Having trouble narrowing down the area.. (Huntsville, Decatur: rent, house, neighborhoods)

[Huntsville82]

We are moving in April and will rent until we know the area a little better. But, we are having trouble knowing which area to even begin house hunting in because of commute times. We have elementary-aged children and DH will be working at Research Park. Ideally, we would not like to be in a cookie-cutter subdivision. After reading several posts, I'm just confused more than ever...lol. If you were moving into the area, which section would you look in for a nice home with good schools, easy commute, and TREES DH also has a thing for fishing...so I guess water wouldn't hurt.

Is the NE side in the Buckhorn district a long commute with traffic?

[rnc76]

This is just my opinion here but Madison, Monrovia, Harvest, Hampton Cove, most of NE (Buckhorn) area... are cookie cutter with a few exceptions. The areas that have real trees, are not cookie cutter and have good schools are older neighborhoods in the city like the historic districts, Blossomwood, Medical District, Jones Valley, Bailey Cove... However, there is an area in east Madison off Slaughter that was built probably in the late 70s to 80s that you many consider. Lots of trees, good school district and you couldn't be closer to the Research Park.

For water, you won't be further than 30 minutes from a river or lake almost anywhere in this area. Guntersville Lake is about 40 minutes from downtown Huntsville, Ditto Landing on the TN River is 15-20 minutes, Lake Wheeler is 30 minutes, Smith Lake is 1.5 hours, Tim's Ford is 1.5 hours...

[Southlander]

Give Decatur a look...

[HsvMike]

Arguably the best schools are in South East Huntsville, and the Madison area. There are also private schools if you were thinking about going that route.

Both the Madison area and SE Hsv are an easy commute to Research Park.

There are subdivisions that have stocked lakes as well, since your husband does like to fish.

It is best to come out and see which areas you like more.

[xxGreyFalconxx]

Living East of Huntsville near Gurley is a nice area and good schools along with good amount of rural living. that being said the commute over the mountain is to say the least a headache in the morning for now.

I work in a feild that allows me to know a few things.

winchester road will be widened to a 5 lane (2 lanes east and west and a turning lane) begining this spring

also I 565 which hwy 72 runs into at chapman mt will be extened all the way to ryland pike rd and will remain an elevaded interstate up to that point. pls not the is an opproximate 10 year project so no relief soon

[Reactionary]

The commute will be less than (but sometimes close to) an hour from Buckhorn, depending on traffic / wrecks / construction.

I don't think there are too many non-cookie-cutter neighborhoods (but the cookies are different). Even Old Town is somewhat cookie-cutter with all those Victorian and Arts & Crafts homes, just like Twickenham has all those Georgian and Victorian homes. I mean, if you've seen one Federal style home, you've really seen them all

About NE, a lot of people make the commute, the traffic will be worse in the next few years with road construction. Do you want to fish from your backyard? Try Mt. Carmel on the Flint River.

East you've got McMullen Cove, Hampton Cove, Clouds Cove - but they're new / fairly new developments without many trees except along the Flint River.

Do you want to fish from your boat and want to be close to the marina / boat launch? Try SE HSV Mountain Gap or Challenger school zones - fairly woody. Traffic will be impeded in the next few years because of road construction.

Also consider Monte Sano or Green Mountain for trees, schools, and driving for fishing.

Rainbow Mountain in Madison also has trees and good schools plus easy Research Park commute.

[NicoleC]

Commute: how long is acceptable?
Budget?

[Huntsville_secede]

Originally Posted by xxGreyFalconxx

Living East of Huntsville near Gurley is a nice area and good schools along with good amount of rural living. that being said the commute over the mountain is to say the least a headache in the morning for now.

I work in a feild that allows me to know a few things.

winchester road will be widened to a 5 lane (2 lanes east and west and a turning lane) begining this spring

also I 565 which hwy 72 runs into at chapman mt will be extened all the way to ryland pike rd and will remain an elevaded interstate up to that point. pls not the is an opproximate 10 year project so no relief soon

They are only widening Winchester to right past Moores Mill Rd this spring which means the worst part from Moores will to Homer Nance won't be addressed until at least 2012 according to current timetables sad.

[xxGreyFalconxx]

yep going to still be rough for awhile

[ndma]

We live about 2mi from Buckhorn HS and love it. Commute times vary dramatically based on when you leave the house. I work in downtown Hsv and sometimes it can vary from 17-45min depending on traffic. During school seasons and during drop off times in the a.m. it is worse due to slow speed in school zones. The widening project on the west end of Winchester should help traffic flow and not just in that specific area as it will open up at least one major bottleneck.

My oldest girl is in 1st grade at Riverton Elementary School (RES) and we love it. We built a home in the area for the purpose of resale. There's some other subdivisions outside the RES district we are looking at for our next house but are torn about building there just because we don't want to leave RES. Edenshire subdivision may be worth visiting based on your comments. It would have you West of RES so you wouldn't have to travel through that school zone. If you are going to build and want some recommendations for contractors or need some realtor contacts, I'd be happy to give you some feedback on the ones we've dealt with.

I do see that you're major obstacle is going to be college allegiance ; ).