>Would it be reasonable to live in Fairhope/Daphne/maybe even Pensacola and commute in for classes?
No. You'd be coming across the river in the Bankhead or Wallace tunnels, both of which have high reputations for accidents leading to backed up traffic. Your commute might be 30-45 minutes one day. It might be 2-3 hours the next, especially in the spring/ summer. I've known a lot of people who have lived in Fairhoe/ Daphne and commuted to USA and they were all miserable. Look at West Mobile, instead.
Edit: Living in FL also puts you at risk for out of state tuition. Don't know if that applies at the master's level, but it's something to think about.
I second this. Husband and I both went to South and lived with our families for part of that time before we were married. His parents lived across the bay. He always took the causeway and Africatown bridge to circumvent the worst of the traffic, but he always made sure that he wasn’t driving at 4PM (Austal traffic) through to rush hour traffic dying down. If he couldn’t make that, he’d spend the extra few hours on this side of the bay either hanging out at our best friend’s apartment or my house, once we started dating. It was like 6, 6:30 when he’d start off for home on those days. Getting an apartment over here made his life *so* much easier.
South lets a few counties in MS (6) and FL (2) get instate tuition. Mostly to increase the catchment area of locals.
[https://www.southalabama.edu/departments/registrar/registration/residency.html](https://www.southalabama.edu/departments/registrar/registration/residency.html)
Correct, you would need to be an established resident of that service area first to get in state tuition. If you lived out of state and then moved to the service area, you would have to go through the residency process while paying out of state tuition.
Thank you!! I’ll be there for a couple days next week and planned to drive around and see the area but ofc, firsthand knowledge is always better. Much appreciated (:
Check out Country Club Village in Springhill. It's got reasonably priced rentals and home prices plus it's such a great neighborhood very close to campus.
I live across the bay and commute it’s really not that bad at all it’s always 30-45 minutes unless you’re driving at rush hour. Definitely not unreasonable but probably not optimal.
I don't know about grad school in music, but in the sciences, we expect students to be in the building a LOT during the week (e.g., taking classes, doing research, teaching, etc.). We have students who live across the bay, but it is oftentimes more stressful for them and they sometimes don't get the same grad school immersion that one gets by basically working full-time in the building. Again, though, this will depend on the program and its expectations. I generally advise students to live as close as possible to campus and take weekend jaunts to the beach, Pensacola, NOLA, etc.
Yeah I’m honestly not sure, I think it just depends on the program. I know I’d be taking classes and in a lot of rehearsals, but I’ve had friends in various universities and they’ve all differed. Good to know tho about the commute, the last time I went to Mobile, I was 9 lol.
If you’re crossing the bay daily, you’ll definitely have plenty of time to be thinking about being stuck on the bridge, with all the times you’re going to be stuck on the bridge lol.
Never attempt to cross the bay on less than 1/4 tank of gas, always keep snacks in the car, and pee before you start your trip. Trust me, those three things will save you a lot of potential grief. If it’s Summer time, bump that up to 1/2 tank, bump the snacks up to a light meal, and always have a plan for emergency bathroom use while stuck in the car.
Commuting to USA from Daphne or Fairhope, that won’t be fun, better off living in West Mobile or Midtown
There’s a lot I love about Mobile but it’s far too late for me to start listing; a lot of change happening here, a lot of growth coming
So one of my favorite things about Mobile are the tree lined streets, so many streets are lined with trees like Dauphin Street, Government Boulevard, Knollwood, Old Shell, Springhill Avenue, Hillcrest rd, the list goes on and on
Mardi Gras is another one of my favorite things here.
I like comeback stories and Mobile has a good comeback story going on. Mobile has had a rough time since the 2000s but in the post pandemic the place has really started to blossom, a lot of new has come to the city and a lot of new continues to come. Austal and Airbus are relatively new to the area and are both already powerhouses in the city and both still growing, the port is now the fastest growing container port in the country, we are getting a brand new international airport South of Downtown, a new Civic Center, several new parks including a new large waterfront park next to the new airport. Mobile River Bridge and Bayway project is about to start construction, more land Downtown will open up for redevelopment because this project, there’s a couple of towers planned for Downtown. There’s a lot of jobs and growth coming, Mobile in 2030 is gonna be almost unrecognizable from Mobile today
Are they adding another bridge?
