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My husband and I are native Southern Californians, with two young children. While there is much we love about California, it is crowded, crazy, and EXPENSIVE!
He is miserable with his employer and there aren't many other jobs in the precise area where we live without at least a 1 hr commute each way, and moving within California means a huge expense.
My husband is an electrical engineer who has worked engineering and management in the defense contract industry for 10+ years, and "Rocket City" Huntsville is looking like an ideal place for us to live. Less crowded, less expensive, lots of engineering jobs in the defense industry.
So to the questions:
- What is the Jewish community like in Huntsville? I saw there is at least one viable synagogue. We are a Jewish family that is currently very active in a reform synagogue and having a religious community is very important to us.
- Does anyone have any first-hand experience with the engineering graduate program at Alabama University in Huntsville? My husband is in the process of completing his Master's Degree and would like to complete it, but we'd rather get the heck out of here sooner rather than later.
- Are there good residential areas in the city of Huntsville itself? Living in the Los Angeles area all my life, I'm afraid my concept of what is "downtown" is completely and utterly distorted. Moving out of state we'd like to finally have a home with, for example, enough land to maybe put up a swingset for our kids. (Something we can't even get in the suburbs of Los Angeles). Do you have to move to the suburbs for a house like that or are there nice residential areas in the city that are not crowded and cramped?
- What is the Jewish community like in Huntsville?
I don't know much about this, but there is a very nice looking, old synagogue downtown.
- Does anyone have any first-hand experience with the engineering graduate program at Alabama University in Huntsville?
I work with many folks from UAH. It is definitely a technology oriented school. There are MANY people there just like your husband, who are getting an advanced degree part time. Obviously, it isn't Cal Tech or MIT, but the people I work with who graduated from UAH are definitely competent professionals.
- Are there good residential areas in the city of Huntsville itself?
Even downtown Huntsville isn't cramped. Neighborhoods considered "downtown", such as Old Town, Five Points, Blossomwood... still have 0.2 acre lots or so. The city of Huntsville itself is very sprawling because they keep annexing more and more land, so you can be in Huntsville city limits and be in the middle of suburbia. SE Huntsville, particularly Jones Valley is probably considered the nicest residential area in the city. Five Points, Old Town, Twickenham (crazy expensive old money neighborhood), Blossomwood and the Medical District are considered the nicest in the central part of the city. Although Blossomwood and the Medical District can also be considered SE Huntsville. For suburban, new, cookie-cutter developments, look west towards Madison and Monrovia.
So from your response UAH offers graduate night classes?
I'd like to avoid new suburban cookie-cutter developments. We definitely like houses and neighborhoods with charm, more mature landscaping in the neighborhood, and of course friendly people. Since we have children, good schools and a safe neighborhood are a must too.
Our very house, which is not especially nice and needs all kinds of work done, will probably sell for $700-800 here in Southern California. If we move, it'll be to save a chunk of that money, not to spend it all. Lookin at the MLS listings linked on the site at the City of Huntsville, there are some VERY nice homes in the $300-400 range, which would be perfect for us - a much nicer home than we have now, with money to invest. He wouldn't even have to make as much as he does here in California, and our standard of living would improve.
The synagogue I am looking at is southeast of where the 565 and 431 intersect. If there are nice neighborhoods with good schools in that vicinity with homes in that price range, that'd be golden.
We actually just chatted this afternoon and decided to make the leap and actively search for jobs in Huntsville and see what comes up. Any advice on recruitters in the technical field (particularly the defense industry) would be great too. I read there are many new jobs in just this industry that are up and coming due to this BRAC thing?
Actually the more I learn about Huntsville the more excited I am about the prospect of moving there.
I did a little googling and came up with 2 synagogues in Huntsville:
Temple B'Nai Sholom and Etz Chayim, a conservative synagogue. Both have web sites, templebnaisholom dot org and etzchayim(dash)hsv dot org . I was surprised - I know the Jewish community is quite small. We only have three or four families in Decatur. Oddly enough, Decatur had a much larger Jewish presence in late 1800s and the first half of the 20th century, but most of the kids grew up and moved away. I do know that Huntsville has Jewish families of all ages.
