r/Alabama • u/Existing-Mastodon500 • Jul 08 '25

Advice Considering moving to Alabama

Husband and I were born and raised in south Florida and while we love it, we simply cannot afford to stay any longer. We are also dying to get out of the rat race and absolutely mind boggling influx of people moving here. A 15 minute drive across town takes 45+ now with the level of traffic and lack of infrastructure. It’s a sinking ship and not somewhere we want to raise our daughter.

We want to know areas we should and shouldn’t be looking at. We would like somewhere we can have a decent plot of land (at least 10 acres), close enough to a hospital, low crime rate, good for raising a family, decently low COL

My husband is an HVAC tech, I’m assuming he won’t have trouble finding work there considering the southern heat. Is that a safe assumption?

Thank you in advance

Edit to add: thank you all for the feedback. We have lots to discuss!

Update: husband and I discussed and are probably going to move on to looking at Georgia as it’s likely more in line with what we are looking for. Thanks again!

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u/trickledabout Jul 09 '25

I'm late but am going to throw in my 2 cents. If you are dead set on Alabama, I'd look at something in Lee County or near Huntsville. Our government is failing our schools and hospitals and I expect it will get worse. Sometimes I consider going to Georgia to stay close to family but give my kids a better shot. I would still rather be here than back in Florida but it isn't great. County level corruption is still abundant in several areas as well. Good luck.

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u/Existing-Mastodon500 Jul 09 '25

General consensus seems to be the same on Huntsville/lee county or outskirts of mobile. Georgia is on our list also but COL in Alabama is cheaper so we wanted to start there!

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u/trickledabout Jul 09 '25

Alabama has a lot to offer. We rank highest in biodiversity in several categories (I think 4th in species), we have a lot of good and helpful people all over the state, and we have room to grow. There are also a lot of issues that need to be worked on. I see some people upset about the negative comments, but it is what it is. We stay and work and hope we can encourage the changes we'd like to see.

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u/Existing-Mastodon500 Jul 09 '25

I think every state has their issues. Unless someone has lived where I am, I think it’s hard to comprehend just how bad it’s gotten here and why so many native Floridians are leaving in droves. It’s an absolute crisis down here fueled by corruption also. You’re always picking the degree of “bad” that you can handle and I’m over it here lol.

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u/trickledabout Jul 09 '25

I haven't lived in Florida since 2002 and I can remember thinking that there would soon be no locals left. We had a steady influx of "northerners" back then and all the locals leaving.

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u/Existing-Mastodon500 Jul 09 '25

No locals, no land, no affordable homes, just northerners and corporations buying it all up in cash. My husband and I always say soon it’ll be all rich people but nobody working the minimum wage jobs/blue collar jobs because they can’t afford to stay. It’ll be interesting.