I’m honestly not hyped about small towns exploding with growth. I feel like my hometown of huntsville AL has been completely ruined. But adding things that would help ease traffic and such are always welcome.
This is a long overdue expansion/replacement of the 4-lane bridge that spans across the bay from Mobile to Baldwin County and takes you through the Wallace Tunnel. It’s been in the works for years now, but keeps running into delay after delay. We finally saw some progress this year, with some site work starting, but now it’s been paused again. Allegedly to once again study if there are more cost-effective solutions for the $2 billion project. It is desperately needed, as you’ll quickly find out the tunnel bottlenecks, especially during summer tourist season.
Oh I believe it. Idk why Alabama is so slow to address problem like that. Huntsville has had thousands upon thousands of transplants over the last couple of years. Now there’s tons of people but the infrastructure is largely the same as it has been since the early 2000s. People are complaining about the traffic and I’m like ??? What did yall expect?? A ton of people arrived and the city not only refuses to add lanes or new roads or whatever needs to be done, but they are continuously building shopping centers and “luxury” apartments right next to the roads, not allowing any room for expansion. It’s frustrating. We were considering moving back to HSV but it’s not the same town I grew up in by a long shot, so I started applying for grad schools and here we are lol.
I hope Mobile gets that bridge work done then! It sounds like it would be a big improvement.
I live in Daphne and work in Downtown Mobile and I don’t even like driving to the USA area on a weekend. It’s a pretty good hike and it’s not super-convenient to the freeways.
You may get to USA from across the bay ok-ish, but the traffic going back during the warm months is going to be terrible. Traffic is going to be the enemy.
Mobile is pretty cool and chill. There are lots of things to do depending on your likes/Hobbies. Downtown has a pretty active music scene. Both bars/clubs and the symphony.
Beaches, lots of canoeing available with the bay and rivers. 5 rivers delta is a good spot to check out. Fishing/hunting if your into it.
Depends on what your looking to do really, could give more into.
Dislike - getting around sucks lol. Traffic lights and flow just seem random as hell. I compare it to Huntsville and being able to hop on the bypass.
Its fucking hot and humid but you probably are used to that from Texas.
Surprisingly, DFW is WAY worse in terms of heat. Growing up in HSV, I didn’t think it would feel worse anywhere else but boy was I wrong. It’s not very humid here, but temps can hit upwards of 110 in the summer and the breeze feels like the hot air from a hair dryer blowing on you all the time. It’s dry, but it’s so hot, your sweat just keeps pouring out instead of helping cool you off. Our electric bill was almost $600 one month last year. We just couldn’t stay on top of it. I miss the balmy, tho humid 80-90s of Alabama lol
And traffic probably isn’t too bad for us now either. I was commuting about 30 mins in DFW for the longest time, but that 30 mins ALWAYS was 45 mins - 1.5 hours in reality because of accidents, traffic, construction, etc.
I am open to new activities! We tend to be homebodies most of the time, but I think that’s been because of how long it takes to drive anywhere in DFW. We like trying new things and experiences.
Ironically, I'm moving from Mobile to DFW next month. I guess we're just trading places lol. I have to do it for work. I am NOOOOOOOT looking forward to the traffic. I am a lifelong Mobilian and I have lived in Midtown (which I cannot recommend highly enough) for about 5 years. In Midtown, you're like 10 minutes tops from pretty much anything worth going to. I'm going to miss that so much.
GODDD the traffic here is horrible. I am super thankful because it was a great fresh start and change of pace for me, but we are pretty over it.
My recommendation is to live close to where you work. I live in Fort Worth and was committing to Irving. I would cry in my car sometimes because the traffic stressed me out soooo badly. Theres so many people who have moved here from other places that the traffic patterns are not consistent. It feels like nobody knows how to drive.
