Wanting to attend UAB. Any recommendations on a good location? (Birmingham: estate, housing)

[RadMd1day]

I have 2 grade school kids. Highly involved in sports (our local rec). I love where I live now, but if I want to go to med school, we gotta move. We need something clean, good area with no or little crime, preferably within 30 miles of UAB. I love our smallish town, we do have more than one redlight! lol so something like that would be great. The biggest thing is the schools. I really really really want a great school system.
What are some good areas for my lil family? Thanks in advance!

[fishmonger]

the best public school systems are in Birmingham's southern suburbs, for the most part. Mountain Brook and Vestavia rank the highest -- Mountain Brook's really expensive to live in (one of the wealthiest towns in the country) with lots of mansions & estates & stuff like that, Vestavia's a little more down to earth, typical American dream suburbia, comprised mostly of strip malls, ranch houses, and upper-middle class white people. Still can be sort of expensive though, I think. Homewood and Mountain Brook are both extremely convenient to UAB; Homewood's an old "streetcar suburb" with it's own bustling mini-downtown and lots of pre-war neighborhoods, high-rated schools, and more of a densely populated, "urban" feel than the rest of Birmingham suburbia, so you might want to move there if you like that kind of thing. Homewood has a pretty diverse (but unfortunately de-facto segregated) population and a greater variety of housing options than Vestavia or MB, but Vestavia may be less expensive to buy a house on average, I don't know... all of these places have nice neighborhoods for the most part and low crime. South of those cities is Hoover, Birmingham's biggest and recently televized suburb, which (like Vestavia) sort of follows the "American Dream suburbia" model, but is a little less affluent and more diverse, still with mostly low crime but schools that don't rank as well as the other 3. I think usually the further away from the inner city you get (in the more affluent suburbs, at least) the cheaper the houses tend to get and the more "small town-ish" it is, although traffic can be a problem pretty much anywhere to the south of the city. There's plenty of other places to the north, west, east, etc. that I don't know as much about, although a lot of those places are nice as well. There's also cool places to live in the Birmingham city limits, but the public schools aren't doing so well, so that could be a problem...

I'm sure other people could give you a lot more information than I can.

[steveklein]

i grew up in hoover and can say that you should definitely look at the neighborhoods specifically as there are parts now (lorna road) that i wouldn't recommend.

however, the vast majority of the city is very, very nice.

and, the school opportunities are second to none. while it is true they don't test as high as mountain brook or vestavia, you must also remember that hoover is much larger than these towns and is more "diverse".

that being said, the OPPPORTUNITIES are second to none in the hoover city school system. the schools are what you make of them. you can take as many AP courses as you can shake a stick at in Hoover. They offer one of the state's only International Baccularate programs, and they routinely send many graduates to very prestigious schools like the Ivy leagues, as well as many more on full scholarship rides to places like Auburn, UAB, and Alabama.

I graduated from Hoover High School in 2003 and feel like I had a great education. I entered college as a sophomore and could have easily completed my degree in 3 years (though am taking 4 as I am really, REALLY enjoying Auburn...). Some of my other classmates from Hoover entered college as JUNIORS with >60 hours of college credit. Absurd opportunities, I am telling you!

Best of luck in your pursuit of an MD; I am currently applying to dental school myself!

[harry chickpea]

Finding a rural area within 30 miles of Bham is possible, Dunavent comes to mind, but travel time would be excessive. Better to look within the metropolitan area, as the others have suggested. The Shades Crest area has some back streets that are very family friendly. Be aware that air quality in the Bham area is not good, and the drivers on I-65 in Bham are as rude and aggressive as any I've seen, including Miami.

The streets around UAB are crowded enough that if you were single, I would seriously suggest your living on Southside and walking.

[steveklein]

the thing about the dunnavant area is that it is QUICKLY being developed.

there is already a stoplight planned at Highway 280 and CR 41 (dunnavant valley road) and highway 280 and CR 43 (just a bit further down).

subdivisions in the dunnavant area include The Narrows, Highland Lakes, Dunnavant Place, Villas Belvedere, Mount Laurel, and many others.

This area will soon be no different than an area like 119 and Valleydale Road... just littered with suburban neighborhoods. I personally enjoy the development, but if you really want to live in a rural area, then I don't think the Dunnavant Valley is the place to buy at... as it is quickly turning into the rest of North Shelby/Hoover/Over The Mtn areas.