Some people sell houses. Mary Courtney Cane sells places she has known her whole life. The Point Clear real estate broker, a co-founder of Courtney & Morris Real Estate, grew up spending summers on the Eastern Shore, learned the business from one of Fairhope’s legendary agents and helped build a small family brokerage into a firm with offices on both sides of Mobile Bay. Friends describe her as one of the most positive, energetic and outgoing people they know, and those who have worked with her say her knowledge of local homes and neighborhoods is hard to match.
In a conversation in September 2022, Cane reflected on her roots, her career and her hopes for how the coastal region manages the growth that has reshaped it.
Summers “Over the Bay” in Point Clear
Both sides of Cane’s family, the Courtneys and the Vickers, have had homes in Point Clear for generations. The Vickers family has been there since the 1890s, and the Courtneys since the 1940s.
Cane grew up in Mobile but spent her summers at the Courtney family’s bay house. Like many Mobile families of that era, they moved “over the bay” as soon as school let out in early June and stayed until after Labor Day.
“I just took my school uniform off Memorial Day, hung it up in the closet, and then put it back on when school started back again in September,” she recalled.
That tradition has deep roots. Since the 1800s, Mobile families have escaped the city’s summer heat by crossing the bay to the Eastern Shore, where breezes off the water and long wooden piers made places like Point Clear, Battles Wharf and Fairhope natural summer retreats. Bay boats once carried passengers across the water before modern highways and the causeway made the trip by car routine. Point Clear itself is anchored by the Grand Hotel, a resort whose history on the point stretches back to the 1840s and which has hosted generations of visitors. For children who grew up spending summers there, the Eastern Shore became a second home.
Learning the Trade From Dot Yeager
After college, Cane and three friends rented a place along the boardwalk down from the Grand Hotel, and she lived in the area for about 10 years. “I always knew I was coming back to Point Clear,” she says.
She earned her real estate license and joined Yeager and Masterson, a Fairhope firm, where she learned the business from Dot Yeager.
“There was nothing like working with Dot Yeager. She taught me so much about how to sell real estate,” Cane said. “Dot didn’t use technology, didn’t even own a watch, but told us that coming to the office and listening to other agents was the best way to learn what’s going on.”
It is advice that still holds up. Even in an era of online listings and digital marketing, real estate remains a relationship business, and the agents who know which homes are about to come on the market, which neighborhoods are changing and what buyers are asking for often learn it through conversation.
Building Courtney & Morris
Around that time, Dauphin Realty launched and soon acquired Yeager and Masterson’s brokerage, and Cane stayed on with the new firm for a while. When her daughter, Katherine, started kindergarten, Cane and her brother, Joe Courtney, a real estate appraiser, decided to revive their dormant brokerage business serving Mobile and the Eastern Shore.
“We were happy to be small, but we kept being approached by agents that wanted to join the firm,” she said.
The firm grew anyway. As of 2022, Courtney & Morris Real Estate had two offices in Mobile and two on the Eastern Shore, including locations in Daphne and Point Clear. The firm’s yard signs had become a familiar sight on both sides of the bay.
For Cane, the career was a natural fit. “I love it! Growing up here, I knew all the people and all the houses,” she said.
A Market Transformed by Families and Remote Work
Cane said she had watched the market change significantly over the preceding decade. “People realized it’s a great place to raise a family and work remotely,” she said. “You can walk, ride a bike or take a golf cart pretty much anywhere you want to go. We get a lot of walk-ins. People that are visiting the area and checking things out.”
That observation matches what much of Baldwin County experienced. The county has been one of the fastest-growing in Alabama for years, drawing retirees, young families and, especially after 2020, remote workers who could live anywhere and chose the Gulf Coast. Walkable downtowns like Fairhope’s, good schools, access to the water and a slower pace of life all helped fuel demand.
In 2022, Cane said all parts of the regional market were doing well, from Gulf Shores and Orange Beach to Mobile and everywhere in between. “Fairhope and Point Clear never really slow down,” she said. “So many young families are trying to take advantage of all this area has to offer.”
At the time, she estimated the area had about two years to catch up with demand given limited inventory. “Real estate runs in cycles, and interest rates do have some effect, but everyone finds a way,” she said. Her comments came during a period when inventory was tight across much of the country and mortgage rates were beginning to climb from historic lows, a combination that shaped markets nationwide.
Managing Growth on Both Sides of the Bay
Cane gave local leaders high marks for how they were handling rapid growth while supporting business. “Everyone is aware of the pressure being placed on the infrastructure and is working on the problems, things like schools, churches, healthcare, traffic, utilities, and shopping,” she said. “The mayors’ doors are always open.”
She also recalled participating in a Leadership Mobile program about 25 years earlier. One session focused on redeveloping downtown Mobile. The presenter’s message was that people needed to move back downtown, and that restaurants, bars, grocery stores, apartments on the Mobile River, and warehouses converted into lofts, retail and offices would be needed to draw them.
“It’s happened!” Cane said. “Mobile’s leadership is as good as it’s ever been, and downtown Mobile is on the move.” She described the market as good throughout Mobile.
Leadership programs like Leadership Mobile bring together emerging leaders from business, government and nonprofits to study the challenges facing their community. Downtown Mobile’s revival over the past few decades, with residential lofts, restaurants and entertainment along Dauphin Street and the surrounding historic district, is the kind of long-term transformation such programs aim to encourage.
Hopes for Thoughtful Planning
Looking ahead, Cane said she wanted planning and zoning commissions to be good stewards of the land and to practice thoughtful planning. She pointed to ideas such as village development concepts as the kinds of amenities people want. Her view reflects a debate that has played out in city council and planning commission meetings across Baldwin County, where residents regularly weigh new subdivisions against concerns about traffic, drainage and the character of their communities.
“See what perks people want, like village development concepts,” she said. “With growth so strong, it’s a lot for everyone to take in. Our coastal area is like no other. We need to manage it well, and I think we will.”
Village-style development, which clusters homes within walking distance of shops, parks and services, has become a popular planning approach in fast-growing coastal communities. It reflects many of the same qualities that made older places like Fairhope and Point Clear attractive in the first place: walkability, a sense of community and room for residents to get around by foot, bicycle or golf cart.
What Newcomers Should Know Before Buying
For buyers new to the Gulf Coast, a few local realities are worth understanding before making an offer:
- Flood zones matter. Many properties near the bay, rivers and creeks sit in FEMA-designated flood zones, which can affect whether flood insurance is required by a lender and how much it costs. Checking a property’s flood zone early is essential.
- Wind and hurricane coverage. Homeowners insurance on the coast often carries separate wind or hurricane deductibles. Homes built or re-roofed to the FORTIFIED construction standard may qualify for insurance discounts under Alabama law.
- Property taxes are relatively low. Alabama’s property taxes are among the lowest in the nation, and owner-occupants should file for a homestead exemption with the county.
- Local knowledge helps. Neighborhoods on the Eastern Shore can differ widely in character, school zones and flood risk, even within a short drive, which is why agents with deep local roots are valued.
For newcomers weighing a move to the Eastern Shore or Mobile, Cane’s story offers a useful reminder. The region’s appeal is not only its waterfront and weather, but also its long memory. Families have been crossing the bay for summers in Point Clear for well over a century, and people like Cane, who know the history of the houses and the people in them, are part of what keeps that character intact as the area grows.