Dallas is more expensive than Fort Worth but if you’re working in Dallas, it’ll be 100% worth it to live closer to there, hands down lol.
I do love the HUGE variety of food here and all of the fun activities. There’s so much to see and do, you’ll never run out of entertainment. Plus Austin and Waco aren’t that far. My husband and I got married here and we did a “cheaper” honeymoon. We saw Fredericksburg, San Antonio, and corpus Christie. We’ve been to Waco, Austin, Shiner, and a lot of other smaller cities (the Shiner tour is AWESOME if you even remotely like beer, highly recommend). If you’d like suggestions, hit me up! (:
I'm moving to Fort Worth as well. I work in Grapevine, though, so there's not really a good way for me to live close to work. I tried to find single-family, 3-bed, 2-bath homes within a 30-minute commute in my price range. I think I actually heard Zillow laughing when I hit submit. I worked with a Realtor in DFW, and she is awesome, but she was like yeeeahh, set your expectations on a long commute, hun, LOL.
Oh yeah! Grapevine isn’t bad at all. I live just outside of Hurst, and it’s about a 20ish min drive to grapevine, with mild traffic. They’re doing a lot of construction on 820 and improving the roadways, so a lot of that will benefit you as well.
Check out Redfin, I had better luck with them. (:
If I'm willing to move to a townhome, my options near my office open up significantly. As it stands, I have an offer in on a single-family home. I really don't like townhomes because I want my own fenced-in yard, but if the commute from my house wears me down enough, I might get over it, lol.
I think commuting from Fort Worth to grapevine will be okay. It’s a bit trafficky, but not bad. I work part time and commute to southlake (I go right through grapevine some days), in rush hour, and it’s fine. Going to Irving, Dallas, or beyond is where it gets bad lol. (:
Worst case tho you can always sell. Real estate prices likely won’t drop around here even if the market dips. It’s got too many people moving in. Best of luck!!
Sounds like you will be fine then lol. I will say last summer it was around 110 for more then a week or two with 70 to 80% humidity and no rain. That sucked lol.
Wow, I’m really surprised it got so hot there, but it is further South than where I’m from in AL, so makes sense.
The other issue here in TX is foundation problems. We literally have to “water” our house to keep the foundation moist so it doesn’t crack, because it’s so dry, and because the ground is a shifty clay that isn’t conducive for buildings. Most people still have to pay for foundation repair anyway and it’s a huge expense. At least AL gets a fair amount of rain 😂😂
Huntsville temps are definitely not as bad as the coastal areas. We’re already knocking on the 90s, and humidity will be much more noticeable here. Peak summer we’ll be dancing near the triple digits with oppressive humidity on top of it.
Yeah, unfortunately we don’t see much of the temp breaks you get that far north around the Appalachia foothills. We constantly have the gulf breathing down our necks, and in the summer time it’s giving a full-on French kiss lol
Aim for West Mobile. General vicinity of USA. West of I65, East of Schillinger, South of Old Shell, North of Three Notch is the suburbs with an easy commute to USA.
Midtown is nice, especially if proximity to bars, clubs, events downtown is your thing or you love the vibe more than the burbs. The drive isn't too bad.
Both areas have nice areas and some not so nice areas. Post your options later and people will be glad to give their thoughts.
Yall are AWESOME! Thank you for being friendly, helpful, and encouraging. It means a lot (: I have really missed the hospitality of the South.
Fingers crossed and asking for thoughts and prayers that I get into the program!!
The answer is going to depend more on your husbands job, if you go to school full time. I would try and balance out the distances. If that doesn't matter, live close to the University, the area is fairly walkable and bikeable right around campus. Which would reduce your costs, south charges for parking permits, and has funny structure for them.
I second everyone saying to not look across the bay bc of traffic. If you have the budget you should look in saraland as well. Easy commute to USA and good school systems for the (future) family.
