Any word on Hartselle, AL??? (Birmingham, Huntsville: sales, city hall, car insurance)

[Shawn Miller]

I just recently found my family's dream home located in Hartselle, AL. I was wondering if anyone could give me any feed back on Hartselle and the general Decatur area? We had considered moving to the Tri Cities area in TN but have found home prices up there quite a bit more expensive up there. I was wondering as to sales tax, property tax, homeowners ins, auto ins, utilities, and most importantly schools. We are looking to move from FL so anything will be an improvement from down here. Thanks for any help Ya'll can offer it will be much appreciated..............

[Twostep]

http://www.hartselle.org/

http://www.hartsellechamber.com/

You should be able to ge to the Tax Assessor's Officie by way of city hall. He can answer all your tax questions.

[steveklein]

i think if you like the tri-cities area you will like hartselle and north alabama. other than the mountains, the tennessee valley has a lot in common with the tri-cities area of tennessee. decatur, huntsville, madison, athens, and hartselle make up one of the nicer areas of the state in my opinion.

i'll let someone a bit more local to that part of the state fill you in on taxes and cost of living and whatnot though.

best of luck...

[Decaturbabe]

Hartselle, Alabama
Pros: Excellent school system. Low crime. Lots of house for the money. Small town known for picturesque downtown, antique stores.
Cons: Not much for young folks to do. Small town can be less than friendly to newcomers. Drive to Decatur for movies, alcoholic beverages, any shopping but Wal-Mart and Kroger; drive to Huntsville or Birmingham for big-city amenities.
Actually, the tax assessor is in the Morgan County Courthouse. An in-person visit is recommended.

[nalabama]

Hartselle's sales tax is 8%, their millage for homeowner property taxes is 39.4mills. Morgan County outside of the municpalities of Hartselle, Decatur, Falkville, and Trinity is 37.4 mills. The state homestead exemption is $40,000 of appraised valuation. The county homestead exemption is $20,000 of appraised valuation, but I don't know exactly how to apply it...it won't amount to much. Decatur's millage is 45.3 mills. Property taxes on a $200,000 residence in the city of Hartselle should run about $470 annually.

I don't know about home/car insurance in Hartselle. Recommend you go to one of the insurance sites that advertise their free online rate comparisons on TV.

[Keeper]

Alabama's home prices are much less than in FL and the property taxes are a LOT less as is homeowner's insurance. Mine went from 1,800 in Tampa to less than 200.00 here for property tax. Homeowner's went from over $1,800 to 400.00 a year and you won't have any problems finding a company to insure you. Sales tax in Marshall county is 8 cents and there is a tax of food and there is a state income tax. Electric is less but can still be expensive during the cold months. I would strongly suggest you look into having at least a gas fireplace to help with heating. You will use A/C during the summer months but summer doesn't last 8 months either. We do have a wonderful spring and beautiful fall weather where you won't need A/C or heat. Hope this helps.
Also check out this website for Morgan county and you can get a general idea of the property tax on the home price you are looking at. http://www.co.morgan.al.us/revenue_w..._comm_home.htm

[Shawn Miller]

Thanks for the help I definately appreciate it, how about the state income tax, how does that work out? I lived in SC when I was in the service and their state income tax wasn't to bad, but I've heard NC's is pretty hefty. Haven't heard to much about Alabama. No state income tax was one of the reasons I chose TN. I've seen online that Hartselle has some very good schools but was wondering how Alabama stacks up to the rest of the country.

[Keeper]

Here is the info on the state income tax for AL. You might want to check TN property tax to see how it compares to AL since in FL we had no income tax but the property taxes more than made up for not having an income tax. Lets face it.. they get their money one way or another.

Alabama collects income taxes from its residents at the following rates.

For single persons, heads of families and married persons filing separate returns:
-- 2% on the first $500 of taxable income
-- 4% on taxable income between $501 and $3,000
-- 5% on all taxable income over $3,000.

For married persons filing joint returns:
-- 2% on the first $1,000 of taxable income
-- 4% on taxable income between $1,001 and $6,000
-- 5% on all taxable income over $6,000.

[integrity4al]

You have seen very detailed information on most of your questions. The schools are really excellent. Hartselle is well known for a quality overall school system. It has faults (weaker in special ed, not very diverse), but graduates from Hartselle High go all over the world for college, including Ivy League and Military elite schools. Many students from surrounding counties and Decatur send their kids to
Hartselle and pay tuition to do so.

[wfurm]

Originally Posted by integrity4al

You have seen very detailed information on most of your questions. The schools are really excellent. Hartselle is well known for a quality overall school system. It has faults (weaker in special ed, not very diverse), but graduates from Hartselle High go all over the world for college, including Ivy League and Military elite schools. Many students from surrounding counties and Decatur send their kids to
Hartselle and pay tuition to do so.

I'm going to pipe in as a mom thats son attended Hartselle high school through 05 till 07. The high school is horrible. Now it was an excellent school when we first relocated there, but it took a huge dive in two years. I know of several parents that relocated their kids to a private school, or home schooled them. I removed my son out of that school last year and now he's enrolled with a national online school.

The school is very much a "good ole boy", type of network. We faced many problems with the Principle to the counselors. No one cares about your kid, or that's maybe just how we felt. And just to add my son wasn't a problem, he was fine with grades, but boy oh boy, if you have any problem with class schedules you're in for a fight. I will say this much...they love their football.

On a final note, we enjoyed Hartselle. Again a small town but it's growing very slowly. We just relocated out of there last week, and we were there for 4 years. Though there isn't anything to there except go to wal-mart or soon to be Lowes. It's also a dry city. Lots of fast food places, no restaurants that I'd recommend. Decatur has some nice places to eat that we liked and then there's always Madison which isn't too far. I wish you luck!