Moving Here? Need Advice? Help Us Help You. (Hoover, Homewood: apartment complexes, school)

[Stephkp]

My husband may be accepting a job in South Birmingham. I am trying to find out where the best place to live is.

On the first page of this post it ask a lot of questions and I am going to try and answer them here.

1. We have an almost nine year old daughter and so great schools is a must!
2. My husband does not mind commuting up to 30 minutes one way.
3. We like to go to parks, hiking, bike riding or exploring.
4. We ideally like living a little ways out of town, but close enough that in 10-15 minutes we can be in town. However this always revolves around #1 because schools are primary with us.
5. We have a dog and a a cat so we are looking for a place to rent that accepts pets.
6. We would prefer a house, but if it is an apartment that is fine.

We are coming Monday for my husbands interview and would like some areas to look at.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Stephanie

[steveklein]

Originally Posted by Stephkp

My husband may be accepting a job in South Birmingham. I am trying to find out where the best place to live is.

On the first page of this post it ask a lot of questions and I am going to try and answer them here.

1. We have an almost nine year old daughter and so great schools is a must!
2. My husband does not mind commuting up to 30 minutes one way.
3. We like to go to parks, hiking, bike riding or exploring.
4. We ideally like living a little ways out of town, but close enough that in 10-15 minutes we can be in town. However this always revolves around #1 because schools are primary with us.
5. We have a dog and a a cat so we are looking for a place to rent that accepts pets.
6. We would prefer a house, but if it is an apartment that is fine.

We are coming Monday for my husbands interview and would like some areas to look at.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Stephanie

What price range are you looking at? 2-3 bedrooms I presume?

Where exactly is "south Birmingham"? Do you mean the neighborhood Southside/UAB Area? Somewhere off of Lakeshore or Oxmoor Road? Hoover?

I would look in North Shelby County or Hoover. These are areas south of Birmingham so I assume would be within a 30 minute commute to "South Birmingham". Most homes in these areas feed into good schools. Oak Mountain State Park is a really nice park with plenty of trails to hike, bike ride, etc. It is definitely suburbia so you are a little ways out of town. Depending on where in these communities you live, you would be about 12-25 minutes from downtown Birmingham.

There are going to be plenty of homes for rent in these areas but you would need to check with owners for specific pet policies. There are also lots of apartments. Again, pet policies will differ from place to place but I imagine you won't have too much of a problem finding something.

[JCZnytobham]

(Reposting this from a thread I just posted... Realized this may be a better place for it)

We will be moving to Birmingham from a NYC suburb for my husbands job this Spring. I do not want to come to the South with pre-conceived notions, but, naturally concerned about culture shock. We are both life-long NYer's, though I lived in Boston for college and San Francisco for a few years post grad before coming home. We are liberal, non-religious democrats. I am biracial and my husband is white. Our daughter attends montessori for preschool, and while we're not opposed to sending her to private elementary we would not have considered this in NY. The town we live in reflects us as a family. Culturally diverse & open minded, and happens to have great schools, restaurants & shopping. Is there a neighborhood in Birmingham anyone could suggest for us? Point us in the right direction? We know it's going to be different, and we're okay with that. Just want to feel comfortable in our surroundings and still be ourselves. From the research I've done thus far Homewood seems to be a good option, but thinking we may be better off within city limits. Also, any preschool recommendations are greatly appreciated. Seems Creative Montessori has a really long wait list and Hilltop Montessori is kind of far out there (our daughter has one more year before she starts kindergarten).
Thanks in advance!!!

[steveklein]

Originally Posted by JCZnytobham

(Reposting this from a thread I just posted... Realized this may be a better place for it)

We will be moving to Birmingham from a NYC suburb for my husbands job this Spring. I do not want to come to the South with pre-conceived notions, but, naturally concerned about culture shock. We are both life-long NYer's, though I lived in Boston for college and San Francisco for a few years post grad before coming home. We are liberal, non-religious democrats. I am biracial and my husband is white. Our daughter attends montessori for preschool, and while we're not opposed to sending her to private elementary we would not have considered this in NY. The town we live in reflects us as a family. Culturally diverse & open minded, and happens to have great schools, restaurants & shopping. Is there a neighborhood in Birmingham anyone could suggest for us? Point us in the right direction? We know it's going to be different, and we're okay with that. Just want to feel comfortable in our surroundings and still be ourselves. From the research I've done thus far Homewood seems to be a good option, but thinking we may be better off within city limits. Also, any preschool recommendations are greatly appreciated. Seems Creative Montessori has a really long wait list and Hilltop Montessori is kind of far out there (our daughter has one more year before she starts kindergarten).
Thanks in advance!!!

