Reviews & Comments
Anniston, AL
nice cost of living -
8/26/2009Anniston is your typical small, rural alabama town. Last I heard the city was around 20,000 or so; the whole of calhoun county around 100,000. Cost of living is low, important to a retired guy like me. For 100,00 or so you can get a nice middle class house in a nice middle class area. Push towards $225,000 to 250,000 you get one of those McMansion on an acre or more. Property taxes are about $400 per $100,000 of value.
The Army shut down Fort McClellan in 1995, the local ecomomy really got whacked with that and is still trying to recover. There is some light to medium industry and agriculture (tree farms) is big. We still do have the Army depot too.
Anniston is surrounded by national forests, state parks, and wildlife refuges. Lake Logan Martin is 25 min. away, Lake Wedowee about 40, with others within an hours drive. There are 6 golf courses within a 30-40 min. drive. Birmingham is about 1 hour away, Atlanta about 90 min. drive. Jacksonville State Univ. is 15 miles north and Gadsden State in in the city. Public schools are problematic at best. Most people that can afford it do private schools or home school. It seems that almost every church sponsors its own private school. Of my friends and aquaintances that have school age kids, I'd say 15-20% do that rather than utilize the public system.
Small town politics is pretty much the same all over I'd say. Lots of ego trips, the "good ole' boy" system is thuroughly entrenched here. The atmosphere is heavily christian conservative/republican. Viewpoints can be narrow and minds tend to stay closed. When change occurs, it usually happens with a lot of kicking and screaming.
Welcome to my world ;)