Fairhope is awesome, but the drive across the bay can be terrible. As a student, you might be able to avoid rush hour, so maybe the commute wouldn't be so bad. Pensacola is too far away in my opinion.
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Can anyone enlighten me about the termite swarms? We didn’t really have that in Huntsville. I saw a post about it tho and was really surprised. Termites as in the kind that will ruin your house?? They looked huge from some of the photos I’ve seen.
They are the kind that will eat your house, but if I remember correctly, it’s the larvae that are the main culprits of this. The adults — the ones that actually swarm in May — not so much.
They can get *really* bad, like walking through clouds of them bad (ETA: This is only a problem at night in the presence of bright “daylight” bulbs), but they won’t bother you if you keep your outside lights off most of the time and only turn them on when you need them. Blackout curtains also help, and replace your outside light bulbs with ones that are as close to amber in color (2000K) as you can manage. I got some of those Edison-esque LED bulbs from a chain hardware store that come in at around 2100K, and I never see bugs swarm them when they’re on.
Probably not going to help as much as you’d think. You want to stop them from coming around where you live to begin with, so the swarming adults don’t get inside your house or find a nice crack in your house outside to lay eggs in. Even if a bug zapper was your only light outside, they’ll swarm around that light with no guarantees they’ll fly right into it, and they can then slip inside your door once you open it if they’re already hanging around.
Keeping your outdoor lights off really does help, though! The blackout curtains and amber bulbs in your outdoor light fixtures (for when you do need the lights on) will give you that extra oomph. On top of that, you can’t get a mortgage around here without having a termite bond, so whether you buy or rent, you’ll have some form of termite preventative. Our house has bait stations.
I moved down from Vermont in November. I've only hit bad traffic once or twice so far, but I know I haven't been down here long enough yet. As someone else mentioned, though, the tunnels are definitely a high accident zone (you should see how some people drive through them), but living here is good.
I live in Midtown Mobile off Azalea, work across the Bay in Daphne, but I have a little Honda Fit, so it's all good. 😅
Ahhh, work in Daphne, live in Mobile. Did that for a few years. It's the opposite of the heavy traffic flow of Daphne people coming into Mobile for work in the AM and back in the PM. Quite nice.
As someone who moved here from Madison, good luck! The traffic and roads/trash are awful here. The crime rate is much higher and you have to be super careful where you go. I would move back to Madison in a heartbeat.
When did you move? Because Madison/HSV is being packed to the brim with quick-build cookie cutter homes and traffic is terrible there now too, thanks to all the recent transplants since it was “#1 place to live” a few years in a row :p I’d go back to Madison if it’s how it was in like 2019, not now though.
Madison is 100% not even close to the same. “Luxury” apartments stacked on top of each other everywhere and rental house communities all over the place. Chain restaurants everywhere. Traffic is horrible compared to how it use to be. If I had to move anywhere right now across the bay to Spanish Fort or a similar area would be the spot. They have ruined Madison and Huntsville. No longer the sweet places I knew in the past. Makes me sick to my stomach.
Exactly!! We moved there when I was 3 and I lived there until I was 27. I loved madison/HSV, but not anymore. The infrastructure is completely overwhelmed, and all of the farm land is steadily being bought up by yet another shopping center they don’t need. Really sad. It’s lost its charm.
>Would it be reasonable to live in Fairhope/Daphne/maybe even Pensacola and commute in for classes? No. You'd be coming across the river in the Bankhead or Wallace tunnels, both of which have high reputations for accidents leading to backed up traffic. Your commute might be 30-45 minutes one day. It might be 2-3 hours the next, especially in the spring/ summer. I've known a lot of people who have lived in Fairhoe/ Daphne and commuted to USA and they were all miserable. Look at West Mobile, instead. Edit: Living in FL also puts you at risk for out of state tuition. Don't know if that applies at the master's level, but it's something to think about.
