Relocating to Birmingham or surrounding areas (Hoover, Homewood: houses, neighborhoods, school district)

[gabballmom]

My family and I are relocating to Birmingham or surrounding areas. My husband has a new job @ St Vincent's Hospital (I think that's the name). I have two children 16 year old girl and a 9 year old boy. We now live in powder springs, ga (suburb of ga) I want to get some information about best places to live, schools, youth sports, etc. We are African-American (I don't know why I threw that in ) and want to live in a nice neighborhood, Good school district. My daughter plays basketball (school and competitve summer league) My son plays Youth football and basketball. I really just want to live in a nice area with all the comforts, family oriented etc. My husband does not mind commuting to get to work. From all the posts and replies I heard homewood, trussville are good places to start. What about nieghborhoods in birmingham, how are the birmingham schools. Thanks in advance for all replies

[Twostep]

If your husband does not mind the commute Greystone, Highland Lakes, Calera may be good options. You have to be a bit more specific - what range are you looking at for a house, ...

[fishmonger]

upper-middle class, lots of black people, pretty wide range of housing options but most of the houses are pretty expensive for their size, due to the close proximity to downtown. I think the houses in west Homewood are a lot cheaper but it's still a nice neighborhood over there, so you might want to look into that. Homewood's weird because parts of it feel more like a neighborhood of Birmingham than a suburb...

Hoover's a bigger suburb, further from downtown (longer commute), sprawl-ier and the houses are cheaper, pretty diverse population there too, might be an option...

There's even a few good schools in the Birmingham city limits in nice neighborhoods that would be ridiculously convenient to St. Vincent's (there's a really highly-ranked, mostly black high school in that area, I forgot the name though), but most of the schools in Birmingham aren't very good so you'd have to make sure you knew what you were getting into.

As for other places, I don't know...

[Twostep]

The rumor about Birmingham's school system is rather persistent.

You find some useful information in the archives.
http://www.al.com/birmingham/