Cheapest area to live (Birmingham, Hoover: sales, renting, assessor)

[joe.grent]

Moving down in a couple of months for work but company does not have as office there. I will working from home and mainly on the road traveling to customers sites (mainly in Birmingham, but all around AL). So location of new home I will be buying is completely open. What would be the cheapest area to live (property tax, use tax, etc) because of this stupid sales tax spread of 4%-10%. No kids so schools are not important.

I have looked on realtor site and tax assessor sites for the county for property tax rates and created an excel sheet with all the sales rates for all of AL including distances and drive time from them to with Birmingham as the origin.

[Tourian]

There's plenty of cheap neighborhoods all over the city. I'm guessing you have a few more criteria and expectations other than that.

I would assume you don't want to live in the worst areas with high crime so I would check out Huffman and Roebuck on the east side. And then look at Norwood and Avondale closer to downtown.

[joe.grent]

Thanks. Home needs a garage and yes not in bad part of town. As for home price I am flexible but would like to keep it below $300k as when you jump higher might as well go to the $400-500k because you get a huge jump in value.

[Tourian]

That info would have been helpful up front.

300k gives you plenty of options practically everywhere all over the city.

[brownbagg]

300k in alabama is a 6000sq ft house on ten acres with a lake

[Tourian]

Originally Posted by brownbagg

300k in alabama is a 6000sq ft house on ten acres with a lake

No it isn't.

But it will get him a 3/2 most anywhere except MB, Hollywood, Greystone, etc.

[joe.grent]

Looked at MB and Vestavia but the property taxes are just too high and the overall value of the homes is high. I have no problem going outside the city as you get more value of your money. Since I have no office to drive to travel time is really not to concerning but max driving time I am willing to do is 1 hour in traffic. I currently drive about 30-40 minutes to work in traffic (15 miles)

[Tourian]

30 min commute will get you to most of Hoover, Pelham, Alabaster, and some of Helena or Trussville.

300k will get you a newish house with an attached garage in any of those places.

If you want more land and not the typical subdivision house with tough traffic. Look to Gardendale or Pinson.

[Blazin65]

PROPERTY TAXES:

I must be missing something because according to my information the property taxes in Vestavia Hills is .645 and in Alabaster is .509. Is this really enough for someone to choose Alabaster over Vestavia. This is a very small difference. Is the value and cost of the home more, yes, but the property tax percentage in itself is very small.

I'm posting this because people are always pointing this out but I don't see it. Where am I going wrong?

[harry chickpea]

In making that type of investment, I would consider renting a home in the area for six months to be able to properly suss out the possibilities before committing. Jumping in with both feet is like getting married based on pictures of your future spouse in a book. Even a temporary stay at a residential motel would allow some discovery.