Price range?

Homewood and/or the city of Birmingham proper would probably be your best bets... though you will sadly probably want to enroll your daughter in private school if you buy or rent in the city of Birmingham because the schools are lacking.

[JCZnytobham]

Our price range is up to $300k for a 3 bed/2 bath (prefer house, but not opposed to townhouse or condo). I've looked a little and seems to be plenty of inventory in homewood in that range.
If we bought in the city, which neighborhoods would you recommend?
Last thing, Hilltop Montessori looks like it's pretty far from the city, but I like the school. Are there any towns in that neck of the woods you would recommend? Their address is Birmingham but it's 30 minutes from the city? Kind of confusing

[Stephkp]

Our price range is $1000 a month, and he will be working around State Farm road.

Thank you for your help.

[Tourian]

Originally Posted by JCZnytobham

Our price range is up to $300k for a 3 bed/2 bath (prefer house, but not opposed to townhouse or condo). I've looked a little and seems to be plenty of inventory in homewood in that range.
If we bought in the city, which neighborhoods would you recommend?
Last thing, Hilltop Montessori looks like it's pretty far from the city, but I like the school. Are there any towns in that neck of the woods you would recommend? Their address is Birmingham but it's 30 minutes from the city? Kind of confusing

Birmingham city limits do stretch down around 280 corridor and around Lake Purdy but if the school is out in unincorporated Shelby co chances are it will have a Birmingham address regardless even if it doesn't exist in the city proper.

And even then you still have to get used to it because the Birmingham post office is the main hub even for separate cities like Hoover, MB, Vestavia, etc so you could technically substitute Birmingham for those cities just fine and may even be preferred by them.

[JCZnytobham]

Originally Posted by Tourian

Birmingham city limits do stretch down around 280 corridor and around Lake Purdy but if the school is out in unincorporated Shelby co chances are it will have a Birmingham address regardless even if it doesn't exist in the city proper.

And even then you still have to get used to it because the Birmingham post office is the main hub even for separate cities like Hoover, MB, Vestavia, etc so you could technically substitute Birmingham for those cities just fine and may even be preferred by them.

Thanks so much for the info! Very helpful

[JCZnytobham]

Originally Posted by Tourian

Birmingham city limits do stretch down around 280 corridor and around Lake Purdy but if the school is out in unincorporated Shelby co chances are it will have a Birmingham address regardless even if it doesn't exist in the city proper.

And even then you still have to get used to it because the Birmingham post office is the main hub even for separate cities like Hoover, MB, Vestavia, etc so you could technically substitute Birmingham for those cities just fine and may even be preferred by them.

This is kind of a strange question, but are there any "nice" suburbs/neighborhoods we should stay away from (i.e. Ultra conservative, and maybe we wouldn't feel so comfortable being a mixed race family)?
I've seen a few homes in Crestline and Irondale I really like. Near Crestwood which was suggested as a neighborhood we may like, but above Mountain Brook which I read we should probably stay away from (I'm sure Mountain Brook is LOVELY, just not for us). Any thoughts?
Sorry for all the questions! Figured this is a good place to ask.

[steveklein]

Originally Posted by JCZnytobham

This is kind of a strange question, but are there any "nice" suburbs/neighborhoods we should stay away from (i.e. Ultra conservative, and maybe we wouldn't feel so comfortable being a mixed race family)?
I've seen a few homes in Crestline and Irondale I really like. Near Crestwood which was suggested as a neighborhood we may like, but above Mountain Brook which I read we should probably stay away from (I'm sure Mountain Brook is LOVELY, just not for us). Any thoughts?
Sorry for all the questions! Figured this is a good place to ask.

Mountain Brook probably is best to stay away from for you. It definitely fits the bill in terms of a lovely place to live with walkable villages with shopping and dining, parks, excellent schools, etc.... and there are a lot of well-educated, progressive people there... but there is also a lot of old south, old money types as well. I don't think you'd get many weird looks for being biracial, but you would be in the minority to say the least. At last estimate, exactly 4 out of 20,000+ residents reported "two or more races" and nearly 95% reported being white only (//www.city-data.com/city/Mounta...k-Alabama.html). Vestavia Hills is similar, but not as extreme. Homewood and Hoover are more diverse but aren't quite as "highly regarded" as Vestavia and Mountain Brook.