Sell Your Commercial Property In Dothan, AL

Who rents in Dothan

The 2020–2024 American Community Survey counts 71,514 residents in Dothan and 29,351 occupied homes, of which 12,599, or 42.9%, are rented. Across Houston County the renter share is 36.2%, and about 80% of the county's 15,678 renter households live in the city. Statewide the share is 29.8% (ACS). Median household income in Dothan is $55,792, a little under the county's $58,626.

Health care is the largest local draw. Southeast Health describes a 420-bed medical center with the region's largest medical group, the Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine, which it calls the state's first osteopathic medical school, and membership in the Mayo Clinic Care Network. Flowers Hospital is the city's other hospital. The military is the other pillar: Fort Rucker, home of U.S. Army Aviation and its Center of Excellence since 2008, covers about 63,000 acres, with the main post in Dale County and land in Coffee, Geneva and Houston counties. Soldiers, civilians and contractors who work on post form part of the renter base across those counties.

Rents and affordability

Median gross rent in Dothan is $960, slightly above the county's $945 and below the state's $1,007. Cost burden is close to the state average: 43.5% of renter households pay 30% or more of income on rent and utilities, compared with 42.5% statewide, and 2,614 households, about 20.7%, pay half or more. With rents below the state median and burden near the state average, rent growth here depends on local wage growth more than on new high-income arrivals.

The apartment stock

Dothan is mostly a single-family city. Detached houses make up 23,876 of its 33,734 housing units, about 70.8%, and buildings of five or more units hold 4,458 units, 13.2% of the total. The table compares the city with the county as a whole:

Source: ACS 2020–2024, table B25024. Nearly every apartment unit in the county is inside Dothan, and more than half of the city's apartments, 2,359 of 4,458, are in small buildings of 5 to 9 units. Larger complexes are scarce, with fewer than 1,000 units in buildings of 20 or more. The median housing unit was built in 1982.

Downtown Dothan and the Ross Clark Circle corridor are inside city limits and share its tax rate. Taylor is a separate town in Houston County, and Headland sits in Henry County, each with its own levies.

Property taxes on apartment buildings in Houston County

Apartments are Class II property, assessed at 20% of appraised value (ADOR). The state's October 2025 millage table lists 6.5 state mills, 14.5 county mills, a 10.0-mill school total for the Dothan district and a 5.0-mill city levy, 36.0 mills combined. The county's $30 per-dwelling fire protection fee does not apply inside Dothan. A $1.5 million building, assessed at $300,000, would owe about $10,800 a year, or $360 per unit on 30 units. In Headland, Henry County's levies and the town's 7.0 mills add up to about 44.0 mills. Owners have 30 days after a valuation notice to appeal (ADOR), and the 7% HB73 cap on yearly growth in taxable value is removed on a sale (ADOR). The deed tax is $0.50 per $500 of value (§ 40-22-1), about $1,500 on a $1.5 million sale with no assumed mortgage. In Taylor, the county's own school district total of 10.0 mills and the town's 5.0 mills also come to about 36.0 mills, but the $30 per-dwelling fire fee applies there. Because the HB73 cap ends on a sale, a building held for years will be taxed on a new appraisal after closing, and a buyer will price from that figure.

Landlord rules

Alabama bars local rent control (§ 11-80-8.1). Deposits are capped at one month's rent, with added deposits allowed for pets or alterations, and must be returned or itemized within 60 days or the landlord owes double (§ 35-9A-201). A nonpayment notice can end the lease no sooner than 7 business days after receipt (§ 35-9A-421).

What this means if you own a building here

Dothan's low tax rate supports net operating income, and the thin supply of apartments limits competition. The trade-off is a small buyer pool and modest rent growth, so pricing leans on in-place income and condition. Outside the city, 4,933 of the county's 6,375 mobile homes offer renters a lower-cost alternative that competes with older apartments on price. Skyline Capital Investments buys 5+ unit buildings in Dothan, including the small 5- to 9-unit properties that dominate the local stock. You can estimate your building's value, run cap rate math, or request an offer.