Huntsville area life? (Decatur, Madison, Valley: schools, live in, restaurants)

[Nlambert]

Originally Posted by Campn87

Hey y’all!
One big thing is weather, what’s that like? Online info is so conflicted. Do you get 4 seasons? Does it snow much? Humidity? What’s the nature like there, flat, hilly?

Sure we get 4 seasons. Sometimes all in the same week (or day!). All jokes aside though, we do get 4 seasons but Alabama weather is odd sometimes. It can be snowing one day and shorts weather the next. We may go into late fall before it feels like fall and then suddenly a cold snap.

The terrain also depends on where you live. If you're out towards Decatur or Meridianville it's pretty flat. If you live east or south of Huntsville, it can get pretty hilly.

Originally Posted by Campn87

Also what’s the bug population like!? Coming from Florida, I’m sick of fire ants biting me and sweating 30 seconds after leaving the house. Like people here in Florida say, Florida is kinda gross.

We have bugs like most places. A lot of rain tends to bring out fire ants, and unfortunately we do have them. We get mosquitoes in the spring and late summer as well.

Originally Posted by Campn87

How are the houses like? What can we get for $300,000-$350,000? Are HOAS common? And where? Madison, Decatur? Other areas we should check out? What about traffic!?

That's a loaded question. It depends on where you live. $300k can get you a 1500 sq.ft house or a 3k sq.ft house 20 minutes apart. That one is difficult to answer. There are HOAs, but there are plenty of non-HOA areas as well. Traffic can be a pain sometimes, but overall 565 and the parkway is pretty good in terms of keeping traffic moving in comparison to larger cities.

Originally Posted by Campn87

Are people friendly, or keep to themselves?

I think most people are friendly, but we have tons of transplants, so there are some who may not be accustomed to Southern ways. That isn't a bad thing though. By and large most are friendly that I've ran across.

[Campn87]

Originally Posted by Nlambert

Sure we get 4 seasons. Sometimes all in the same week (or day!). All jokes aside though, we do get 4 seasons but Alabama weather is odd sometimes. It can be snowing one day and shorts weather the next. We may go into late fall before it feels like fall and then suddenly a cold snap.

The terrain also depends on where you live. If you're out towards Decatur or Meridianville it's pretty flat. If you live east or south of Huntsville, it can get pretty hilly.



We have bugs like most places. A lot of rain tends to bring out fire ants, and unfortunately we do have them. We get mosquitoes in the spring and late summer as well.



That's a loaded question. It depends on where you live. $300k can get you a 1500 sq.ft house or a 3k sq.ft house 20 minutes apart. That one is difficult to answer. There are HOAs, but there are plenty of non-HOA areas as well. Traffic can be a pain sometimes, but overall 565 and the parkway is pretty good in terms of keeping traffic moving in comparison to larger cities.



I think most people are friendly, but we have tons of transplants, so there are some who may not be accustomed to Southern ways. That isn't a bad thing though. By and large most are friendly that I've ran across.

Wow, thank you for sharing all of that! It’s definitely helping me decide what areas we should check out. Having hills would be really nice, but we definitely need a big house with a big yard for our kids and our dogs, we live in a 2000 sqft house now that we’ve out grew.

Can we get anything like that, and still be close to the good schools and shopping, or we’d have to get some things off our wish list?

[Campn87]

Originally Posted by FCEddie

Thank you. A few people have told me I need to pursue the writing gig. Not sure how to go about it, but i'll see what i can do.

I'll offer an alternative - Limestone County. East Limestone HS is pretty good from what I've heard from the people around here. It isn't Bob Jones or James Clemens, but it is pretty good. Athens is going to be booming as well, going to be fun watching this place grow.

Maybe you should try Writer’s Digest! 😊

[Nlambert]

Originally Posted by Campn87

Wow, thank you for sharing all of that! It’s definitely helping me decide what areas we should check out. Having hills would be really nice, but we definitely need a big house with a big yard for our kids and our dogs, we live in a 2000 sqft house now that we’ve out grew.

Can we get anything like that, and still be close to the good schools and shopping, or we’d have to get some things off our wish list?

I think it's achievable.

There are quite a few areas that offer a slightly lower cost of housing and still have good schools and convenience.

