The Real Deal

By Sharman Egan Lagniappe columnist

Every time you turn around there’s another embarrassing article ranking Alabama first in something bad or last in something good. You’d think with HGTV’s “House Hunters” and “Antiques Roadshow” passing through town recently, talk of Gov. Riley being a possible contender for Veep in 2008 and the positive press last fall from the likes of the Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur magazine and Parade magazine, we’d be feeling pretty good about Alabama the Beautiful. But it seems to me that Alabama – and the Mobile Bay area in particular – still has a case of low self-esteem that would depress Dr. Phil.

If you read my column regularly, you’ve probably figured out I’m a glass-is-half-full kind of gal. This Alabama-bashing really rubs me the wrong way. So I thought it would be interesting to check and see if Alabama is at, or near, the top of the list on anything good – or at the bottom of any bad lists.

Since this is a business and real estate column, I started with business rankings. After a little research I found that:

• Alabama ranks lowest among the 50 states in state and local taxes. Now that’s good news, especially at this time of year. (U.S. Census Bureau, 2004)

• Alabama ranked 14th in home appreciation in 2006 with prices rising an average of 8.1 percent, compared to the national average of 5.87 percent. (Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, February 2007).

• Alabama’s unemployment rate is 9th lowest in the U.S. at 3.3 percent. Baldwin County’s rate is even lower at 3.1 percent (Bureau of Labor Statistics, February 2007).

• Site Selection magazine really loves us. Alabama ranked 3rd on its 2006 Competitiveness Award (May 2006), 7th on its list of top states for the number of new industry or expansion projects (March 2007), 8th for best overall business climate in the U.S and 4th by real estate execs in the same survey (November 2006).

• The Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council ranked Alabama 4th in its 2006 Small Business Survival Index.

• Southern Business and Development magazine named Alabama “State of the Year” in 2006 – for the fourth year in a row.

• Worldwide Interactive Network named the Alabama Office of Workforce Development the best employee development agency in the U.S.

• Alabama’s workforce training program, AIDT, was ranked the best in the nation by Expansion Management. The publication also gave Alabama a 5-star rating (one of just 10 states to receive 5 stars) in its annual Healthcare Cost Quotient survey (February 2007).

• The Alabama Bureau of Tourism & Travel’s “2005 Year of Alabama Food” campaign won the National Council of State Tourism Directors’ annual Mercury Award as the nation’s top tourism campaign.

• Alabama received the “Golden Shovel” award from Area Development magazine for its success in job creation in 2005 (July 2006).

I can’t resist mentioning some fascinating statistics I tripped across that don’t relate specifically to business or real estate (although many of them do impact business in the state, for better or for worse). Alabama…

• Has the longest constitution in the world. At 360,000 words, it is 40 times longer than the United States Constitution.

• Ranks fifth in biodiversity, even though the state is only 25th among states in land area. Of course, we also rank second for the number of extinctions. (Nature Conservancy, 2002).

• Has one of just 16 metropolitan areas in the nation (Birmingham) that earned the highest ranking for homeland security communications (let’s face it, we have a lot of practice dealing with emergencies).

• Is number one in the amount of training provided for correctional officers (Alabama Sentencing Commission, 2002).

• Ranks 4th in terms of the percentage of children who attend church weekly (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2003).

• Is 3rd in the number of Wal-Mart Supercenters per capita.

• Has the lowest number of hate crimes per capita (FBI, 2004).

• Ranks 10th in the country in the number of older gay couples (Urban Institute, 2004).

• And, of course, the University of Alabama is number one in total SEC Championships in football and baseball, and number two in total SEC Championships in basketball (ajc.com).

Then there’s the whole American Idol thing…

And what about LA?

• Entrepreneur magazine’s 2006 Hot Cities report ranked Mobile as the top mid-sized city in the U.S. for starting and growing a business (September 2006).

• In 2006 Mobile ranked 17th out of 282 cities in the U.S. in terms of housing appreciation, with prices rising an average of 14.66 percent.

• Site Selection’s annual Top 100 Micropolitan Areas list ranked the Daphne-Fairhope “micropolitan” 4th in the nation in 2006.

• In August 2006, Parade magazine featured the Mobile County School System in its cover story, “Good Schools Can Happen” for the successful efforts of business and civic leaders in helping to improve local schools.

• Mobile was ranked #2 on Southern Business and Development magazine’s “Mid-Market of the Year” list, just behind Huntsville. In 2005 Fairhope was #4 on the magazine’s list of Ten Really Cool Small Southern Markets.

• Expansion Management magazine included Mobile in its 2007 America’s 50 Hottest Cities list.

• Southern Living’s 2006 Readers’ Choice Award included Gulf Shores/Orange Beach as one of its readers’ three favorite beach resorts.

Feeling better? I know I do.

For more fascinating Alabama statistics, including the state’s top and bottom rankings, go to http://www.statemaster.com/state/AL-alabama.

Sharman Egan is Lagniappe lagniappe columnist. Contact her at Sharman@SharmanEgan.com.

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