The synagogue SE of I-565 and US431 (The Parkway) is Temple B'nai Sholom (Reform congregation founded 1876), which is in 'Old Town' historic district - basically downtown.
UAH offers night classes for graduate programs. Note:
"The graduate level engineering management program at The University of Alabama in Huntsville has been singled out as being the best in the nation by the American Society for Engineering Management (ASEM)."
You would have to search hard for a place that -doesn't- have room for a swingset. Look for houses in school districts that feed into Grissom HS (SE HSV) or Bob Jones HS (Madison), which were both ranked in Newsweek's Best High Schools. Huntsville HS is OK, but doesn't score as well. There are also good private schools.
About commute times - an hour is a long time - my commute from Five Points (downtown) to Research Park is 10-15 minutes.
BRAC is bringing thousands of Missile Defense jobs (Government and contractor). MDA, NASA, and Army have large presences here. Major defense / aerospace companies have significant facilities here.
Be aware that Huntsville is fairly conservative, and Alabama even more so. There are a few hippie anti-war types here, but our pro-troop events draw far larger crowds. Alabama voted 80 / 20 for traditional marriage. The Democrat-controlled legislature voted to ban sex toys (just won on appeal). We have one brewery in Alabama ('Old Towne' - it's in Huntsville), and it just burned down (thankfully they plan to re-open).
The synagogue SE of I-565 and US431 (The Parkway) is Temple B'nai Sholom (Reform congregation founded 1876), which is in 'Old Town' historic district - basically downtown.
UAH offers night classes for graduate programs. Note:
"The graduate level engineering management program at The University of Alabama in Huntsville has been singled out as being the best in the nation by the American Society for Engineering Management (ASEM)."
You would have to search hard for a place that -doesn't- have room for a swingset. Look for houses in school districts that feed into Grissom HS (SE HSV) or Bob Jones HS (Madison), which were both ranked in Newsweek's Best High Schools. Huntsville HS is OK, but doesn't score as well. There are also good private schools.
About commute times - an hour is a long time - my commute from Five Points (downtown) to Research Park is 10-15 minutes.
BRAC is bringing thousands of Missile Defense jobs (Government and contractor). MDA, NASA, and Army have large presences here. Major defense / aerospace companies have significant facilities here.
Be aware that Huntsville is fairly conservative, and Alabama even more so. There are a few hippie anti-war types here, but our pro-troop events draw far larger crowds. Alabama voted 80 / 20 for traditional marriage. The Democrat-controlled legislature voted to ban sex toys (just won on appeal). We have one brewery in Alabama ('Old Towne' - it's in Huntsville), and it just burned down (thankfully they plan to re-open).
I'm sorry, but I just have to ask - What is this about a ban on sex toys? In the county? Does this mean that they can't be sold or you can't use them in your own home? LOL - I'm sorry, i just have to ask....
I think the ban on sex toys has to do with a long standing battle with an adult store that some people are trying to put out of business. Not sure about the details.
Thank you Southlander and Reactionary for the useful info as well. A conservative political climate doesn't bother me as long as it's not overly extreme. As long as no bigots are telling my Jew self the hell back to the land of nuts and flakes, it's all good. As it is I keep it hush-hush that I secretly listen to conservative talk radio here in California.
So from your response UAH offers graduate night classes?
I'd like to avoid new suburban cookie-cutter developments. We definitely like houses and neighborhoods with charm, more mature landscaping in the neighborhood, and of course friendly people. Since we have children, good schools and a safe neighborhood are a must too.
Our very house, which is not especially nice and needs all kinds of work done, will probably sell for $700-800 here in Southern California. If we move, it'll be to save a chunk of that money, not to spend it all. Lookin at the MLS listings linked on the site at the City of Huntsville, there are some VERY nice homes in the $300-400 range, which would be perfect for us - a much nicer home than we have now, with money to invest. He wouldn't even have to make as much as he does here in California, and our standard of living would improve.
The synagogue I am looking at is southeast of where the 565 and 431 intersect. If there are nice neighborhoods with good schools in that vicinity with homes in that price range, that'd be golden.
