Sell Your Commercial Property In Mobile, AL

Who rents in Mobile

The 2020–2024 American Community Survey counts 203,416 people in Mobile and 84,639 occupied homes, of which 38,974, or 46.0%, are rented. Across Mobile County the renter share is 34.0%, and statewide it is 29.8% (ACS). About 71% of the county's 54,913 renter households live in the city, and the city holds roughly 87% of the county's units in buildings of five or more. Median household income in Mobile is $53,558, below the county's $58,880 and the state's $63,999.

Two industries anchor the job base. The Alabama Port Authority, which runs the deepwater Port of Mobile established in 1928, says the port supports one in seven jobs statewide and has produced more than $415 billion in economic impact across Alabama since 2019, with more than $2 billion in capital projects over the past decade. Aerospace is the second pillar. Airbus opened its first U.S. commercial aircraft production site at Mobile's Brookley Aeroplex in 2015, a $600 million, 53-acre plant for the A320 Family; Mobile also hosts the final assembly line for A220 jets sold to U.S. customers, and a second A320 Family line added in 2025 brought 1,000 jobs and a 2.5 million-square-foot footprint. An Airbus engineering center in Mobile, open since 2007, employs more than 250 people in cabin design and related work.

Those employers hire both hourly production and logistics staff and salaried engineers, so renter demand spans price points rather than clustering at one end of the market.

Rents and affordability

Mobile's median gross rent of $1,068 is a little above the county's $1,052 and the state's $1,007. Affordability is tight: 50.9% of renter households spend 30% or more of income on rent and utilities, and 9,944 households, about 25.5%, spend half or more. Countywide the 30%-plus share is 48.9%, so the strain is regional rather than confined to the city.

The detail matters for underwriting. Of the city's 38,974 renter households, 3,952 spend 30% to 35% of income on housing, 2,464 spend 35% to 40%, 3,496 spend 40% to 50%, and 9,944 spend half or more. Another 3,958 households could not have the ratio computed, typically because they report no income or pay no cash rent. A rent increase of $50 a month pushes a meaningful number of tenants from the first group into the higher ones, so in Mobile every renewal increase carries real turnover risk that a buyer will weigh against the higher rent.

HUD sets different Fair Market Rents on each side of Mobile Bay, and the gap is large:

Sources: HUD FMRs, Mobile MSA; HUD FMRs, Daphne-Fairhope-Foley MSA. The Baldwin County benchmark runs about $280 a month higher for a one-bedroom and $262 higher for a two-bedroom. Daphne, one of the areas on our Mobile page, sits in that higher-rent metro, while Midtown, West Mobile and Tillmans Corner fall in the Mobile MSA.

The apartment stock

Mobile has 98,380 housing units. Detached houses account for 66,317, or 67.4%, and two- to four-unit buildings add 5,305. Buildings with five or more units hold 23,522 units, 23.9% of the total, against 14.5% countywide and 11.7% statewide. By size, 7,234 units are in buildings of 5 to 9 units, 7,849 in buildings of 10 to 19, 3,178 in buildings of 20 to 49, and 5,261 in complexes of 50 or more. The 10- to 19-unit bracket is the largest single group, ahead of small 5- to 9-unit buildings.

The median housing unit in the city was built in 1975, five years older than the county's 1980 median and eleven years older than the state's. On the Gulf Coast, age and storm exposure compound each other: roofs, windows and drainage on buildings of that vintage are the first items a buyer's inspector will price, alongside the cost of insuring them.

Property taxes on apartment buildings in Mobile County

Rental apartments are Class II property in Alabama, assessed at 20% of appraised value (Alabama Department of Revenue). The state's October 2025 millage table shows these levies for a parcel inside Mobile: 6.5 state mills; 20.5 county mills, including road and bridge, hospital and board of health levies; 29.5 school mills for the Mobile and Prichard district; and the city's 7.0 mills. That totals 63.5 mills. A building appraised at $2 million is assessed at $400,000 and would owe about $25,400 a year, roughly $635 a unit for a 40-unit property.

Outside city limits the number drops. Unincorporated parcels carry the same state and county levies but the "all others" school total of 21.5 mills and no city levy, about 48.5 mills combined. Tillmans Corner, outside the city, falls in that group. Daphne is in Baldwin County, which has its own county and school structure, so compare a Daphne bill line by line rather than by assumption.

The difference is worth putting in dollars. For a $2 million building, 63.5 mills inside the city means about $25,400 a year, while 48.5 mills outside it means about $19,400, a gap of $6,000 a year or $150 per unit on 40 units. A buyer who capitalizes that difference at an 8% cap rate would value the in-city building about $75,000 lower on taxes alone, all else equal.

Counties reappraise a quarter of parcels each year, and owners have 30 days after a valuation notice to protest to the Board of Equalization (ADOR). The HB73 cap holds annual growth in taxable assessed value of Class II property to 7% through the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2027, but it is removed when the property changes hands (ADOR). A buyer will model taxes on a fresh appraisal. The deed tax is $0.50 per $500 of value conveyed (§ 40-22-1), about $2,000 on a $2 million sale without an assumed mortgage.

Landlord rules and local compliance

Alabama bars local rent control (§ 11-80-8.1), so Mobile cannot cap rent increases. The Alabama Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act limits the base security deposit to one month's rent, with added deposits allowed for pets, alterations or higher liability risk, and requires a refund or itemized accounting within 60 days, or double the deposit (§ 35-9A-201). For nonpayment, a written notice can end the lease no sooner than 7 business days after the tenant receives it (§ 35-9A-421). Given that half of Mobile's renters are cost-burdened, a buyer will look at delinquency, turnover and legal costs as closely as at asking rents.

What this means if you own a building here

Mobile's apartment market rests on employers that are expanding, a renter share near half of households, and an apartment stock that is larger relative to the city than in most of Alabama. The offsets are age, storm exposure and a city tax rate about 15 mills higher than in unincorporated county areas. If your rents sit below the $919 one-bedroom and $1,083 two-bedroom FMRs, a buyer will see room to raise them after renovation; if they are already above, documented capital work and insurance history will carry more weight in the price.

Skyline Capital Investments buys 5+ unit buildings in Mobile and across Mobile and Baldwin counties. You can estimate your building's value, run the cap rate calculator, compare tax rules in our state-by-state guide, or request an offer. If you plan to trade into another property, the 1031 exchange calculator shows what you would need to reinvest to defer the gain.