[ByeByeMI]

We want out of MI. Both of us are in school and would like to move ASAP after graduation. We are tired of the high taxes, poor job market and overall condition of MI. How does Alabama compare? What are good areas for families?

[Keeper]

It all depends on what type of job you are looking for when you graduate. Basically there are 3 areas of AL, north largest city is Huntsville, where there are engineering jobs, technical and other positions that support the militiary or NASA. There are also automobile plants in several areas of AL. Middle area is home to the largest city Birmingham, others can tell you more about jobs besides automobile plant that is nearby. South is Mobile where they have just annouced a steel plant. South is close to the Gulf of Mexico and you have access to Mobile Bay and to the Gulf of Mexico.
You can check out https://joblink.alabama.gov/ada/ to see what types of jobs are available.
Each area is different south warmer and flat, middle and north more mountains and 4 seasons. People are for the most part friendly.

There is a state income tax but property taxes are low. Pay is lower in most instances than up north. If you check this board you will find lots of people who just moved here from MI.

[Bravo35223]

The Birmingham area has the 6th lowest unemployment rate of 49 US metro areas of at least 1 mllion or more - according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This was published last week.

Birmingham is a hilly community that is very attractive and is dominated by the following employers:

1) University of Alabama at Birmingham - is a comprehensive university and ranked among the top 15 in medical research grant funding in the U.S.

2) AT&T has 7000 employees in the Birmingham area. This is the Technical HQ for AT & T Southeast.

3) There are two major regional banks located in Birmingham.

4) Honda employs 4000 people at a plant 35 miles east and Mercedes employs 4000 at a plant 35 miles west.

5) Large engineering and construction firms are headquarted in Birmingham which build large projects across the globe.

5) Birmingham's suburbs have some of the finest public schools in the Southeast. If you plan on having children, some of these school systems can prepare your children for admission to Ivy League universities. I have neighbors whose children have been accepted to Princeton, Dartmouth, Stanford. A high school classmate of mine attended Harvard.

6) Alabama has the lowest rate of taxation in the United States.

Please tell us a little more about your backgrounds, education and what type of employment you are seeking.

[ByeByeMI]

Healthcare and Insurance are our fields. We have one child, grade school. I have been researching the Mobile area. So far I am liking what I am seeing. We would rent, would prefer a townhome type of place. 3 bedrooms.

[Bravo35223]

Originally Posted by ByeByeMI

Healthcare and Insurance are our fields. We have one child, grade school. I have been researching the Mobile area. So far I am liking what I am seeing. We would rent, would prefer a townhome type of place. 3 bedrooms.

Mobile has terrible public schools. I have known at least 30 people who grew up there and each had to pay $9000 a year to educate their children in private schools.

If healthcare and insurance are your fields, I would strongly recommend Birmingham over Mobile. Healthcare is Birmingham's leading employer and there is the Protective Life Insurance company HQ here....

Protective / Protective Life Corporation

UAB Heath System... UAB Health System Home

If you want to PM me, I can provide more specific information.

Mobile is a major seaport and its economy is not as diversified as Birmingham's.

[Bravo35223]

I'd highly recommend Vestavia Hills, Alabama. You can find a townhouse in that community to rent and you child will attend the 2nd best public school system in the state....provide them with a genuine college prep education for free.....located in the suburbs of Birmingham.

[AQUEMINI331]

My advice, as someone who lived in Alabama for over 20 years but now lives in Chicago and is dating a girl from Detroit (so I'm somewhat familar with Michigan) -



Birmingham (where I was born and raised) would be a better pick than Mobile. The economy is stronger, more diversified, and much more white collar. Mobile is in many ways still a blue collar town. A huge source of jobs, a steel mill run by ThyssenKrupp, has just been approved for Mobile County. Birmingham and the Jefferson County area has historically been a blue collar steel mill town, and as a matter of fact is famously known as the "Pittsburgh of the South". Like Pittsburgh, Birmingham no longer relies on steel mills and cast iron pipe companies though they still exist in the city. UAB and the healthcare industry is the single largest economy for the area, though other industries also exist, such as telecommunications and biotechnology. Birmingham's job market is considerably better than Mobile though if you like the Mobile area beaches then you can always take a day trip down to the Alabama Gulf Coast from Birmingham (~ 4 hour drive).


