need help...moving to birmingham (Hoover, Homewood: condos, townhomes, neighborhoods)

[wilmingtonmom]

We are moving to birmingham! We need help with neighborhood advice. Here's the low down: two kids under 4, so good pre-school/school districts, hubby will be traveling all over birmingham. Looking to spend 350-450 k on a house.

[carpe777]

Birmingham ex-pat here, now living in Kansas City. The better school systems are Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Homewood , and Hoover ( all of these are suburbs of Bham). Most of the schools in Shelby County ( Pelham, Oak Mountain, Chelsea, Alabaster and also part of Hoover ), Trussville area (part of Jefferson County system unless they now have their own), are good systems.

The school system in Birmingham proper depends on the school, and other areas of the metro (what I've described above is the "over the mountain" area south of Birmingham ) including the Northern (Gardendale) and western suburbs (mostly part of Jefferson County system) are pretty good too. Birmingham has very good schools overall.

With your housing budget and I'm guessing younger professional demographic you will find that in the more affluent areas of Bham ( Red Mountain area of Birmingham proper , Mountain Brook, Vestavia Hills, Hoover, Homewood, Shelby County, and Trussville areas that you will probably get a good bit more for your money than the same dollars would get in Wilmington. Not every area but most. I know this because I researched Wilmington and South PA area a few years ago for a possible job in the area.

Considering your husband will be traveling all over the Bham area, for convenience, I would say that the Vestavia Hills/ Hoover area near I-459 and I-65 might be places to look first. The population density of Bham is weighted to the south so traffic on I-65 and Hwy 280 can be "bad" ; its all relative though --- I'm sure you've driven in DC and Philly traffic so its not bad by those standards. For the OVERALL Birmingham metro you cannot get more convenient than Homewood (excellent schools, nice quaint neighborhoods though I'd say less of a housing mix than Hoover or Shelby County, proximity to most of the major thoroughfaires in the metro.

Trussville is a very up and coming area but the location is not the most convenient unless one is traveling toward Atlanta or Chattanooga a good bit. Parts of the Trussville/Irondale/Moody area (eastern area) are at least 30 minutes closer to Atlanta than say western section of Hoover, if that is a consideration. All of the above areas I've mentioned have many many young families with small children.

You will have plenty of housing choices....I'm guessing you're going to have too many areas where you'd like to live, but that's a good thing I guess.

Ok, I've probably didn't touch on all your questions but hope this helps. I was a graduate of Hoover High School (which incidentally has produced a Miss America and an American Idol winner both in the last 15 years ), grew up in Bluff Park section of Hoover, and hope to get back to the area at some point. Feel free to send direct message if needed.
Welcome to Birmingham...... you'll love it.

Carpe

[wilmingtonmom]

thank you for the information. so, we should stay out of birmingham proper schools? do you know of any specific neighorhoods that we should look at and which we should avoid?

[cpg35223]

At that price point, you really want to be in Mountain Brook. Don't get me wrong. Carpe makes some excellent points about Hoover, but Mountain Brook is more centrally located, has the state's best school system by far (And one of the country's top 20 public school systems according to some recent study), and generally offers a great deal of convenience. Right now in the current housing market crunch, there are plenty of great deals to be had. So MB would be my first choice, followed by Vestavia and Hoover. Homewood is good, too, but the cost per SF is actually the highest in town.

And Birmingham city schools are terrible.

[cpg35223]

In fact, I did a search for you:


Listing Search Results

[carpe777]

I cannot dispute any comments that CPG made. I had a feeling that Homewood was most expensive per sq ft. Mind you when we have spoken of Homewood, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook..... these are suburbs, not neighborhoods. I was probably showing a little subconscious bias in my comments and definitely would agree that Mountain Brook and Vestavia Hills have truly outstanding schools...... Hoover and Homewood are very good also.

Birmingham proper is actually pretty small in land area compared to most cities with metro areas close to its size. I think CPG can probably comment more accurately but I can only think of a couple of neighborhoods within Birmingham proper that would have homes in that price range: the Forest Park area of Red Mountain that abuts Mountain Brook and Homewood on southside of Bham, and maybe some homes in the Highland Avenue area of Southside , a neighborhood in Birmingham proper close to Forest Park. There are nice condos/townhomes in those areas if you would be interested, and also more condos downtown.

Places to stay away from.......hmmmmm. I would say that there are some areas of Birmingham proper where you will find nice homes, but also not so nice homes on the same street....... nothing wrong with that except your home value suffers if you are at the very high end or low end of the price range. There are some very good private schools in the area and many families that live in Birmingham proper will send their schools there. And again, I do not mean to say that every Birmingham school is sub-standard; that is certainly not the case.

Only other comment I would make is if you chose to live in Gardendale area north of Birmingham make sure you know where the proposed Northern Beltline is going to be under construction.... it could end up close to your backyard. There are several areas north of Gardendale where you would also find homes in your price range.... there are some good school systems in those areas also, and IMHO the area is one of the prettiest areas around Birmingham. And that is saying something. Cons would be that you'd be far from major shopping and other metro amenities, and probably not best for someone traveling extensively within Bham metro.

Like I said before, you won't have a problem finding a nice area to live in which meets all of your criteria. Good luck.

Carpe

[Back Again]

Here's the deal, everyone is going to tell you there town is the best place to live.

The best thing to do is to do your own checking

Here are some good links:

Great Schools - Public and Private School Ratings, Reviews and Parent Community - A good school link

Greater Birmingham Convention & Visitors Bureau - Birmingham, Alabama - Home - Good info on the Birmingham area

Hoover, Alabama: City of Hoover, Alabama - City of Hoover

Mountain Brook - Mountain Brook

Vestavia Hills Chamber of Commerce Vestavia Hills

Home Page - Homewood

[cpg35223]

Originally Posted by Back Again

Here's the deal, everyone is going to tell you there town is the best place to live.

The best thing to do is to do your own checking

Here are some good links:

Great Schools - Public and Private School Ratings, Reviews and Parent Community - A good school link

Greater Birmingham Convention & Visitors Bureau - Birmingham, Alabama - Home - Good info on the Birmingham area

Hoover, Alabama: City of Hoover, Alabama - City of Hoover

Mountain Brook - Mountain Brook

Vestavia Hills Chamber of Commerce Vestavia Hills

Home Page - Homewood

Those are good links, and he's right. We'll all be homers for our neighborhoods, although we loved living in Forest Park. I think the best thing to do is tell us what your family's interests are so we can help narrow things down, and also tour the area for a day, getting a feel for things. For example, Hoover has a ton of retail, which is both an asset and a liability, whereas Mountain Brook has no big box retailers, which also both an asset and a liability.

[carpe777]

[quote=Back Again;7481699]Here's the deal, everyone is going to tell you there town is the best place to live.

The best thing to do is to do your own checking

True, but you have to watch the national surveys, especially the online surveys on schools because they tend to skew toward higher ratings.

I agree with everybody else to do your own checking. Its good to get information from the people you'll be working with, from realtors (which I am not ... I just love demography ) , and from folks who have just lived in the area a long time.

CPG is right... all of the areas have their good and not so good points. I lived in Hoover/Pelham area for almost 40 years, but I don't think it is the nicest area in Birmingham.

Carpe

Carpe

[DebFlack]

easy choice- Mountain Brook, Homewood, Pelham, Vestavia Hills
just about anywhere off US 280 south past CR 17 or SR 119, maybe some parts of
Leeds, maybe a few reamining older parts of Crestline- maybe Altadena/Caldwell Mill
perhaps some parts of Bluff Park Hoover----not found of Riverchase anymore