We actually just chatted this afternoon and decided to make the leap and actively search for jobs in Huntsville and see what comes up. Any advice on recruitters in the technical field (particularly the defense industry) would be great too. I read there are many new jobs in just this industry that are up and coming due to this BRAC thing?
Actually the more I learn about Huntsville the more excited I am about the prospect of moving there.
I think the engineering management program offers a lot of night courses. I don't think the technical engineering and science fields offer much at night related to graduate work. However, UAH is right next to the arsenal and the research park and most employers here are supportive of continuing education.
Concerning the pay scale here. I think your husband will be surprised as to how much he will be offered. I doubt it will be quite as much as CA, but the job market is very competitive for engineers, pushing up the salaries. Your family will come out WAY ahead when you consider cost of living.
If you have that much equity in your home, want to be close to downtown with charming homes and in a good school district, then I would point you to Blossomwood. It is more expensive than most of Huntsville, but it is going up in value and is a great neighborhood (I live there). Blossomwood is the area just east of Downtown, bounded by California St on the west, Monte Sano Land Trust on the East, McClung on the North, Governor's Drive on the South.
The historic districts downtown are wonderful as well. Twickenham is old money, gorgeous mansions from the early 1800s to early 1900s. They average probably $1mil or more. Even if you don't have any interest in buying there, definitely take a walk through this neighborhood when you visit Huntsville, it is quite impressive. Old Town is just north of Twickenham and next to downtown, more Victorian in style, still very expensive, but a great neighborhood that the synagogue you are interested in resides. Five Points is just east of Old Town on the other side of California St. Five Points is mainly turn of the century bungalows and cottages that have been renovated. It has become the "in" place to live in the last decade.
Again, Jones Valley is also a wonderful part of town with a mix of housing dating from the 60s to today. There is quite a bit of nice shopping, services and restaurants (Target Supercenter, Barnes and Noble, Bed Bath & Beyond, Terrame Day Spa, an awesome movie theatre...). Nearby at the corner of Whitesburg and Airport Roads there are even more options (Fresh Market, Publix, Bonefish Grill, Surin Thai rest, Lucciano's Italian rest, Cafe Berlin German rest...).
Huntsville is fairly conservative, as a previous poster noted. I think it varies greatly though depending on where you live. The neighborhoods closer to downtown that I mentioned tend to be less conservative, with Five Points being our own little hippy enclave. As you go out into the county or into mass suburbia, you'll notice the conservatism more. However, people here are still very friendly and are welcoming of outsiders. After all, Huntsville would still be a sleepy cotton town if not for outsiders coming here for work.
I have been looking at valley MLS and let me tell you, seeing the houses I can afford practically makes me orgasmic. Such BEAUTIFUL homes! I cannot wait to visit Huntsville and to start searching in person. I mean gorgeous, just gorgeous the homes, the land around the homes, just GORGEOUS. I have always wanted to live in a lovely downtown home close to nice shops, my place of worship, etc, and it sounds like that Blossomwood area is just the thing.
Folks, I live in a house that will sell for 700,000 at least. You would LAUGH if you saw it. I mean it's a nice enough house, I'm not too snobby for it, but it is NOT a 700,000 dollar home. The house I live it would sell for maybe 200,000 in the Huntsville area for what I am seeing. And the only reason we have even scraped by in a house this nice, is because we bought into the housing market early enough. Folks I know that are starting off as homeowners now can rarely afford more than a condo.
And yes, my husband got his resume together last night and started looking at payscales in the area. He's making 110,000 right now as a program manager and could easily make 90-100k in Huntsville apparently as a staff engineer. A 10% drop in income for a 50% drop in housing (with a WAY NICER house), drop in property tax, drop in income tax? HELL YEAH! And seriously, all those engineers would be like social heaven for my husband (and even me, I have my fair share of geek in me myself.) Forget politics, my husband would be thrilled if he knew someone else that had a vague interest in the little robot he builds in his spare time.
I'm starting to wonder why we've stayed in California as long as we have. It's like a fog has lifted from my eyes. It's nuts, I tell you, utterly nuts. I practically want to sell my house TODAY and run, not walk, to Huntsville.
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