Housing in Birmingham, AL (Hoover, Bessemer: crime, how much, new home)

[alexanderwangsun]

Dear All,

My family are going to move from Bismarck, ND to Birmingham, AL, and looking for suggestions of housing. We have a 2-year old son, and plan to have another child couple of years later. Here are some of our considerations about housing (ranked):

(1) Safety is our biggest concern.
(2) Education Systems (elementary/middle/high schools)
(3) Traffic (Both my husband and I work near intersection of 280 and 459)

We do not care:

(1) The commuting distance.
(2) Within the city or out of city
(3) Access to public facilities and utilities

Our budget is any price less than $300,000. We prefer newer houses (built in past 3 years).

I appreciate your suggestions.

Sunny

[cpg35223]

I think the Cahaba Heights area would be a good place to be, even though it's almost all existing homes. That would be Vestavia schools.

However, down Altadena Road is also a great area for you to be. I think there are several new home communities, and it's a relatively short commute to where you work. This area is Hoover Schools.

While you mention that commuting is not a problem, those two areas are within close commuting distance to where you work and are both very safe.

What to avoid is anyplace past Greystone on 280, which includes Chelsea. The traffic terrible in that area even if you have a shorter commute than most people. Good luck, Sunny.

[Back Again]

As far as schools, here are some good links to check out when looking into schools
ALSDE - Education Directory/Reports
SchoolMatters - Home
GreatSchools.net

I hope this helps

[Bravo35223]

Sunny:

First, I would say that even though Birmingham is not Houston or Kansas City....you are moving very much into an urban area and you need to be prepared for urban (suburban) life with lots of freeways and to some extent depending on where you choose to live - traffic issues.

The Vestavia City Schools are superb. Not to be mean but they would probably blow anything you have in North Dakota out of the water.

$300K is going to be entry level in Vestavia (Cahaba Heights). But Cahaba Heights is superbly convenient and your concerns about crime would be very well satisfied. I live less than a mile from there and trade there all the time. If you want new(er) - you'd need to buy a town home there but you probably want some yard for the kids. If you want a yard, I would suggest buying an older home in Cahaba Heights and fixing it up....you would get your renovation investment back in spades in a big, big way. And I think you would like the quaintness of the area...it used to be "out in the country" and has been long since swallowed up by the sprawl. But it still has its little country lanes with 30 mph speed limits....it still maintains that 'village' feel. It is indeed a village - close to your jobs and close to downtown and close to superb shopping and in the Vestavia School System.

I find that one of the keys to living in a mid to large metro (and maintaining sanity) is to live downtown (if possible) or to live in a Close In Suburb. This keeps the windshield time to a minimum.

I live in Mountain Brook and work in Homewood. At the height of rush hour, I can get my 11 yo to school in 9 minutes and work in 11. Less in mid-day. To me, I asked myself, "By the time I died, how much time would I spend sitting in a car commuting to work?". And when you calculate it...it's frightening....so my motto is...."live in close and get a place that is safe and has good schools...." But when you do that, the communities are so old, that in any metro of decent size, you are not going to find many new(er) homes.....the cities long since grew way way outside of that....

I am going to give you the same advice we give everyone....GET ON THE GROUND and get a good realtor and spend two days looking around...

Frankly, the vast majority of people fall in love with Birmingham once they come here. I can see ten miles from the front porch of my house....

[cpg35223]

Bravo...where in MB do you live? Does your son go to BWF?

[frankcarl]

i think what most of the members have told you is very true Moderator cut: comment

[alexanderwangsun]

cpg 35223 & Bravo 35223,

Really appreciate your replies. The information is very useful for our housing hunting. I went to couple of Realty websites, and it seems that houses in Mountain Brook and Vestavia are very expensive. They are out of our budget. We do want to a sigle family house instead of a town home. So I am thinking either Hoover or Oak Mountain. My questions are:

(1) How do think the area close to the intersection of I-459 and 150 (Shades Crest Rd, Lake Cyrus, Trace Crossings, etc.)? It seems that homes there are relatively new and a lot of new homes built and being built.
(2) The area of intersection of 17 (Valleydale) and I-65 (Indian Valley, Indian Sprins, etc)?
(3) Houses in Oak Mountain are relatively cheap, how do you think this area?

