Hampton Cove vs Madison (Huntsville, Highland Lake: apartments, how much, house)

[A&M Bulldawg]

There seems to be a little rivalry between these two popular suburbs of Huntsville. Both surburbs are popular becuase they offer good schools, nice housing, and friendly people. Since both suburbs are some of the best places to live in the Huntsville Area, which surburb offers the best variety in the listed categories and which one would you live or would you tell somebody to move and why?

Hampton Cove (Southeast Huntsville)
Madison

Hampton Cove - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Madison, Alabama - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Charles]

Originally Posted by A&M Bulldawg

There seems to be a little rivalry between these two popular suburbs of Huntsville. Both surburbs are popular becuase they offer good schools, nice housing, and friendly people. Since both suburbs are some of the best places to live in the Huntsville Area, which surburb offers the best variety in the listed categories and which one would you live or would you tell somebody to move and why?

Hampton Cove (Southeast Huntsville)
Madison

Hampton Cove - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Madison, Alabama - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There is no school variety in Hampton Cove. All students attend Hampton Cove Elementary, Hampton Cove Middle, and Huntsville High (public) schools. There will be a new elementary school built nearby to accommodate the growth in the Big Cove area.

There are no apartments in Hampton Cove but there are patio homes and single family homes. Here is a list of the different neighborhoods and the housing styles in Hampton Cove:

Hampton Cove Neighborhoods

We've had no problems with unfriendly people anywhere in Alabama.

A few pictures of Hampton Cove and vicinity:










Hampton Cove Elementary School


Hampton Cove Middle School






Fire Station which serves Hampton Cove

[A&M Bulldawg]

Nice pictures! I mean Hampton Cove (Southeast Huntsville): the area along 431 (Big Cove, Hampton, McMullen Cove, others).

[zenjenn]

I chose the Hampton Cove/Big Cove area because I prefer how much more accessible it is to both Downtown Huntsville and South Huntsville. Madison is more accessible to North and West Huntsville, but I think people who choose Madison do so because it is more accessible to Research Park, and/or because they think the schools are better, particularly Bob Jones vs. Huntsville High. (Which on paper, it is. This was not of any particular importance to me. All schools that serve both areas respectably, and that's all I care about, so for me, this was a non-issue.)

[Huntsville_secede]

Originally Posted by zenjenn

I chose the Hampton Cove/Big Cove area because I prefer how much more accessible it is to both Downtown Huntsville and South Huntsville. Madison is more accessible to North and West Huntsville, but I think people who choose Madison do so because it is more accessible to Research Park, and/or because they think the schools are better, particularly Bob Jones vs. Huntsville High. (Which on paper, it is. This was not of any particular importance to me. All schools that serve both areas respectably, and that's all I care about, so for me, this was a non-issue.)

I like Hampton Cove over Madison personally the only downside for Hampton Cove is its a little far out from Research Park and Western Madison but if you work down south parkway or around the Medical district its good for you. Hampton Cove has more beautiful natural scenery the "mountains" or more correctly mesas and foothills and the subdivisions seem to have a little bit more style than the dozens of cookie cutter subdivisions in Madison. I just prefer Hampton Cove, Madison's main advantage is location and the schools but Huntsville High, Hampton Cove Elementary, and Hampton Cove Middle are pretty good schools as well. Eventually I think a new Hampton Cove High school will have to be built as well though this will probably be many years down the road.

[guxu]

I chose Madison because of the location. It is closer to research park, mall and etc. When I bought my 1st house in Madison, there was only a Publix in HC.

[nole_trainer]

I might have the opportunity to move to the area (here now for the next three months training for a new job based near airport), and I'm having this same debate. I've driven around Madison for the last week, and I drove around HC area last night and loved it (on the surface). But I don't know if I want to drive 431/565 everyday to get back to airport. With two young boys (4/2) schools and kid related activities are top on my list. Live in Florida now, so the hills are MOUTAINS to me, and I love them!!! I think that is why HC looked great!!

I will leark/search around this great site and figure something out if moving becomes a reality.

[guxu]

Yeah, from my Madison home to airport is about 15 minutes. When I needed to pick up someone from the airport, I just told them to give me a call after they landed. When I was there, normally they had not got their luggage yet. (No, I am not living near county line.) Talk about that to people who live in Southeast and HC.

There are hills in Madison too, e.g. Highland Lake and Clifts Cove. As for school, while math competition is not everything, but I was involved in some math competitions this year. And our Madison schools beat all Southeast schools, HC school, and private schools EVERY single time.

[gsp4ever]

I think Madison makes more geographical sense for people working in the Research Park and in many cases the Arsenal too. When we moved to Huntsville the vast majority of the engineers/co-workers (in the research park) we worked with lived in Madison. Plus we'd heard about the structural problems that many of the homes in Hampton Cove had experienced.

Personally, I think Bob Jones does a better job with their college preparatory program than Huntsville HS. I've mentioned this before but they offer a dedicated college counseling office and lots of programs for students and parents during the year. I think Huntsville HS (and other schools, too) is hamstrung by the central office of Huntsville City Schools and their wishes/desires plus all the desegregation orders, political shenanigans, etc. It has been my observation that Madison City, being a smaller school system is able to move quickly to make changes that need to be made to the system. Who knows what the future will bring.

As for the perception of the "cookie-cutterness" of Madison and Monrovia--many builders who build there have been/are building the Hampton Cove area. We went to some friends' house (who had just moved to HSV) and they were telling us that they made their HC choice because they didn't like the "cookie cutters" in Madison/Monrovia. I didn't have the heart to tell them that their builder also builds in our neighborhood and that I'd seen their *exact* house and floorplan before. LOL!!

[DvlsAdvc8]

The one thing I don't like about living over the mountain... is not having a single NAME for the area. Referring to east Huntsville doesn't quite say it. Saying Hampton Cove seems inaccurate; that's a subdivision. Owens Crossroads is actually this place further south. Soooo... I'm left with Big Cove. Thus, from now on I'm going to refer to the whole area as Big Cove (which seems to be what many of the old folks call it).

But still... I compare Big Cove and Madison this way:

Aesthetics: Big Cove by some margin

Schools: Big CoveMany would say tie, but I'd put the combination of Hampton Cove Elem., Middle, and HSV High up against any combination in Madison. Still probably not a deciding factor.

Traffic: Big Cove - it takes my office mate the same time to get to work in research park as it does me, and I live more than double the distance away.

Stuff (restaurants & shopping etc): Madison - but coming from DC, I didn't move here to be close to stuff. lol I kinda like mountain separation - its a nice downshift into a more rural feel IMO, without being too far away.

It's all good though, they are both fine places.