[suzzi4579]

hello every one, my family is moving to athens alabama from upstate ny. i been reading alot of posts and have much good written, having a hard time though finding info on taxes, electric costs, heating costs, things in that nature. from what i see athens alabama would be a happy middle point, not the freezing 10 ft of snow im used to and not the above 100 degrees most the summer of florida, any info would be nice. thank you and will meet you all soon.

[skinem]

Athens used to be a very quiet, quintessential Southern town...pretty, active downtown square with a courthouse, lots of beautiful antebellum homes. It's experienced a lot of growth in the last 30 years due to it's neighbors to the east, Madison and Huntsville. Athens is becoming more and more a bedroom community of those two towns.

I don't have exact figures on taxes and electricity rates, but I lived for a short time in upstate NY. (I currently live in a neighboring county to Limestone county--Athens is the county seat. I have a lot of relatives in Athens and have had a lifetime of going to and living around Athens.) You will find taxes to be amazingly low comparatively speaking. Power rates are also lower.

I'd say Athens weather is in-between upstate NY and Florida's, but skewed toward the Florida side. The summers are hot and humid. Mild winters.

It's a very friendly town that is becoming more and more open as time goes due to more and more folks from elsewhere moving in. I don't mean that negatively, it's just, as with most small towns, Athens has been, well, kind of insular.

If you like smaller towns, you'll like Athens.

[Jerrybarj]

Welcome, of all the areas in Alabama, the north is the best. I moved to Huntsville (next to Athens) from Long Island when I was 12. Housing prices are great, heating and cooling costs are about $200/month average, house taxes are amazing. We have a 2200 sq. ft. house on a 70x100 ft lot and our taxes are $560 this year. You can buy an excellent house for $160,000 - 250,000. As said above, Athens is a small town, but Huntsville is just 20 min away with an Art Museum, Space and Rocket Museum, Space Camp, Botanical Gardens, and numerous festivals. Alabama can frustrate when it comes to politics - very conservative, almost knee-jerk so. Upstate NY is beautiful (I used to live in Montreal), but you will find North Alabama also quite beautiful with lots of untouched wild areas.

[Threestep]

The City of Athens Alabama
AL - Alabama DMV Locations

Between tax assessor, utilities and DMV/Tag Office most of your questions should be answered.

[harry chickpea]

One major point - if you like zoning and don't mind intrusive zoning laws - live in the city limits. If you don't like them, live far enough out in the county that you won't be annexed by Athens or Madison.

[suzzi4579]

thank you all very much

[dlt55]

There is a pretty informative web site that has a lot of information on Athens Alabama. AthensPlus.com has local news, letters from the Mayor, local events and photo galleries as well as a links to local sites. And there is a site, tourathenshomes.com for homes for sale that also has some local links and homes for sale by owner and real estate agents in Athens.