Might be moving to Hunstville area looking for advice (Huntsville: for sale, real estate)

[CPTBobby]

I may be stationed in Hunstiville. I am looking for advice about the surrounding area and where a good place to purchase a house is.

My Wife will also be looking for a job once we get there, she is a Teacher.

I am looking for the best areas to live, with a low crime rate and good to great schools.

Someone in the area could you please advise me where the best area to purchase a home would be. Appreciate your time.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by CPTBobby

I may be stationed in Hunstiville. I am looking for advice about the surrounding area and where a good place to purchase a house is.

My Wife will also be looking for a job once we get there, she is a Teacher.

I am looking for the best areas to live, with a low crime rate and good to great schools.

Someone in the area could you please advise me where the best area to purchase a home would be. Appreciate your time.

Stationed on Redstone Arsenal?
Price Range for a house?
Kids? Ages?

Check out Greatschools.net

Search the threads, your interests have been addressed quite a bit.

Here's a good start:

http://www.city-data.com/forum/hunts...untsville.html

[CPTBobby]

Originally Posted by Charles

Stationed on Redstone Arsenal?
Price Range for a house?
Kids? Ages?

Check out Greatschools.net

Search the threads, your interests have been addressed quite a bit.

Here's a good start:

http://www.city-data.com/forum/hunts...untsville.html

Appreciate the help.

My Kids are 14 and 2 years.

Range of the house would be between 150,000-350,000

I would guess Redstone arsenal. I am moving into Army Aquistions and the latest assignment options I have really do not list any military bases, instead just city names.

I will be down there for my tranisition couse so I will also be able to look around then if I am assigned in this area.

[Charles]

Here's one of the best real estate tools:


ValleyMLS.com

You can go to the advance search on valleymls and find houses that are assigned to a specific school.

Since Huntsville is so small, commuting is pretty easy from just about anywhere. Use the other links to find good schools and then find houses near those schools. You can even look for houses that are in A elementary, B middle and C High School.

There are basically three school districts: Huntsville City, Madison City, and Madison County, good to know this when looking on Greatschools. Also check out the Alabama Dept of Education website.

[mm42]

Army Acquisition definitely means Redstone Arsenal.

The best areas for schools in the near vicinity are SE Huntsville, Hampton Cove, and Madison. All have houses in your price range. All have low crimes rates.

Getting onto the Arsenal is easiest from SE Huntsville. Hampton Cove is not quite as good because you have to drive 6-7 miles further, but not in heavy traffic. Madison has the worst traffic and has to go through a gate that can be overloaded at times (Gate 9).

I'm guessing your oldest is high school age. According to the recent US News and World Report ratings, Grissom High School is the best in these areas (Silver Medal). Only 4 schools in the whole state were rated Silver Medal or higher, so that gives you an idea of the elite status accorded Grissom High.

The other high schools that did well enough to get rated Bronze Medal in the area are further from town - Athens High, Decatur High, and Guntersville High. New Century Technology Demo High School also scored a Bronze Medal - it is a magnet school, so you would be able to attend this school from any area in the city of Huntsville.

Bob Jones High in Madison is usually highly regarded, and won the Silver Medal from US News in 2008. I don't know what caused it to drop from this high category to not even rating an Honorable Mention in 2009.

Huntsville High is also highly regarded by some, but it has not been included in the top schools ratings by US News for the past 2 years.

I put more stock in the US News ratings than some of the others, because they are based on much more thorough and detailed analysis, whereas most school ratings are just based on raw test scores or anonymous internet review ratings.

Here is their methodology:

The 2009 U.S.News & World Report America's Best High Schools methodology, developed by School Evaluation Services, a K-12 education data research business run by Standard & Poor's, is based on the key principles that a great high school must serve all its students well, not just those who are bound for college and that it must be able to produce measurable academic outcomes to show that the school is successfully educating its student body across a range of performance indicators.
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http://www.usnews.com/blogs/editors-...gh-school.html

.

[CPTBobby]

Appreciate all the Help

[boilrmkr]

Madison City has great schools. It is a really nice area. They are opening a brand new school in August called Mill Creek Elementary. She may be able to get a job there or fill a job at one of the other schools that may have teachers going to the new school.

We moved here last July and love it!

[hey teach]

I would suggest not only applying for a permanent teaching position, but also going through the motion to be a substitute. this is often how one gets their foot in the door here. I teach in Huntsville City and with all the cut backs and merging of schools, new hires will be in the low numbers. I worked as a permanent sub for a year before getting a teaching position.

[milledj]

I have heard the same thing that hey teach said. If your wife needs certification, Athens State University offers the right stuff, or so they tell me. And for your range of house prices, you could just about take your pick of homes. There is one nice one for sale on Beaty Street that is Spanish Revival and very beautiful at the top end. However, I hear that the utility bills are another mortgage payment. I looked at another house not far away in the best school system in Athens (Julian Newmann) for $150,000 and although it needed updating, it was in move-in condition with about 2600 SF. If you want to deal with a bit of cosmetic and updating.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by hey teach

I teach in Huntsville City and with all the cut backs and merging of schools, new hires will be in the low numbers.

Wouldn't we expect this to drastically change in the next year or two with the 10,000 BRAC people and their kids coming here?