Residential · Investment · Development
The Gulf Coast real estate economy
The industry where the corridor's growth becomes visible — one closing, one development, one flip at a time.
8,788
Real estate jobs — 4-county corridor
2,773
Escambia Co.
2,409
Baldwin Co.
2,408
Mobile Co.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages — 2024 annual averages, private employment.
01
Where growth gets priced
Real estate and rental employ 8,788 people across the four-county corridor — but the sector's weight is larger than its payroll, because it's where every other trend lands. Population growth becomes lot prices. A hospitality boom becomes short-term-rental math. An announced plant becomes a housing squeeze two counties wide.
02
The voice in the room
AEF's featured voice on this beat is Maura McGraw — Marine Corps veteran, Georgetown-trained investor, founder of Duratus Properties with over 100 flips behind her, now leading her own realty group in Fairhope. Her market is the Baldwin–Mobile corridor this page describes, and her profile is the fuller story.
03
What we document
The record's interest isn't listings — it's decisions. When operators buy instead of lease, when investors move from flips to holds, when out-of-region capital starts showing up at closings: those are the signals the room trades in, and the ones worth writing down.
In The Record