Single Young Person (Huntsville, Decatur, Madison: renting, condos, houses)

[OUbeachbum]

So I'm a single young person (male age 28), and transferring to Huntsville in about 3 weeks to further my engineering career, as I hope many others are doing I read conflicting reports about where people in my situation live, hangout, etc. My main question is- are Providence and Bridge Street really places where you can find people my age living, eating, etc? I can afford the smaller condos in Providence (250k) but I don't see many others in my situation able to do so.

Also, where are the hard to find places around town that are know as SYP hang outs? You know what I mean, the places that you have to live somewhere a couple years to find.

Thanks!!

[Reactionary]

People your age living in Providence and Bridge Street? Not many, for the reason you suggest. But they would be convenient. Maybe try renting for a bit to see what you like.

Try this thread for hang-outs, if you have more questions, ask away... note that it won't take you years to find everything in town

//www.city-data.com/forum/hunts...untsville.html

[NicoleC]

Bridge Street is still too new to say what the real demographic will be; Providence is too pricey for most single young professionals. If you don't want the maintenance, there are other condos scattered around, but $250k you can afford a nice home in Huntsville and the surrounding area. I agree with Reactionary that renting would be a good place to start.

Huntsville has a very fine and active organization, Huntsville Young Professionals, which sounds like just the thing for you. It's not a singles group, but many folks who come to their meeting are single.

There is no entertainment district like you are thinking of. Downtown has the most concentrated nightlife, but otherwise it is scattered around the city. Valley Planet has most of the entertainment listings.

[HsvMike]

Here are a couple website's that have bars / nighlife huntsville alabama restaurants, bars and nightlife downtown & GoHSV.com | Huntsville Alabama

[rnc76]

Consider buying a small home in either 5 Points or the Medical District. There are quite a few singles and young couples that live in that area, you are also close to many bars and restaurants (at least the ones worth going to in Huntsville IMO).

[financelife]

If you can afford it, then move to Providence or Bridge Street. People our age are so scattered around the city that it doesn't matter. You can always go out and meet everyone. I think you're getting Huntsville mixed up with a bigger city where you do have "areas". Five points always seemed like overpriced old houses. no offense to anyone, I'm just saying. I can afford it so I live in a Hampton Cove type area. With all the new residential development taking place around town, there is definitely going to be flight from the inner city areas. Happens all the time. So beware.

[rnc76]

^^^To my knowledge, there has never been a shortage of suburban residential development in Huntsville. Yet still, the historic neighborhoods, Five Points, Blossomwood and the Medical District are the most sought after, highest $/sqft neighborhoods in the region. Why? They are nice, liveable neighborhoods that have an identity, which a lot of Huntsville lacks. They are close to jobs, entertainment, restaurants, bars, parks... For $250K you can buy a comfortable, nice 3 bed/2 bath house with a nice yard in a great neighborhood 5 minutes from everything in the city. Alternatively, you could save some money and buy a $150K, nice 2/1.5 in those neighborhoods as well. Those neighborhoods have a proven track record of maintaining and increasing in value. Or you can buy a much smaller condo in Providence and pay condo fees as well. That type of development is sort of an experiment here since it is yet to be seen how those condos will hold their value. It is really a matter of what you want. Do you want a house or a condo? IMO, I would not worry about there being any "flight" from the nicest neighborhoods in the center of Huntsville.

[HsvMike]

The best thing to do is come down here and take a look at all of these places for yourself. A lot of people have their favorite parts of Huntsville, but you will just need to find what is right for you.

A condo would be good if you really don't want to have to worry about a yard or a lot of maintenance. If you want to live close to downtown, don't get it confused with downtown St. Louis it is no where close, then Five Points and around there might be for you. There are also plenty of suburban subdivisions in very close proximity to everything in Hsv. 250k will take you a lot farther down here than it will up there.

The commute times will be nothing compared to what you are used to. I am from Chicago and it's funny to hear people complaining about traffic. You can get anywhere in about a half hour or less.

It will be worth the drive to come down here and look for yourself.

[Huntsville_secede]

Originally Posted by HsvMike

The best thing to do is come down here and take a look at all of these places for yourself. A lot of people have their favorite parts of Huntsville, but you will just need to find what is right for you.

A condo would be good if you really don't want to have to worry about a yard or a lot of maintenance. If you want to live close to downtown, don't get it confused with downtown St. Louis it is no where close, then Five Points and around there might be for you. There are also plenty of suburban subdivisions in very close proximity to everything in Hsv. 250k will take you a lot farther down here than it will up there.

The commute times will be nothing compared to what you are used to. I am from Chicago and it's funny to hear people complaining about traffic. You can get anywhere in about a half hour or less.

It will be worth the drive to come down here and look for yourself.

The reason people complain about traffic here is because it is nowhere near the size of Chicago with over 8-9 million people. Huntsville barely has 360,000 its 500K if you add Decatur and surrounding areas in TN. But yeah traffic in Huntsville is nothing compared to most larger cities and some cities of comparable size. But the roads in the outlaying areas of Madison County in recent years such as Harvest, Monrovia, Meridianville, New Market, have failed to keep up with the population growth and thus some serious traffic concerns have been emerging. A 30-45 min commute is actually rather long for a city of this size too, its partially because Huntsville is so spread out and developers chose to build subdivsions 15-20 miles from the city before all the land close to the city limits is even closed to being developed.

[HsvMike]

I wasn't trying to put Hsv down. I picked here out of anywhere in the south to live. It is a great place to live and raise a family.

I was just trying to put the traffic into context for someone that has not been here before. If I have never been here before and I hear a lot of people complaining about how bad the traffic is, then I would think the traffic is very bad with heavy congestion.
To me personally, I don't care how many cars are on the road, as long as they are moving and flowing good, then I consider the traffic to be fine.

Hsv is like any other city with a nice suburban growth. It happens all the time, people leaving the city to live a little farther out. I don't think Hsv being so spread out is necessarily a bad thing. It gives people a better choice and option of where to live.

I do think that there is too much new construction going on right now, but the builders are trying to prepare themselves for the influx of people/families coming through BRAC.

I agree that the infastructure is not where it should be. The roads all over Madison County do have to be a main concern with all of the people relocating in. The roads, and schools, definitely need to be in place before everyone gets here. I was at a BRAC meeting where some Generals and heads of departments that are moving here brought up the growth of Washington D.C. How the infastructure was not in place in the city and surrounding suburbs and it took a long while to get caught up and people relocating here have lived through it and are leery about doing it again. So it should be a top priority with the city / county.