ISO a “little big city” feel and room to spread out. (Birmingham: to rent)

[Fotomama23]

We may be considering a higher paying job opportunity in Al.

Right now we currently live in Texas about 23 minutes outside of Austin and are hoping to find a home/community similar or close to what we have since we do enjoy where we are currently as it is. Really we just want some space in our next house. We live in the burbs and our homes are tightly built next to each other.

For more context…

We have 3 children but only two to consider public schools for (the oldest is in college).
Our ideal set up would be by priority: safety, excellent school district and some land at least an acre or two or three. We wouldn’t mind driving a bit (15-20 minutes) into town for groceries, target, Walmart..etc.. if we had to- we just don’t want to be so far out that it makes running errands so challenging.
My spouse works in hospitality and we are huge foodies so having accessibility to dining out would also be great.

On that note I work in a creative field and own a brick and mortar storefront where I live now. I was considering opening a second location if we move but I’m not sure what location it would be most successful. I currently serve photographers and smaller independent businesses and online companies that need to rent space for content creation. I’m not in any “art district” specific place now, my storefront is in the burbs and we are successful it’s just that Austin is a large huge for creativity so it’s not hard to stay busy. I would really love to find a home for this business up there.


Our budget would be about 250-500k. The reason for range is that we would like to do one of two things:

A) Find an older home that we could put 150-200k into.
Or
B) Find something that already checks a lot of boxes in terms of how it’s been finished inside and out.

We’ve looked at Indian Springs, vestavia hills, Hoover, guntersville. I’m just not sure that I’m looking in the right places for the amount of space were hoping for but a lot of what these areas have as far as homes and community seem to be what we would like.
I’m also terrified of tornadoes so an area that gets the least action would make me sleep a bit better at night!

That was a mouthful! Any and all ideas, recommendations would be so appreciated thanks!!

[johnsonkk]

Does the “high paying opportunity “ have a specific location or is anywhere in Alabama sufficient?

[Fotomama23]

We are pretty flexible on where we can go in the entire state! We maybe need to be slightly central, but mostly it’s a work from home position with travel around to the different cities a few times per month.

The job is divided up by region in the state, so if we we were to end up in the northern region we could for example live in TN if we wanted, or vice versa if it were more east we could live in Ga and drive out to AL. The chances of being more central to the state is more realistic though as that is where the demand is needed.

TIA!

[harry chickpea]

"Hospitality" covers a lot of ground. Motels? Fast food? Brothels?

What comes to mind is just north of Franklin TN, edging towards Nashville. There is creativity in AL, but probably not on the level you are used to all in one spot. As a hint, creativity and tourism often go hand in hand.

[Madmom2000]

To be "slightly central", I would recommend Birmingham. You may want to post the same thread here:

https://www.city-data.com/forum/birmingham-area/

For schools I would recommend Vestavia Hills, Homewood or Mountain Brook.

Good luck in your search!