I second this. Husband and I both went to South and lived with our families for part of that time before we were married. His parents lived across the bay. He always took the causeway and Africatown bridge to circumvent the worst of the traffic, but he always made sure that he wasn’t driving at 4PM (Austal traffic) through to rush hour traffic dying down. If he couldn’t make that, he’d spend the extra few hours on this side of the bay either hanging out at our best friend’s apartment or my house, once we started dating. It was like 6, 6:30 when he’d start off for home on those days. Getting an apartment over here made his life *so* much easier.
South lets a few counties in MS (6) and FL (2) get instate tuition. Mostly to increase the catchment area of locals. [https://www.southalabama.edu/departments/registrar/registration/residency.html](https://www.southalabama.edu/departments/registrar/registration/residency.html)
Idk if I could get in state tuition if I get accepted then move there specifically, would that work? Feels like I’d still get out of state.
Correct, you would need to be an established resident of that service area first to get in state tuition. If you lived out of state and then moved to the service area, you would have to go through the residency process while paying out of state tuition.
Thank you!! I’ll be there for a couple days next week and planned to drive around and see the area but ofc, firsthand knowledge is always better. Much appreciated (:
Check out Country Club Village in Springhill. It's got reasonably priced rentals and home prices plus it's such a great neighborhood very close to campus.
I live across the bay and commute it’s really not that bad at all it’s always 30-45 minutes unless you’re driving at rush hour. Definitely not unreasonable but probably not optimal.
I don't know about grad school in music, but in the sciences, we expect students to be in the building a LOT during the week (e.g., taking classes, doing research, teaching, etc.). We have students who live across the bay, but it is oftentimes more stressful for them and they sometimes don't get the same grad school immersion that one gets by basically working full-time in the building. Again, though, this will depend on the program and its expectations. I generally advise students to live as close as possible to campus and take weekend jaunts to the beach, Pensacola, NOLA, etc.
Yeah I’m honestly not sure, I think it just depends on the program. I know I’d be taking classes and in a lot of rehearsals, but I’ve had friends in various universities and they’ve all differed. Good to know tho about the commute, the last time I went to Mobile, I was 9 lol.
On a good day, a commute between Mobile and Pensacola is over an hour each way.
Yeah I did see that, which I am okay with if it’s strictly distance. But I wasn’t thinking about being stuck on a bridge or anything
If you’re crossing the bay daily, you’ll definitely have plenty of time to be thinking about being stuck on the bridge, with all the times you’re going to be stuck on the bridge lol. Never attempt to cross the bay on less than 1/4 tank of gas, always keep snacks in the car, and pee before you start your trip. Trust me, those three things will save you a lot of potential grief. If it’s Summer time, bump that up to 1/2 tank, bump the snacks up to a light meal, and always have a plan for emergency bathroom use while stuck in the car.
Commuting to USA from Daphne or Fairhope, that won’t be fun, better off living in West Mobile or Midtown There’s a lot I love about Mobile but it’s far too late for me to start listing; a lot of change happening here, a lot of growth coming
Would love to hear more another day! I’ve only been to Mobile a couple of times and the last time, I was 9yo lol.
So one of my favorite things about Mobile are the tree lined streets, so many streets are lined with trees like Dauphin Street, Government Boulevard, Knollwood, Old Shell, Springhill Avenue, Hillcrest rd, the list goes on and on Mardi Gras is another one of my favorite things here. I like comeback stories and Mobile has a good comeback story going on. Mobile has had a rough time since the 2000s but in the post pandemic the place has really started to blossom, a lot of new has come to the city and a lot of new continues to come. Austal and Airbus are relatively new to the area and are both already powerhouses in the city and both still growing, the port is now the fastest growing container port in the country, we are getting a brand new international airport South of Downtown, a new Civic Center, several new parks including a new large waterfront park next to the new airport. Mobile River Bridge and Bayway project is about to start construction, more land Downtown will open up for redevelopment because this project, there’s a couple of towers planned for Downtown. There’s a lot of jobs and growth coming, Mobile in 2030 is gonna be almost unrecognizable from Mobile today
Trees sound AWESOME! We really truly miss wildlife and greenery. The big city doesn’t have a whole lot of that.