One example is the area we live in. Our house is 2,900 sq.ft. on 1.1 acres and we paid less than $300k. We live about 7 miles east of Chapman mountain (Where 565 turns into Hwy 72) in the Madison County Lake area. This area is growing quite fast. Our kids' elementary and high school are 5 minutes away. We've never had complaints with either school in terms of academics or activities. We kind of sit between the Winchester Rd and 72/Shields Rd area so we are within 10 minutes of the following:

Wal-Mart
Publix
Zaxbys
McDonald's (2)
Wendy's
Arby's
Waffle House
Verizon
Starbucks
Mexican restaurants (3)
Pizza (3)
Chinese restaurants
Japanese restaurants
Hot wings
Taco Bell (2 - one new one is being built on Winchester Rd as we speak)
Some small boutiques
etc...

15 minutes from home and we are at Moore's Mill:
Kroger
Burger King
etc....

10 minutes east of us is Gurley and:

Popeye's (being built now)
Hardee's
A Mexican restaurant
Subway
Piggly Wiggly


Within 20 minutes we can be in downtown Huntsville. We both work at the far end of South Parkway (24 miles from home) and it typically takes me about 25 minutes to get to work. We can be in West Huntsville on University Drive in about 25 minutes as well.

565 is a great asset and makes a lot of things accessible.

Oh... and did I mention that the view from our front porch is mountains on two sides? Can't really go wrong with that.

[Campn87]

You can’t imagine how grateful I am to get all those replies, I feel like I really came knowing so little and now I can avoid making moving mistakes.

Any cities other than Madison or Decatur I should consider? Also, when we visited I saw so many beautiful red brick houses. How much are those houses usually, where, how old etc? I just need a rough guess, because when I looked on Zillow I saw none like those houses, but more cookie cutter Florida like homes.

Are they super pricey?

[Preston3124]

Originally Posted by Campn87

You can’t imagine how grateful I am to get all those replies, I feel like I really came knowing so little and now I can avoid making moving mistakes.

Any cities other than Madison or Decatur I should consider? Also, when we visited I saw so many beautiful red brick houses. How much are those houses usually, where, how old etc? I just need a rough guess, because when I looked on Zillow I saw none like those houses, but more cookie cutter Florida like homes.

Are they super pricey?

Go to www.valleymls.com to search houses in the area. You may have to play with it a while to get what you want, but I put in Madison city with a price range of $300,000 to $350,000 and got over 50 results. I think some of those would qualify as beautiful red brick houses.

https://www.valleymls.com/homes-for-...5758-241549033

Another possibility-

https://www.valleymls.com/homes-for-...5758-259441935

[Campn87]

I actually checked it out but I’m not sure if the site is hard to navigate, or I’m hard to navigate it!

Thank you for doing a quick search! I didn’t see those houses on Zillow but they’re beautiful! Especially that second story deck!? I think those are rare though?

Also I think most houses are built in the 90s? Nothing older from what I’ve seen?

[Preston3124]

Originally Posted by Campn87

I actually checked it out but I’m not sure if the site is hard to negotiate, or I’m hard to negotiate it!

Thank you for doing a quick search! I didn’t see those houses on Zillow but they’re beautiful! Especially that second story deck!? I think those are rare though?

Also I think most houses are built in the 90s? Nothing older from what I’ve seen?

It's not just you. They "upgraded" the site a while back and made it more difficult to navigate. It used to be much more intuitive in my opinion.

[bornanddiedonWestside]

Originally Posted by Campn87

Awesome replies so far! Thank you everyone! I’m a bit worried about the weather now, cause it’s my least favorite Florida aspect, the hot humid months. Has anyone here lived in both Florida and Alabama so they can compare them to me? My husband said it does get very hot and humid in Huntsville but only for like a month (maybe 2) while here it lasts 5-6 months!

Please describe to me your 4 seasons if you have time!

It also depends on the year, because summer 2016 going into 2017 was pretty humid and hot, as well as a good portion of 2017 ( In the Huntsville Area at least ). I remember there was hardly any cold weather winter of 2016-17. I was wearing tanktops and hiking on Monte Sano in February 2017, and I've lived here my whole life ( No northern weather genetics).

[nalabama]

We are expecting a freeze tonight and tomorrow a.m., so yes, you will need coats and scarves. Or then again, it might be sunny and warm.