard, Bessemer, and Anniston.

Realtors, click here to register on this site.

Real Estate: Georgia - Mississippi - Alabama Relocation

e-cabin-rentalsA
Alabama Vacation Rentals: house, home, condo, cottage, and cabin rental

Official Website for the State of Alabama

Although we try to be as vigilant as possible, we are not responsible for any incorrect information or any misrepresentation that may occur on our site. ©1996 - 2008 America Real Estate Directory. All rights reserved.