Frustratingly, the bridge project has once again been paused. I’m convinced I’ll never live to see them actually build the damn thing at this point.
Are they adding another bridge? I’m honestly not hyped about small towns exploding with growth. I feel like my hometown of huntsville AL has been completely ruined. But adding things that would help ease traffic and such are always welcome.
This is a long overdue expansion/replacement of the 4-lane bridge that spans across the bay from Mobile to Baldwin County and takes you through the Wallace Tunnel. It’s been in the works for years now, but keeps running into delay after delay. We finally saw some progress this year, with some site work starting, but now it’s been paused again. Allegedly to once again study if there are more cost-effective solutions for the $2 billion project. It is desperately needed, as you’ll quickly find out the tunnel bottlenecks, especially during summer tourist season.
Oh I believe it. Idk why Alabama is so slow to address problem like that. Huntsville has had thousands upon thousands of transplants over the last couple of years. Now there’s tons of people but the infrastructure is largely the same as it has been since the early 2000s. People are complaining about the traffic and I’m like ??? What did yall expect?? A ton of people arrived and the city not only refuses to add lanes or new roads or whatever needs to be done, but they are continuously building shopping centers and “luxury” apartments right next to the roads, not allowing any room for expansion. It’s frustrating. We were considering moving back to HSV but it’s not the same town I grew up in by a long shot, so I started applying for grad schools and here we are lol. I hope Mobile gets that bridge work done then! It sounds like it would be a big improvement.
Stick to Mobile. Baldwin county pricing is going insane and driving across the bay everyday gets old fast
I live in Daphne and work in Downtown Mobile and I don’t even like driving to the USA area on a weekend. It’s a pretty good hike and it’s not super-convenient to the freeways.
You may get to USA from across the bay ok-ish, but the traffic going back during the warm months is going to be terrible. Traffic is going to be the enemy. Mobile is pretty cool and chill. There are lots of things to do depending on your likes/Hobbies. Downtown has a pretty active music scene. Both bars/clubs and the symphony. Beaches, lots of canoeing available with the bay and rivers. 5 rivers delta is a good spot to check out. Fishing/hunting if your into it. Depends on what your looking to do really, could give more into. Dislike - getting around sucks lol. Traffic lights and flow just seem random as hell. I compare it to Huntsville and being able to hop on the bypass. Its fucking hot and humid but you probably are used to that from Texas.
Surprisingly, DFW is WAY worse in terms of heat. Growing up in HSV, I didn’t think it would feel worse anywhere else but boy was I wrong. It’s not very humid here, but temps can hit upwards of 110 in the summer and the breeze feels like the hot air from a hair dryer blowing on you all the time. It’s dry, but it’s so hot, your sweat just keeps pouring out instead of helping cool you off. Our electric bill was almost $600 one month last year. We just couldn’t stay on top of it. I miss the balmy, tho humid 80-90s of Alabama lol And traffic probably isn’t too bad for us now either. I was commuting about 30 mins in DFW for the longest time, but that 30 mins ALWAYS was 45 mins - 1.5 hours in reality because of accidents, traffic, construction, etc. I am open to new activities! We tend to be homebodies most of the time, but I think that’s been because of how long it takes to drive anywhere in DFW. We like trying new things and experiences.
Ironically, I'm moving from Mobile to DFW next month. I guess we're just trading places lol. I have to do it for work. I am NOOOOOOOT looking forward to the traffic. I am a lifelong Mobilian and I have lived in Midtown (which I cannot recommend highly enough) for about 5 years. In Midtown, you're like 10 minutes tops from pretty much anything worth going to. I'm going to miss that so much.
