Hoover or Vestavia

[newbamadoc]

I used to drive to downtown for my commute from Vestavia. It was around 20 min if I left around 7:20. If I left a little after 7:30, it would take 30-35 minutes. For Bham, a 20 minute commute is pretty good. I am biased toward Vestavia. The schools test better than Hoover, so take that what it is worth. If you ask someone in Bham, which school system is better between Hoover and Vestavia you will get Vestavia a large majority of the time. Hoover is still solid.
Your convenience will vary with where you and your spouse's workplace is, your church, friends, and wherever else you go. We are within 2 minutes of our grocery store, park for kids and dogs, pharmacy, Italian restaurant, pizza place, bbq place, coffee shop, dentist, high school, florist, a CVS, and much more. We are less than 10 min from the Summit, Brookwood mall, Galleria, and 15-20 minutes from downtown if there is no traffic. My wife works in Liberty Park, and I work near Oak Mtn. Even during rush hour, our commutes average around a little over 20 minutes. Both areas are nice, but it just depends on what you are looking for. You can usually get more house for the money in Hoover.

[NY2AL]

newbamadoc,
thanks for your helpful informaion. Actually, I'm a little bit leaned toward Vestavia now. Can you give me some information about specific neighborhoods, in terms traffic and housing options, or anything you think important,

[newbamadoc]

Much of it will depend on your price range. I always tell people to look at realtysouth.com and put in your price range, and you will see your options. Feel free to private message me if you have more questions, or you can post them here for all to see.

[newbamadoc]

Assuming your price range is 250-350K, you can find one of these houses in most subdivisions. Vestavia is weird in that it is like one massive neighborhood. If you wanted to be further north keeping your commute a little shorter, I would stick around the Shades Crest Rd. area. You can hop onto 31 and be on your way. If you want to be closer to the schools, you can live in the Vestridge subdivision you could be within 3-5 minutes of pretty much each school. Some kids that are really close will walk, but it depends on how comfortable you are with that.
If you can spend more than 350K, you can get a nice house in a majority of the areas. The homes are going to be a little older on average.
If you are wanting to spend less than 250K, I just saw several nice 3br/2baths in the 175K area, but I didn't look exactly where they were located. Good luck and feel free to ask anything else. Again, realtysouth.com will be your best tool in finding a house. I found 2 of 2 houses I have purchased from the website. I found my first from a state away, since we were in the process of moving. This would be great if you could have several houses to tell your real estate agent you want to see. You save a ton of time because the agent can also email you suggestions for houses, and you can look at 8-10 pics of the house to decide if it is worth checking out. This is huge if you are flying in for the weekend with a limited amount of time to find a house. Good luck.

[NY2AL]

Yes, I found a lot of good properties in realtysouth.com, it is very user-friendly.
But I didn't find a rental search function. I may need to rent for the first year or two.
I tried http://www.birminghamrent.net/ and www.realrentals.com , but couldn't get a lot of rental options. In total, I got only 12 house or townhouses in Birmingham area. That is a suprise.
Do you know any good website for rental search?
Thanks a lot,

[cpg35223]

I would try Alabama Local News, Breaking News, Sports & Weather - al.com. That's the combined website for the Birmingham, Huntsville, and Mobile newspapers, and they will have a classified section.

Alabama Real Estate Listings: Homes for Sale - al.com