Considering the Huntsville area for home. (Athens, Ardmore: real estate, apartments, city hall)

[Craigmri]

Greetings,

My wife and I, and possibly our Son and Daughter-in-law are wanting to take a trip to explore Huntsville as we search for our new community. My wife and I are nearing retirement but I still have about 7 years of work life ahead but want to finally leave Florida.

While we love the mountains my wife doesn't like the mountain roads and wintry weather. Huntsville seems like where the hills begin and might be a good compromise?

I assume the Summers are hot but Winters are moderate. Do ya'll have love bugs that far north? They are seriously bad in FLA in May and Sep.

How's downtown? Do they have a nice city center with frequent activities? where are the big shopping areas?

We want a couple of acres and a house with a large shop and we see a lot of them on Zillow. Are there viable options under $500K?

As we prepare for an exploratory trip to visit what would you recommend we see in and around Huntsville?

Thanks in advance!

Craig

[RocketDawg]

No love bugs here, so your car won't be covered. But, at night in the summer, there are other bugs, just not total coverage for your car.

Summers are hot an humid, from mid-June to mid-September. But spring and fall are beautiful, storms nothwithstanding. Most consider winters here mild, but it can get pretty cold. We get snow to some extent each winter but it usually doesn't last long. They're pretty good about keeping major roads cleared so you're not totally immobilized. We only average about 3-4 inches a year, but in the past it's been over 20. But that's highly unusual.

Downtown is booming, seems to be really safe, is getting a lot of residential development, and is a big entertainment center. A new city hall is being built, a federal courthouse is under construction, and sometime soon a new county courthouse will be built. One of the larger projects is here, set to start soon: https://frontrowhsv.com

You can probably find a couple of acres in your price range but it will be a bit "in the county", but that's not a biggie. A lot of houses and apartments are being built though so you don't want to take forever looking and deciding.

My wife and I have been here for a long time. Both of us are retired and we just stayed here. Love this place. If we want to go to the beach, it's 6 hours; mountains are even closer. It's just a nice mid-sized city that has just about anything you'd want.

[Craigmri]

Sounds awesome. great info and thanks for that link too!!! Sounds like its thriving.

Cant wait to go check it out.

Craig

[harry chickpea]

My guess is that if you are that familiar with love bugs you live within 75 miles of Orlando. You will swap them for seasonal Asian lady bugs (usually during November), Stink bugs (spring and fall), and fire ants (year round). However, there is something really bad happening with the insect populations, and it appears to be getting worse fast. They are dying off precipitously. I have only seen a handful of butterflies this year, whereas three or four years back there were dozens of them. Even the dauber wasp population is down, and the carpenter bee late summer flush never happened this year. Along with this, there are fewer songbirds. The hawks and crows are still around, and I have seen a few masses of starlings, but it is MUCH quieter in the early morning than it has been in past years. I'm not generally alarmist, but this is very concerning, so much so that I looked online and found reference to this:

https://www.wired.com/story/a-car-sp...nsect-die-off/

Seven years to retirement - would you come up and work in Alabama? Jobs are plentiful. If you stay in Florida until then you may lose out economically, as prices go up here and the area builds out, while more people exit Florida and the high insurance and taxes, driving pricing down there.

[RocketDawg]

Originally Posted by harry chickpea

My guess is that if you are that familiar with love bugs you live within 75 miles of Orlando. You will swap them for seasonal Asian lady bugs (usually during November), Stink bugs (spring and fall), and fire ants (year round). However, there is something really bad happening with the insect populations, and it appears to be getting worse fast. They are dying off precipitously. I have only seen a handful of butterflies this year, whereas three or four years back there were dozens of them. Even the dauber wasp population is down, and the carpenter bee late summer flush never happened this year. Along with this, there are fewer songbirds. The hawks and crows are still around, and I have seen a few masses of starlings, but it is MUCH quieter in the early morning than it has been in past years. I'm not generally alarmist, but this is very concerning, so much so that I looked online and found reference to this:

https://www.wired.com/story/a-car-sp...nsect-die-off/

Seven years to retirement - would you come up and work in Alabama? Jobs are plentiful. If you stay in Florida until then you may lose out economically, as prices go up here and the area builds out, while more people exit Florida and the high insurance and taxes, driving pricing down there.

I read not long ago that the Monarch butterflies are way down, and maybe even in danger. They're migratory, so something is happening to alter their movements. Hope it's just a temporary thing.

Carpenter bees apparently like treated pine. I got a good supply this year, as always - they drilled into my deck railing this year and every year. May have to replace it with cast iron (I suppose they're aluminum now), and that would be more attractive anyway.

Hopefully the songbirds will be more plentiful once it turns cold and we start stocking the bird feeders.

[Guerrilla Poster]

The winters are colder than the summers are hot.
You'll NEVER be without a job.

[huntsville4u]

We moved from Florida to Huntsville a year ago and it was a GREAT move for us! Florida has become overpriced and overcrowded!

[JoeJunior]

Huntsville is actually located in a river plain--of the Tennessee River. Much of the county is heavily agricultural--enough where we compete on roads with cotton pickers and tractors in the city. But there's a number of very tall hills or ridges poking up all over the county and some of the valleys are just breathtaking.
North Alabama has four distinct seasons but winters are moderate. We see snow, but very seldom. We have some bugs but they're not overwhelming--far less than Florida.
Huntsville Downtown is very nice, and they're building apartments downtown. The convention center is impressive, and there are a bunch of activities going on all the time. We're just large enough to have touring acts--music, dance, etc.
Whenever you purchase homes with acreage, just about every one will have a big garage/shop. No shortage there.
We are also surrounded by really fine communities--in Alabama and across the state line in Tennessee.

We moved here for the fabulous Tennessee River--where we have a lake house an hour away. Some of the area lakes are just beautiful, and they're all over North Alabama.

[johnsonkk]

Originally Posted by Craigmri

Greetings,

My wife and I, and possibly our Son and Daughter-in-law are wanting to take a trip to explore Huntsville as we search for our new community. My wife and I are nearing retirement but I still have about 7 years of work life ahead but want to finally leave Florida.

While we love the mountains my wife doesn't like the mountain roads and wintry weather. Huntsville seems like where the hills begin and might be a good compromise?

I assume the Summers are hot but Winters are moderate. Do ya'll have love bugs that far north? They are seriously bad in FLA in May and Sep.

How's downtown? Do they have a nice city center with frequent activities? where are the big shopping areas?

We want a couple of acres and a house with a large shop and we see a lot of them on Zillow. Are there viable options under $500K?

As we prepare for an exploratory trip to visit what would you recommend we see in and around Huntsville?

Thanks in advance!

Craig

Looking at the real estate side, your future exploratory trips that are outside Huntsville will also be your house hunting trips. There just aren’t that many in your specs. Huntsville is growing its boundary rapidly with annexations far away from downtown, which may make searching house easier.

But looking at 2+ acres for even under $600k, with or without a shop are rare in Huntsville city limits. There currently are less than 5 and some are pending. Outside the city, depends on which direction you’re looking, which goes back to where your exploratory trips take your family.

[JoeJunior]

For 2 acre lots, I'd be looking south of Ardmore and north of Athens in Limestone County.

The countryside doesn't have distasteful mobile homes and houses with junk cars.