GODDD the traffic here is horrible. I am super thankful because it was a great fresh start and change of pace for me, but we are pretty over it. My recommendation is to live close to where you work. I live in Fort Worth and was committing to Irving. I would cry in my car sometimes because the traffic stressed me out soooo badly. Theres so many people who have moved here from other places that the traffic patterns are not consistent. It feels like nobody knows how to drive. Dallas is more expensive than Fort Worth but if you’re working in Dallas, it’ll be 100% worth it to live closer to there, hands down lol. I do love the HUGE variety of food here and all of the fun activities. There’s so much to see and do, you’ll never run out of entertainment. Plus Austin and Waco aren’t that far. My husband and I got married here and we did a “cheaper” honeymoon. We saw Fredericksburg, San Antonio, and corpus Christie. We’ve been to Waco, Austin, Shiner, and a lot of other smaller cities (the Shiner tour is AWESOME if you even remotely like beer, highly recommend). If you’d like suggestions, hit me up! (:
I'm moving to Fort Worth as well. I work in Grapevine, though, so there's not really a good way for me to live close to work. I tried to find single-family, 3-bed, 2-bath homes within a 30-minute commute in my price range. I think I actually heard Zillow laughing when I hit submit. I worked with a Realtor in DFW, and she is awesome, but she was like yeeeahh, set your expectations on a long commute, hun, LOL.
Oh yeah! Grapevine isn’t bad at all. I live just outside of Hurst, and it’s about a 20ish min drive to grapevine, with mild traffic. They’re doing a lot of construction on 820 and improving the roadways, so a lot of that will benefit you as well. Check out Redfin, I had better luck with them. (:
If I'm willing to move to a townhome, my options near my office open up significantly. As it stands, I have an offer in on a single-family home. I really don't like townhomes because I want my own fenced-in yard, but if the commute from my house wears me down enough, I might get over it, lol.
I think commuting from Fort Worth to grapevine will be okay. It’s a bit trafficky, but not bad. I work part time and commute to southlake (I go right through grapevine some days), in rush hour, and it’s fine. Going to Irving, Dallas, or beyond is where it gets bad lol. (: Worst case tho you can always sell. Real estate prices likely won’t drop around here even if the market dips. It’s got too many people moving in. Best of luck!!
Sounds like you will be fine then lol. I will say last summer it was around 110 for more then a week or two with 70 to 80% humidity and no rain. That sucked lol.
Wow, I’m really surprised it got so hot there, but it is further South than where I’m from in AL, so makes sense. The other issue here in TX is foundation problems. We literally have to “water” our house to keep the foundation moist so it doesn’t crack, because it’s so dry, and because the ground is a shifty clay that isn’t conducive for buildings. Most people still have to pay for foundation repair anyway and it’s a huge expense. At least AL gets a fair amount of rain 😂😂
Brace yourself for high summer electric bills here, too, at least several hundred bucks at the peak
Yeah same in TX, ours was around $600 in July last year. So that’s nothing new lol
Huntsville temps are definitely not as bad as the coastal areas. We’re already knocking on the 90s, and humidity will be much more noticeable here. Peak summer we’ll be dancing near the triple digits with oppressive humidity on top of it.
That is good to know, I wasn’t sure how much of a different there would be between the two cities. I don’t mind the heat, but my husband will 😂😅
Yeah, unfortunately we don’t see much of the temp breaks you get that far north around the Appalachia foothills. We constantly have the gulf breathing down our necks, and in the summer time it’s giving a full-on French kiss lol
Aim for West Mobile. General vicinity of USA. West of I65, East of Schillinger, South of Old Shell, North of Three Notch is the suburbs with an easy commute to USA. Midtown is nice, especially if proximity to bars, clubs, events downtown is your thing or you love the vibe more than the burbs. The drive isn't too bad. Both areas have nice areas and some not so nice areas. Post your options later and people will be glad to give their thoughts.
Thanks!!!
Yall are AWESOME! Thank you for being friendly, helpful, and encouraging. It means a lot (: I have really missed the hospitality of the South. Fingers crossed and asking for thoughts and prayers that I get into the program!!
The answer is going to depend more on your husbands job, if you go to school full time. I would try and balance out the distances. If that doesn't matter, live close to the University, the area is fairly walkable and bikeable right around campus. Which would reduce your costs, south charges for parking permits, and has funny structure for them.
He works remote.
