Katie Ragland, REAL Broker LLC

09/11/2026

This incredible property is back on the market and OPEN tomorrow (Saturday Sept. 12th) from 11-2.

If your 🏈 game is on then and you want to see it another time, message me to setup a showing and I’m happy to help.

Also, War Eagle 🦅😉

Katie Ragland
Real Broker, LLC

**This home is currently OFF market.**🏡 Step inside this stunning...

08/17/2026

Nobody moves here for a highway interchange — so why is the fastest-growing town on the Gulf Coast a few miles inland? Loxley jumped about 18.7% in a single year, and it's not the sand doing that work. It's the land where I-10 meets Highway 59 — cheaper acreage, new subdivisions, and the jobs that follow. Foley pushed past 30,000 residents and turned into southern Baldwin's everyday hub, roughly 12 miles north of the Gulf Shores beaches. I live in Elberta, and we're feeling the change there also. If a coastal move is on your mind, let's talk about where your real week actually happens — not just where the beach is. Read more in my Substack!

Katie Ragland, Realtor® · Real Broker, LLC

Everyone pictures beachfront. The data — and my own Tuesday — say something else entirely. The fastest-growing Gulf Coast town doesn't even have a beach!

06/27/2026

Here's the part of a town that rarely shows up in listing photos: where you actually spend your weekends.

Foley's moving ahead on upgrades to its nature parks — new restrooms, a pavilion, fresh trail signs — and the city's pursuing grant funding for a boardwalk at Wolf Creek Park.

And I know, restrooms and trail signs don't sound like much. But this is the infrastructure that decides whether you actually use the green space near you (or just drive past it on the way home). And the folks relocating here from out of state? This is exactly the stuff they can't see from a screen.

When someone asks me what living in Foley feels like, I don't start with square footage. I start with where you'll walk the dog, where you'll launch the kayak, where you'll end up on a Saturday when you have nowhere to be.

Trails, water access, a shaded place to enjoy the beauty that lives at the Gulf Coast — that's the lifestyle. The house is just where you keep your stuff and sleep between adventures.

Katie Ragland, Realtor® · Real Broker, LLC

06/27/2026

Happy National Canoe Day. 🛶

There’s a specific kind of quiet you only find on the water down here — and honestly, you don’t need a reason to go chase it. But if you’ve ever thought about getting into canoeing, here’s a good one.

Tomorrow they’re putting on a canoe demo day at communityflysupply — Saturday 6/27, 10–2. Come test paddle the new Esquif canoes with Sawyer paddles and see what they feel like on the water before you ever commit to one.

Why Esquif specifically? Their boats are built from T-Formex — the material that revived the legendary Royalex feel paddlers spent years missing. Stronger than fiberglass, lighter than polyethylene, and the foam core keeps it afloat even if it fills with water. The Adirondack they’ll have out is their #1 seller and a Paddling Magazine Best Canoe winner.

They’ll have some demo day deals on select models, too. Swing by, ask questions, get one wet.

PaddleAlabama

05/19/2026

The American Lung Association just released its 2026 State of the Air Report.

Pensacola: one of the cleanest cities in the country for short-term particle pollution.

Escambia County: one of the cleanest counties.
Florida overall: the most populous state in the nation to meet every federal air quality standard. Five consecutive years.

This is the kind of thing nobody talks about until you're standing on a porch breathing it. Then you can't unfeel it.

Full read on my Substack — follow the link in my bio.

Katie Ragland | Real Broker, LLC

05/17/2026

A few weeks ago I wrote about Foley making the national new-construction list. It didn’t take long before Gulf Shores answered.

256 new residences approved in one week. Riviera annexation on the 27th — 36 acres for 26 single-family lots near County Road 8 and Highway 59. Three more projects the next day at Planning Commission — Bright's Creek (76 lots west of the Sportsplex), a 116-unit townhome project at the hospital, and 40 townhomes on Oyster Bay Lane.

What it actually means: Baldwin's growth wave isn't slowing — it's just spreading. Foley made the news in April. Gulf Shores is making it now. Both ends are seeing the same pressure for the same reasons.

Full breakdown is on my Substack — visit the link in my bio.

Katie Ragland | Real Broker, LLC

05/13/2026

Four Gulf Coast moments worth showing up for this month.