The down side to living in Birmingham is the high crime rate, pollution rate, and the highest tax rates in Alabama (though it probably isn't anything compared to Michigan). As for crime, it IS a serious problem though for some reason many in Birmingham don't like to admit. The stats themselves don't lie - there are only three cities in the entire U.S. that have higher homicide rates than Birmingham and two of them are in Michigan - Detroit and Flint (with the other being Gary, IN coming in at #1). So you'd have to be careful what part of town you choose to relocate to in Birmingham or you could find yourself in another Detroit.


With that being said, Birmingham overall is not a bad city and I do believe that you overall quality of life would be significantly better than what you are currently experiencing in Michigan. At least you'd have a better time finding jobs.


Huntsville is also another Alabama city you may want to consider. They have a pretty strong economy as well, not to mention a beautiful natural landscape and crime is virtually non-existent compared to Birmingham, though I hear it is rising. This is probably only because the city is growing so fast - it's expecting 10,000 new residents in the next 4-5 years because of the U.S. military's plan to relocate thousands of new jobs to the Huntsville area.


Both Birmingham and Huntsville are also home to good schools (universities) - Birmingham is home to UAB (Univ. of Alabama at Birmingham), Samford University, Birmingham-Southern College, Miles College, and the University of Montevallo is in the Shelby County suburbs. Huntsville is home to three main colleges and universities - University of Alabama at Huntsville (UAH), Alabama A&M University, and Oakwood College. The state's flagship schools (University of Alabama and Auburn University) are located in Tuscaloosa and Auburn respectively, however.


Quite frankly, Mobile does not offer nearly as many options for schools - they have the University of South Alabama and a couple of other schools but honestly you'd be better off in either Birmingham or Huntsville, they are the state's fastest growing and most progressive cities.

[Bravo35223]

I agree with what AQ said except the point about the crime.

YES the crime downtown is bad. Agreed.

The answer is simple: don't live downtown. And "Birminghamians" don't for that very reason.

The facts:

1) The metro Birmingham area has a population of 1.1 million.

2) The City of Birmingham has a population of 240,000.

Therefore roughly 80% of the people who say they are "from Birmingham" (like me), don't live in Birmingham.

This is the identical situation in Atlanta. Metro population of over 4 million. Actual residents of Atlanta, Georgia: approximately 400k....and much of downtown Atlanta has very violent crime.

In the United States, in almost all major inner city areas - crime is high. Birmingham is no exception.

I live in the suburbs less than 5 miles from downtown and don't lock my doors at night. This is commonplace in the suburbs where 80% of the Birmingham metro population lives: EXTREMELY LOW CRIME.

This is why I recommended Vestavia Hills for you. Violent crime almost non-existent, superb public schools that are college prep quality, and you can rent for the price you indicated. And, BTW, very close to Downtown, should you want to go there for the museum, symphony, science museum, bars/restaurants/clubs.

[ladyjuliek]

Being from the Metro-Detroit area, and having lived in the Mobile-area (45 mins away from Mobile), I think you will not appreciate the job market either. Unless you are in construction/repair, or the health care industry. Expect the market to pay a lot less than you're used to.

For instance, compensation negotiation is... "the job pays $12.00 an hour. Period." There is no negotiation. If you want the money, you can have it, if you want more, they'll hold out for someone more desperate. Also, they don't like to give negotiation for vacation days either. (And holidays may be completely off if you work hospitality in the are of tourism, expect to work most holidays.) One company I worked for changed their name, put out a new policy handbook that stated 5 vacation days only (plus 1 day per year). When I asked how they did this without renegotiating a contract with me... they said, "ok. Do you want to work here?" So down to 5 days I went.

Not very much job competition, which is how I think they can get away with things like messing with your paycheck, asking you to work Saturday, and then citing their "no overtime policy" etc.

Best advice I can give you, if you're looking for the nice, but humid weather, and planning on the Mobile area (which is close to beaches, if you like that sort of thing), is to stick to the Daphne-Mobile area. More jobs are that way, and when they tell you the administrative position only pays $9, at least you won't have a far commute.

[Bravo35223]

Good post ladyjuliek....I agree and you provided good advice.