The Progressive Farmer magazine crowns Maryland’s Kent County and nine other best rural places to live based on their ability to thrive-even during struggles-among other quality-of-life statistics.

Rankings are further indication of growing interest in rural living in America. more »

A growing acceptance of technology and the ability to sell properties quickly have made RealtyBid.com an innovator within the real estate industry

RAINBOW CITY, Ala., Jan. 28 /PRNewswire/ — RealtyBid.com, the nation’s leader in online home auctions, has announced that 2007 was a record-breaking year for the company. The online home auction website specializes in “selling properties quickly” while offering great deals to home buyers, according to CEO/President Tony Isbell. Some of RealtyBid.com’s record-breaking 2007 statistics include: more »

NEWPORT BEACH, CA– LFC Online, an Internet real estate auction marketing firm and part of the LFC Group of Companies, has announced that it will auction over 22 acres of prime development property located on the Fort Morgan Peninsula, in Gulf Shores, Alabama.The 22.5-acre parcel of residential development land, just north of Highway 180, is zoned R1-FM/PUD and is a proposed 45-lot subdivision. more »

SEATTLE, Nov. 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Seattle-based Nordstrom, Inc. (NYSE: JWN), a leading fashion specialty retailer, announced it has signed a letter of intent with General Growth Properties and Jim Wilson & Associates, LLC to open a new Nordstrom store at Riverchase Galleria in Birmingham. more »

MOBILE, Ala. (Business Wire EON) November 27, 2007 — Ferrari Capital Partners (www.ferraricapitalpartners.com), a large scale real estate developer in the southeastern United States, has announced plans to scale back a proposed 523 lot Planned Unit Development (PUD) subdivision in order to better serve the needs of the community. more »

Estimate of Number of Homeowners Who Could Save Home Based on Publicly Available Data from Center For Responsible Lending; Rep. Davis Urged to Support Pending Bills to Eliminate Unfairness in Mortgage Foreclosure Process.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Nov. 26 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — There is promising news today for distressed homeowners in the Birmingham-Selma area. The National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys (NACBA) is estimating that Congressman Artur Davis can give 784 homeowners in his Congressional District a fighting chance to save their homes from foreclosure during the current mortgage crisis. more »

MONTGOMERY – Some Alabama children who take the bus to school will be buckled-up during the trip for the first time next year thanks to a grant awarded by a special panel Governor Bob Riley appointed. more »

Apartment owner says lot is overgrown, nutria-infested

TUSCALOOSA | Thick vegetation and large rodents spurred a Tuscaloosa landlord and some neighborhood residents to urge the Tuscaloosa City Council Tuesday to take action. more »

TUSCALOOSA - Existing home sales in Alabama softened for the second consecutive month as consumers continued to cautiously digest the impact of the evolving credit market, according to Grayson M. Glaze, J.D., executive director of the Alabama Center for Real Estate at The University of Alabama. more »

A Dothan housing market that was once on fire is in a cooling off period, but some local realtors believe the market was primed for a slowdown after a phenomenal 2006.The median price of a Dothan home dropped to $122,000 in August, the lowest median price since February of 2006. The reduction in median price could be attributed to the large number of homes on the market. According to statistics compiled at the Alabama Real Estate Research and Education Center, 882 homes were placed on the market in the Dothan area in August, the most since July of 2002 when 889 were on the market. The figure has risen steadily this year, with 722 on the market in January. more »

Despite what you’ve heard about the housing market in other parts of the country, home values in the river region are expected to increase over the coming year. That’s according to a new report by CNN.com and Business 2.0 magazine.The report ranked Montgomery among the top ten housing markets in the U.S.  more »

Albertville property owners will not see the effects of increased tax rates on bills due by the end of the year.Voters in Albertville agreed Tuesday to raise property tax rates by 6 mills. The new rate will take effect with the tax year beginning Oct. 1. That means the bill won’t come due until late 2008. more »

Foreclosure filings in Alabama have been rising in the past year, but the problem in the state isn’t nearly as severe as in others.

RealtyTrac, a California firm that tracks mortgage defaults across the nation, on Tuesday pegged Alabama’s July foreclosure rate at No. 38 among the states. more »

With the influx of students returning to Troy this week, housing in the city has nearly reached its capacity.

“Right now we are almost 100 percent rented,” said Earl Ellis of Landmark Realty. “We’ve had kind of a low availability for quite some time, but it really has become acute in the last 30 days.” more »

What trends have you seen in the last few months in the Demopolis housing market?

The market in Demopolis is still very hot. Properties under $150,000 are generally selling pretty fast, but it does depend on location and the condition of the house. Values have increased and where the national trend has kind of been a slump, the Demopolis market is still very hot. more »