At his busy southern cafe in Foley, Alabama, Greg Felix often notices a telltale sign of newcomers flooding into the city: They keep asking what okra is.
“They’ve never even heard of it,” Felix said.
The lack of local knowledge is part of a transformation in Foley, a once-quiet town on Alabama’s Gulf Coast.
Foley, just north of Gulf Shores, is the seventh- in the country. Its population expanded by an extraordinary 12% in 2024, according to the latest estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. The city is now home to 28,000 people and has gained more than 7,000 residents since 2020, many from states outside of the South.
The growth keeps coming.
A new development with 1,300 homes for residents 55 and older is under construction and expected to open next year. The city and county are building new roads and spending millions on infrastructure improvements.
“We just remembered Foley as a place you drove through to get to Gulf Shores,” said Amanda Eckart, a real estate agent from northern Alabama who now sells homes across the coast. “Now, it’s a place that people stop and come to all on its own.”
The stampede is a sign of the changing Gulf Coast. Across the region, as beach destinations that have long drawn h visitors get more crowded and expensive, new .
Newcomers say they are choosing Foley because it is affordable and close to the beach. Many are retirees who enjoy the laid-back culture. Northerners are also moving to avoid the ice and snow.
Real estate agents are selling to buyers from Washington, Iowa, Idaho, Indiana and Texas. Many newcomers earned higher salaries in those states and began arriving in Foley when remote work expanded after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Restaurants in Foley that used to slow down in winter are now busy almost year-round. The city’s roads are so full of cars that some residents who live on major thoroughfares are struggling to exit their driveways each morning. In other neighborhoods, most homes are being bought by newcomers from other states.
‘Just amazing’
City leaders and businesses are scrambling to meet the new demands. OWA Parks & Resort, Foley’s hub of theme park rides, restaurants and shops, opened a massive called Tropic Falls in 2022. The city is building a new library and community center twice the size of the current facility. The Foley City Council briefly paused dense residential development last year to buy time while leaders updated subdivision regulations.
“This growth must be balanced with our ability to protect the character of our community,” Mayor Ralph Hellmich said at the time.
Locals are torn about the growth. Some longtime residents are upset that the small-town feel is disappearing, especially in rural areas where new subdivisions are now encroaching on open land. Others are embracing the growth as a blessing for small businesses and the local economy. Then there are those who are simply astonished.
“It’s just amazing,” said Charles “Skip” Gruber, a county commissioner who represents the area.
Economic fortunes are rising with the surge — the median family income in Foley rose to over $66,000 last year, up from $43,000 in 2020, according to the city. But the shift is also evident across Foley’s culture. On residential streets, flags for Michigan and Ohio State are now mixing with the traditional shows of support for Alabama and Auburn.
At Foley’s historic Hotel Magnolia, where guests often stay while they search for houses, owner Diana Rohe-Pennington keeps hearing new accents.
“You can tell the ones from up north,” she said. The observation apparently goes both ways. “I have a real southern drawl,” she added, “and they kind of get a kick out of it and want to hear me talk.”
Foley’s growth is so significant that some new residents who want properties with more open space are even turning to neighboring Elberta, a small town that just got a new wine bar and coffee shop.
“We’re just not as slow as we used to be,” said Felix, the manager at Lambert’s Cafe in Foley.
“It’s going to be good for all the businesses,” said Rohe-Pennington. “It keeps the money here.”