Low cost of living - 3/26/2024

My wife and I moved from Atlanta, GA area in 2016 when I retired. We have now lived in Huntsville for 4 years and now in Madison for almost 4 years. We were thinking seriously of moving back to Georgia (feels like home after 26 years there) but we discovered that the Huntsville/Madison area was in the beginnings of a giant growth spurt! Why? Toyota, Facebook, Amazon, FBI, and numerous aerospace companies (ex. Blue Origin) are moving (some have already moved) and that has caused the area to be leading the country in growth!!! Huntsville was chosen to be the new home for Space Command Headquarters but politics has gotten in the way and it may stay in Colorado Springs. Madison is a typical southern city so it is very friendly on average. The city and Madison County in general is primarily conservative. I enjoy it here but my daughter who lives in San Francisco would not like it and will never move back to the south. Whatever floats your boat when it comes to politics and way of life. Reasons to stay here are the low cost of living, relatively low crime, great schools (Scale of 1-10, schools are ranked 10), plenty of restaurants and more coming in. Restaurants need to improve their quality (especially since Covid-19) in my opinion, but you won't go hungry. Median income is about $105,000! About 59% of adults have a bachelor degree or higher. If you love the outdoors (I'm a birder) there are several greenways for exercising (whether looking for birds or not), with more being built (plenty in Huntsville), and near Madison is the Tennessee River and Wheeler NWR which are easy drives. The Guntersville and surrounding area is about an hour away which has a beautiful lake, great fishing, and the most eagles in the state of Alabama. An easy to see eagle's nest is right beside Sunset Drive which runs along the lake on the edge of town. If you are a birder like me, check out the North Alabama Birding Trail. It has about 50 sites on it from Alabama's east border to the west border and from the north border to just over the Tennessee River on the south side. People new to the city and metro area are coming from all over the country and are raising the cost of living (COL) and the growth is stressing the streets and highways. Will Madison have a low cost of living and excellent quality of living as it does now, in 10 years and beyond? The COL will be higher but likely will still be relatively low compared to other cities it's size. We moved from the Atlanta suburb of Grayson, GA and our COL reduced by roughly 50% and we can't afford to move back there if we wanted to. Property taxes are high in Georgia and very low in Alabama and our income dropped by retiring. The cheaper COL was the main reason for moving to the Huntsville/Madison area after I retired, and my wife retired 1.5 years later. By the way, retirement is wonderful as long as you save, plan, make the right choices, your health is good or health insurance is good. Traffic is a sore point as there has not been enough planning of roads. Having a loop around the metro area seems to have never been seriously considered as there is no sign of one and to my knowledge, no future plans for one. Also, if you want to drive to south Huntsville, you must go to downtown Huntsville first, then go south on Memorial Drive. Why? Because of the Redstone Arsenal/NASA. Memorial Parkway was renovated over several years but they didn't 3 lane it each way and didn't increase the speed limit. They did 2 lane it but the DOT should have widened it to 3 lanes each way while they had the chance. US-72 is the main road through Madison and as of 2025, will be widened which will be a headache for travel if you drive the area like I do. Only time will tell whether Madison retains it's low COL and southern charm.

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No Southern Hospitality Here - 2/1/2017

Low crime. Traffic not too bad even during peak times. Covert classim and racism. A stick with our own mentality. Not very diverse primarily just blacks and whites. Not very receptive to transplants. Food here is awful of poor quality. Rotten food sold in grocery stores and restaurants. Traffic appears more confused than anything delayed reactuon when signal turns green, improper turns, people just driving really slow or randomly fast only to end up not going any where. Not good healthcare, terrible ER's no doctors taking new patients lot of pain and walk-in clinics. People cutting in front of you to go slower than you were. Too much emphasis on Auburn and U of A teams. I mean really the whole Roll Tide thing is life or death which is just obnoxious. Plan on moving away when I am done with school not a progressive place I would settle down in.

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Madison is nice for raising a family, but gets bor - 1/10/2017

Madison is nice. The schools are excellent, which is why we chose to live here. The job market is good for anyone with an engineering degree or ex military, but for everybody else, there are a lot of low paying jobs. The cost of living is lower than major metropolitan areas. Most of the people are closed minded when it comes to gay people. They are very right winged and religious. I plan on moving in two years when my middle child graduates high school. Don't be surprised if your kids move out and don't stay in this area, especially if they are not from here, or don't plan on being engineers. Overall, this is a nice quiet area, but it gets boring.

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Madison is a nice place to live - 4/12/2015

We moved her about three years and we like it. Traffic on 565 isn't too bad except for rush hour, which is expected that time of day. The Madison city schools are good. We have three children, one in Columbia Elementary, one in Liberty Middle School and one at the "new" James Clemens high school. The teachers are really good and very dedicated. The are is pretty. There are lots of beautiful trees and plants. The people are friendly enough. It's nice that UAH, a major university is right in Huntsville for those that want to continue their education and there are other colleges in the area as well. Overall Madison is a nice place to raise a family.

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Very Little Crime - 1/15/2015

Just outside of Huntsville, Madison is a smaller city and has a much lower crime rate. I enjoy the safe feeling I have here.

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Good place for young family - 8/20/2010

This is a good city to raise a young family. Good schools and parks

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Madison in a Nutshell - 2/26/2010

Have been living here for abt 1 year now. Originally came from Florence AL, where i lived for most of my life. Most of the people i know from here commute into Huntsville or Decatur to work and go into Huntsville for entertainment or shopping. madison does have a wide variety of chain retail stores and chain restaurants. Most of what you can find on the US 72 side of town is mirrored on the I-565 side of town, except for the Walmart. Getting from the one side to the other is a pain and can take a very long time. The side of town that has the one High School also has an elementary school on the same road, and traffic coming from there can be horrendous during school hours. My major complaint abt this town would be the trash pickup and the recycling program. The recycling program is subpar-they won't pick up prebagged recyclables, it has to go in the little blue recycle bucket, and they will not recycle cardboard. if they don't pick it up, they throw it into the trash can. In Florence the recycling could be in any type of can as long as it was marked recycle, and they took anything that could be recycled.

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Water Quality - 10/23/2007

Top quality water.

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Great Place to Live! - 9/18/2007

We love it here! The people are friendly. The countryside is beautiful. We have many places close by to shop and work.

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Only One High School - 1/9/2007

This city has experienced uncontrolled growth. Plenty of new elementary and middle schools, only one high school. From all indications, it is already over crowded and the city planners have yet to decide on building a new one.

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Well kept secret - 6/23/2006

Madison Alabama boasts a low cost of living, low crime rate, with a well educated and professional community. It has all of the amenities of a larger city and with nature nearby. A booming economy with a lot of upside makes it a place to be for years to come.

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