[Reactionary]

There are about 12 orthodox churches in Alabama (population 4.9 million). So no, there are not many orthodox christians in Alabama (less than 0.5%).

[Mikle_1980]

I think it's quite enough. Don't forget that the most part of orthodox christians are Greeks and Slavs.

[martinandrew]

I would like to say that There are plenty of places within 30 minutes of Birmingham that you could rent a home or apartment at $800/month. Gardendale, Pleasant Grove, Hueytown all come to mind as pretty cheap and not very urban but still a reasonable drive to the city. There are also unincorporated portions of every county in the area that have that type of housing stock.

[grayj345]

If you wan to live Alabama then i would like to suggest you to Dothan. Because Dothan is a great place to live. I raised my children there and owned several businesses there. It is close to a lot of big cities, and has some great people living there. When I was there, it was not a high crime place, and has lots of churches and local shopping. Lots of good heard, home oriented families live there. You will sometimes have hot hot weather, and sometimes cold, but winters usually are mild for the most part. Occasionally storms from hurricanes will affect you some, but I have never seen or heard of an alligator there. It is a great city.

[Saskia Calico]

I lived in B'ham for nearly a quarter of a century (1989-2012). I cannot recommend some nearby cities others have named, e.g., Hueytown, Pleasant Grove, Gardendale. For one thing, being on the western side of B'ham, when tornadoes come they hit hardest in those western areas, which are also isolated from the rest of the B'ham by very bad parts of town that you have to pass through on the interstate. Hueytown and Pleasant Grove are on the western side; Gardendale is north of B'ham proper but is not a very desirable area.

If you are moving to the B'ham area, try Mountain Brook (very desirable area), Vestavia Hills, or, farther out, Hoover (which used to be very nice but has changed demographically; it changed drastically during the years I lived there. Some people like Homewood. These areas are near good hospitals, shopping centers, and I think their schools are still good too. Shelby County is another good area if you try the northern end of the county, which is basically part of B'ham (some of it has been annexed by Hoover). Farther south, Shelby is just country and small towns, except along the US 280 corridor, which has become very built up in the last 10-20 years.