Moving from Colorado (Birmingham, Hoover, Homewood: house, neighborhood, elementary school)

[Sunny53]

Cahaba Heights is an established neighborhood. It has trees and older homes. You can buy a new home in the Trussville area for the same price that you would buy an older one in Cahaba Heights. Just depends on what you are looking for. Cahaba Heights is right off Hwy 280, behind the Summit (nice shopping area).

[jamango]

Hi! My daughter will be entering High School next year. I just want a school where she can get a good education and enjoy herself. So, where would we settle if we wanted the mountain between us and the city? I will not be working, but I don't want to choose an area that would end up being a horrible commute for my husband.

[cpg35223]

Well, Cahaba Heights fits those requirements. That would mean Vestavia schools, which are very good. Trussville has pretty good schools, but it's a longer commute. Hoover wouldn't be that bad either.

[jtc1002]

Hello, I know it's hard moving to a new area, especially with children. If you're returning to the South, hopefully the transition will be easy. I think B'ham is a good place to live. Regarding your neighborhood search, I would recommend the Cahaba Heights area. I think it meets all your criteria, but I'm not sure how home prices are right now. This area has become very popular. Trussville is also nice, a bit further out, but not a bad commute at all. Both have good schools, a sense of community, are safe etc. Good luck--and welcome to Birmingham!

[dsheffie]

We too are moving to Birmingham. We are moving from Marietta, GA (East Cobb). We have lived here 20 years. My husband has already started working there. He is commuting on the weekends. We went over to look at all the middle schools. Well, we looked at Mountain Brook, Vestavia Hills, and Hoover, plus a couple of private schools. Our son needs a smaller school so we will go over this week for him to shadow at two private schools. It would be nice for your daughter to be able to visit or shadow a few of the high schools. Time is running out for shadowing.

We have also looked at several homes in Hoover and Vestavia Hills. No way I would live in Mountain Brook with their property taxes.

We live in an area with full basements. Our garage is one step down from the kitchen entrance. All but one home that I looked at with basements were what we call drive unders. You must got up 14 steps to get to the kitchen from the garage. The one exception was to go outside to the back of the house to go into a storage basement.
I even visted a new subdivision with all drive unders.

We would love to find a ranch with a full basement, and no driveunder. I would love to stay in the $300's, but I'm finding that price range hard to find there.

My husband's office is in Homewood. We did pick up fliers on some of the homes there.
$400's for 2-bdr. built in the 1920's. We also drove out to Ross Bridge. Everything is what we call cluster homes. Some prices are good there, but all house and no land. I would like to stay close to my husband's office. For the past 20 years he has had to drive 10 miles to the train with a 20 - 30 minutes to his office downtown Atlanta. We must plan our trips around morning and afternoon rush hour. I would love to not have to do that again. We did get caught in the 4:15 P.M. rush hour on Friday @ 280 near 459.

We are considering living in an apt. until we are familiar with the area, and take more time looking at homes. That has been another thing to concern me. There are many apts. in the Birmingham area, but there are three colleges. We don't have apts. in our area. Does anyone know about which apts. are best? Our son is 13 and I'm concerned about apt. life with a teen.

Homes or apts? Any advice? We plan to be over there this week looking at homes, and shadowing at schools.

I love this forum!!!

[cpg35223]

Originally Posted by dsheffie

We too are moving to Birmingham. We are moving from Marietta, GA (East Cobb). We have lived here 20 years. My husband has already started working there. He is commuting on the weekends. We went over to look at all the middle schools. Well, we looked at Mountain Brook, Vestavia Hills, and Hoover, plus a couple of private schools. Our son needs a smaller school so we will go over this week for him to shadow at two private schools. It would be nice for your daughter to be able to visit or shadow a few of the high schools. Time is running out for shadowing.

We have also looked at several homes in Hoover and Vestavia Hills. No way I would live in Mountain Brook with their property taxes.

We live in an area with full basements. Our garage is one step down from the kitchen entrance. All but one home that I looked at with basements were what we call drive unders. You must got up 14 steps to get to the kitchen from the garage. The one exception was to go outside to the back of the house to go into a storage basement.
I even visted a new subdivision with all drive unders.

We would love to find a ranch with a full basement, and no driveunder. I would love to stay in the $300's, but I'm finding that price range hard to find there.

My husband's office is in Homewood. We did pick up fliers on some of the homes there.
$400's for 2-bdr. built in the 1920's. We also drove out to Ross Bridge. Everything is what we call cluster homes. Some prices are good there, but all house and no land. I would like to stay close to my husband's office. For the past 20 years he has had to drive 10 miles to the train with a 20 - 30 minutes to his office downtown Atlanta. We must plan our trips around morning and afternoon rush hour. I would love to not have to do that again. We did get caught in the 4:15 P.M. rush hour on Friday @ 280 near 459.

We are considering living in an apt. until we are familiar with the area, and take more time looking at homes. That has been another thing to concern me. There are many apts. in the Birmingham area, but there are three colleges. We don't have apts. in our area. Does anyone know about which apts. are best? Our son is 13 and I'm concerned about apt. life with a teen.

Homes or apts? Any advice? We plan to be over there this week looking at homes, and shadowing at schools.

I love this forum!!!

Ross Bridge is great for new couples and empty nesters, but I'm not so sure about school-age children. I'm not sure where the city boundaries lie, but you do not want your children in Birmingham city schools. Hoover schools are good, Birmingham schools are dreadful. If you see a home in that area you like make sure you know in which municipality it is.

However, as far as private schools go, you might want to consider either John Carroll or Altamont. Both are kind of steep, but offer great educations.

Hey, good luck. And if you narrow down your decision to specific areas, please let us know. You might get five opinions, all different, but all are typically well-considered and sincere.

[jamango]

Thank You! everyone for all of your great replies!! I appreciate it so much. We're still waiting for a final offer letter, but it's looking like it's going to be Birmingham for sure.

[san phlegmatico]

it's looking like it's going to be Birmingham for sure.

Hell-o!

You'll know you've reached the city limits when you see the big flaming Welcome to Birmingham arch. You'll drive underneath it. Kind of like the one in St Louis, except you drive under it. And it's ablaze with burning torches. And smaller.

Anyway, this arch is inscribed with words in a foreign language. It reads: Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate. Pay no mind to that part: it's just us weirdo polyglots mixing eccentricity with southern hospitality. We're crazy that way!

We'll be waiting with wine from '69 and pink champagne on ice. We'll all gather for a feast.

God speed.

--SP II

[jamango]

We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

[Bravo35223]

Originally Posted by jamango

Thank You! everyone for all of your great replies!! I appreciate it so much. We're still waiting for a final offer letter, but it's looking like it's going to be Birmingham for sure.

If your son requires a smaller school, then you must go private. This is where the Birmingham area has limited choices because there are so many good public school systems. The large number of good suburban public school systems is also the reason you are finding that real estate prices are higher in Birmingham than Atlanta. This has been observed here repeatedly...and it appears to be conundrum.

Altamonte is a superb private school but is very expensive. You could but a house that is $100,000 more expensive if you took the tuition money you are going to spend at Altamonte and put it into a house payment. Indian Springs is another superb private school. You might want to look into the Alabama School of Fine Arts downtown. John Carroll is a fine Catholic school that takes students of all faiths. But my impression is that their class size would likely be as big as Mountain Brook, Homewood or Vestavia for that matter...

I really don't know what to tell you...maybe go the apartment route for a year...on the other hand, real estate prices are depressed now and it is clearly a buyers market. A great time to buy.

Have you tried looking at Homewood schools?