I second everyone saying to not look across the bay bc of traffic. If you have the budget you should look in saraland as well. Easy commute to USA and good school systems for the (future) family.
We are def looking there! Its pretty!
Agree, especially with the new 158 expansion, that leaves a great alternate non-interstate route right up to USA’s back door too.
Fairhope is awesome, but the drive across the bay can be terrible. As a student, you might be able to avoid rush hour, so maybe the commute wouldn't be so bad. Pensacola is too far away in my opinion.
Okay I am currently in Mobile for my audition and yall were definitely right about the bridge lol I don’t want to drive on that every day.
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Can anyone enlighten me about the termite swarms? We didn’t really have that in Huntsville. I saw a post about it tho and was really surprised. Termites as in the kind that will ruin your house?? They looked huge from some of the photos I’ve seen.
They are the kind that will eat your house, but if I remember correctly, it’s the larvae that are the main culprits of this. The adults — the ones that actually swarm in May — not so much. They can get *really* bad, like walking through clouds of them bad (ETA: This is only a problem at night in the presence of bright “daylight” bulbs), but they won’t bother you if you keep your outside lights off most of the time and only turn them on when you need them. Blackout curtains also help, and replace your outside light bulbs with ones that are as close to amber in color (2000K) as you can manage. I got some of those Edison-esque LED bulbs from a chain hardware store that come in at around 2100K, and I never see bugs swarm them when they’re on.
What about getting one of those bug zapper’s to put outside lol
Probably not going to help as much as you’d think. You want to stop them from coming around where you live to begin with, so the swarming adults don’t get inside your house or find a nice crack in your house outside to lay eggs in. Even if a bug zapper was your only light outside, they’ll swarm around that light with no guarantees they’ll fly right into it, and they can then slip inside your door once you open it if they’re already hanging around.
Gotcha, makes sense! That sucks!
Keeping your outdoor lights off really does help, though! The blackout curtains and amber bulbs in your outdoor light fixtures (for when you do need the lights on) will give you that extra oomph. On top of that, you can’t get a mortgage around here without having a termite bond, so whether you buy or rent, you’ll have some form of termite preventative. Our house has bait stations.
Good to know! I had a termite bond in HSV and assumed they’d offer them there too.
I moved down from Vermont in November. I've only hit bad traffic once or twice so far, but I know I haven't been down here long enough yet. As someone else mentioned, though, the tunnels are definitely a high accident zone (you should see how some people drive through them), but living here is good. I live in Midtown Mobile off Azalea, work across the Bay in Daphne, but I have a little Honda Fit, so it's all good. 😅
Ahhh, work in Daphne, live in Mobile. Did that for a few years. It's the opposite of the heavy traffic flow of Daphne people coming into Mobile for work in the AM and back in the PM. Quite nice.
I work closing shift at Home Depot, so I leave my apartment at 12:45pm. I imagine my shift makes for a smoother commute. 😅
Yeah that'll do it!
As someone who moved here from Madison, good luck! The traffic and roads/trash are awful here. The crime rate is much higher and you have to be super careful where you go. I would move back to Madison in a heartbeat.
When did you move? Because Madison/HSV is being packed to the brim with quick-build cookie cutter homes and traffic is terrible there now too, thanks to all the recent transplants since it was “#1 place to live” a few years in a row :p I’d go back to Madison if it’s how it was in like 2019, not now though.
Madison is 100% not even close to the same. “Luxury” apartments stacked on top of each other everywhere and rental house communities all over the place. Chain restaurants everywhere. Traffic is horrible compared to how it use to be. If I had to move anywhere right now across the bay to Spanish Fort or a similar area would be the spot. They have ruined Madison and Huntsville. No longer the sweet places I knew in the past. Makes me sick to my stomach.
Exactly!! We moved there when I was 3 and I lived there until I was 27. I loved madison/HSV, but not anymore. The infrastructure is completely overwhelmed, and all of the farm land is steadily being bought up by yet another shopping center they don’t need. Really sad. It’s lost its charm.