Venture Out at Gulf State Park is the one I'm most excited about — three days of bike rides, nature walks, and a BioBlitz on the iNaturalist app (same energy as the Merlin bird app, if you remember that one). First time the park has ever done this. May 15–17.

Pickles & Wings in Pensacola on the 16th — a reminder for the calendar.

And one quieter one — Explore and Observe the Preserve at Graham Creek in Foley, also on the 16th. Free, every third Saturday, nature-themed story at 9 AM followed by a hands-on activity in the outdoor classroom. The kind of recurring program locals find out about by word of mouth and then realize has been running for years.

S'mores on the Shore on the 21st is the kind of free, low-stakes evening that locals already know is the best version of a weeknight on the coast.

Swipe through, save it, share it with the friend who never picks the something.

Katie Ragland | REAL Broker, LLC

05/13/2026

Most people move to the Alabama Gulf Coast for the Gulf. White sand. Green water. Sunsets you feel in your soul.

And then they get here, and they find out about the rest of it.

The Gulf — still the reason most people come.

Little Lagoon — protected, glassy, the kind of water you put a kid in a kayak on for the first time.

The Bays — Wolf Bay, Perdido Bay, Mobile Bay, Weeks Bay, Bon Secour Bay. Wide open, breezy, built for sunsets.

The Bayous — Cotton Bayou and Bayou St. John, where the dolphins cruise in summer and the herons fish at first light.

The Rivers and Creeks — Magnolia, Perdido, Fish, Bon Secour, Wolf, Sandy, and a dozen more. Tea-colored from cypress tannins, shaded, quiet, the version of the coast that doesn’t show up on a postcard.

That’s five distinct kinds of water. Many within 30 minutes of each other. All from one front door.

You don’t have to pick one. That’s the beauty of living here!

Save this for the person who keeps saying “someday.” Their someday might be wider than they think.

Katie Ragland | Real Broker, LLC
linktr.ee/katieraglandrealtor

05/07/2026

Real estate fraud just hit a record. The FBI's most recent report tracked $275 million stolen from over 12,000 victims in 2025 alone — up from $173M the year before.

The most common target isn't the buyer or the agent. It's the property owner who lives elsewhere. Vacant land. Absentee-owned second homes. Properties that don't get checked on regularly.

Scammers impersonate the real owner. They contact agents claiming to want a quick cash sale. They forge documents. Wire instructions get spoofed. The owner finds out months later — sometimes after the property has technically changed hands.

If you own Gulf Coast property and live somewhere else, save this. Five practical steps to protect yourself in the slides above.

This isn't fearmongering — it's awareness. The market is good. The fraudsters are getting better. Both can be true.

Save this — and send to anyone you know who owns Gulf Coast property, especially if they live somewhere else.

Katie Ragland | Real Broker, LLC

05/06/2026

A $350 million Margaritaville resort is being built across from The Wharf in Orange Beach — and it just got bigger.

The project is called The Wharf Landing. It spans more than 80 acres along the Intracoastal Waterway, directly across from The Wharf retail and entertainment district. Phase one is already under construction — a condo complex and bungalows. The latest filing seeks rezoning for 142 new residential lots with houses ranging from 2 to 5 bedrooms.

When complete by end of 2027:
• ~300 units (condos, resort cottages, waterfront villas)
• 7 restaurants — including Nautical Wheeler and Frankie & Lola's Pizza
• 7-acre amenity deck with lazy rivers, water slides, multiple pools, swim-up bar
• 43-slip marina with the 5 O'Clock Somewhere waterfront bar
• Ferry connecting directly to The Wharf

A second project is also in front of Orange Beach — a Pirate Voyage Dinner Theater on 24 acres along Hwy 161, proposed by the same group behind Dolly Parton's Stampede in Pigeon Forge. Some residents have raised concerns about traffic on Orange Beach Blvd. The city scheduled a town hall for May 6 at the Performing Arts Center to hear questions before the planning commission takes it up. I’m curious to hear how residents feel about this, but I also want to urge people with questions or concerns to show up for these town hall meetings and speak out. That’s how change happens….in either direction.

If you own property nearby, vacation here, or are watching from somewhere else — these are two of the biggest decisions on the Orange Beach calendar right now.

Save this — and read the full breakdown on my blog. Link in my Linktree.

Katie Ragland | Real Broker, LLC
linktr.ee/katieraglandrealtor