I guess these areas are our focus so far. Would you give some suggestions based on safety/school system(elementary is our concern at this point)? Thanks for your help.

Sunny

[cpg35223]

Originally Posted by alexanderwangsun

cpg 35223 & Bravo 35223,

Really appreciate your replies. The information is very useful for our housing hunting. I went to couple of Realty websites, and it seems that houses in Mountain Brook and Vestavia are very expensive. They are out of our budget. We do want to a sigle family house instead of a town home. So I am thinking either Hoover or Oak Mountain. My questions are:

(1) How do think the area close to the intersection of I-459 and 150 (Shades Crest Rd, Lake Cyrus, Trace Crossings, etc.)? It seems that homes there are relatively new and a lot of new homes built and being built.
(2) The area of intersection of 17 (Valleydale) and I-65 (Indian Valley, Indian Sprins, etc)?
(3) Houses in Oak Mountain are relatively cheap, how do you think this area?

I guess these areas are our focus so far. Would you give some suggestions based on safety/school system(elementary is our concern at this point)? Thanks for your help.

Sunny

You're getting out of my immediate experience, so I'll defer to somebody more knowledgeable. However, I really think you should give the Cahaba Heights area a look. Some very affordable homes in that area.

That being said, all the areas you mentioned are perfectly safe and virtually crime-free. Really, the only parts of the area that have a crime problem are Bessemer and the sections of Birmingham city that have gang activity. Most of the crime there is drug related.

The I-459/150 area is a pretty great place to be, and would be a straight shot down the interstate to your workplace in the 280/459 area.

However, all that being said, I took the liberty of doing a search on the Cahaba Heights/Altadena areas previously recommended and found 22 different properties that fit your price range, some of them new construction. Here's the link to my search:

Listing Search Results


Hope this helps. Good luck!

[Back Again]

The most important item in deciding where to live in the Greater Birmingham area would be where will you be working and how much of a commute would you be willing to do every day?

I used to work downtown Birmingham and lived in Hoover (South) as well as in the Bessemer/McCalla (South West) area. Although Hoover is closer to downtown, the traffic on I-65 was unbearable, to say the least. Most times it was a 45 minute commute. When I moved to the Bessemer/McCalla area, which is farther then Hoover, but driving on I - 20/59, even during rush hour only took me 20 minutes to get downtown.

Now if I would have done research on this sight about the Bessemer area, I would have never moved here as some people on this site show Bessemer as a less that desirable area to live. I LOVE IT HERE!!! I'm not saying the people were wrong or right, but they are talking about downtown Bessemer which is 100% different then the area that I live in. There are good and bad areas to everyplace. The best you can do is either talk with someone who REALLY knows the area or, if you can, come visit as see for yourself. If possible, prior to your visit, hook up with a Realtor of your choice, so thay can show you all the areas that meet your criteria.

[cpg35223]

Originally Posted by Back Again

The most important item in deciding where to live in the Greater Birmingham area would be where will you be working and how much of a commute would you be willing to do every day?

I used to work downtown Birmingham and lived in Hoover (South) as well as in the Bessemer/McCalla (South West) area. Although Hoover is closer to downtown, the traffic on I-65 was unbearable, to say the least. Most times it was a 45 minute commute. When I moved to the Bessemer/McCalla area, which is farther then Hoover, but driving on I - 20/59, even during rush hour only took me 20 minutes to get downtown.

Now if I would have done research on this sight about the Bessemer area, I would have never moved here as the people on this site show Bessemer as a less that desirable area to live. I LOVE IT HERE!!! I'm not saying the people were wrong or right, but they are talking about downtown Bessemer which is 100% different then the area that I live in. There are good and bad areas to everyplace. The best you can do is either talk with someone who REALLY knows the area or, if you can, come visit as see for yourself. If possible, prior to your visit, hook up with a Realtor of your choice, so thay can show you all the areas that meet your criteria.

What you say is good. But since they both will work at the intersection of 459/280, you must agree that living closer is much better than schlepping it 15 miles up 459 every day.