I am moving to Huntsville next month so I need to find an apartment. I am a single guy, and I will be working in Cummings Reseach Park so I would prefer to be kind of close to there, but anything within 20-30 mintues wouldn’t be terribly bad. Any recommendations? Is housing easy to find there? I will also look online but those places can be kind of misleading. My plan is to get a few places I would like to look at so when I go there in a week or so I can have specific places in mind to look at. What kind of money can I expect to pay? Are they typically furnished or unfurnished? Thanks.
Having driven through Hunstsville several times, I’d expect you could live anywhere in or near town and still be anywhere else in town within 30 minutes. For that matter, Hop on I-65 and you can probably make the outskirts of Birmingham in 30 minutes.
Welcome to the SDMB, tundeduptaste. I’m afraid I won’t be much help, though. I’ve had a house here for a while so I haven’t been paying much attention to the apartment situation. I can tell you that there are a ton of apartments that are close to research park.
We have a guy at work that is new to the area, and he is living in a brand-new apartment complex on University Drive NW (Hwy 72, and you want to stay west of Research Park Blvd), but I don’t know the name of it. It would be less than 10 minutes away.
The Colonial Village at Research Park (used to be called Rime Village) might be the closest. It would put you less than 5 minutes away, depending on where in the park you work. Their site lists rent from $530 - $1,165 per month.
I have also seen two other brand new apartment complexes that are close - one is on Providence Main Street, and the other on Jeff Road. Lots of nice apartments in the city of Madison, too.
The apartments on Old Madison Pike are very close, but some of those are older and shabbier, but perhaps cheaper.
I believe apartments are typically unfurnished, but because there are so many people who come here to work temporarily, I would guess that a furnished apartment wouldn’t be too hard to find.
That sounds pretty good. So I should look on the west side of University Drive instead of the east. That was one of the things I was concerned with. I was afraid I wouldn’t know where the good parts of town were, and I would end up in a crime riddled section or something.
Thank you for the help. I will be spending a couple of days there next week looking for one. I made a mistake when I moved into an apartment a while back of committing to the apartment without ever actually seeing it. I was miserable there. At least this way I can check them out prior to committing to anything.
Hi welcome to the neighbourhood. I can help out with the neighbourhood questions. I can think of only a few places that will put you further than 20-30 minutes away. (south parkway comes to mind). Colonial Village is a reasonable nice place. What sort of price range are you looking for? I can try to help you out as I am local.
Most places I know of come unfurnished. Heck, any questions drop me a line, My email is on my SD profile.
Osip
crap, just realized your a guest and might not be able to view Member general profiles. My e-addy is Osipmand@aol.com
Hi! Thanks for the welcome. I have been to Huntsville a few times, and it seems like a really nice place. I am planning on going there Monday to look at a few apartments. The ones I plan to visit are:
- The Overlook on Sparkman Drive
- Executive Lodge on Sparkman Drive
- Brittany Point on Willowbrook Dr.
- Colonial Village at Research Park on Rime Village Dr.
- Hillside Village on Bonnel Drive
- Arbor Park Apartments on Spartacus Drive
These are just some places that I saw online and decided to check out. These all vary in price. Do you know anything about these places? I also plan to check out some other places I find along the way, but these are specific ones I would like to see.
I don’t have a specific price range in mind, but I guess the things I am concerned with is that I pretty much am moving with nothing: no stove, washer/dryer, refrigerator, bed, etc. I expected to pay more just because many of the places that offer those charge a little more. I guess I would like to spend no more than $700 per month on rent. I am single with no kids so I only need one room. I could also buy things like furniture and bed as I went along, but I really wouldn’t like to have to buy major appliances (stove, fridge, etc) so I am hoping to find a place that has those. Do you think I could get a pretty decent place with that high price range? I could actually afford to go more if I needed to, but I really don’t want to.
By the time I figure in utilities such as cable and internet, electricity, etc. I figured that would probably add an extra $200 to $250.
Thanks again for your help.
Hi and welcome to Huntsville. I’ve only been here a couple years and don’t have a very good feel, but for what it’s worth:
I know Colonial Village has furnished apartments - a co-worker used to live in one. I’m not sure how expensive they are compared to unfurnished ones.
There’s another Colonial apartment at Lady Ann Lake, maybe 15 minutes drive. Seems to be a very popular place - I know at least 2 co-workers who live/lived there.
I also know of the apartment on Old Madison Pike, just east of Research Park Blvd. Seemed like a decent place. (When Eleanor of Aquitaine said “stay west of Research Park Blvd,” I think she was talking about the area further north - right?)
Traffic on University Drive is really bad during rush hours, especially west of Research Park Blvd. You should factor that in when comparing distances. Resarch Park Blvd itself and I-565 are much better.
1)“The Overlook” on Sparkman drive, I am not familiar with. I believe (but not sure) under previous ownership it was “hunt club Apts” and “Mars apts” If this is the case, I am not a real big fan of that particular area.
I would rate it at 4.5 out of 10 for my personal preferance. Is about 5 to 10 minutes from Research Park.*
2)Executive Lodge (they are just north of university) Is in the same area. Once again I would give it a 5 out 10. Is about 5 to 10 minutes to research park.*
3)Brittany Point. Is south huntsville near Grissom High school. I rate them at about
6.5 out of 10. Driving there to research park takes about 20 minutes*
4)Colonial Village I would rate them 6.5 to 7 out of 10. You could walk or ride a bike to most places in research park in under 10 minutes*
5) Hillside Village on Bonnel Drive. I do not like the neighbourhood rate it 4 out of 10.
6) Arbor Park on Spartacus I am not familiar with. WIll have to look it up on the map to get an idea of the area.
There is also an apartment complex off Wynn drive, just north of University drive (across from the post office) that seems to be a reasonable community/ I cannot recall the name. off the top of my head though.
Osip
*time factor based on driving in morning and evening traffic to and from.
To the OP: Are you a rocket [delete]scientist[/delete] engineer? Do they still build rockets there? IIRC that’s where the Redstone was developed.
scr4 I didn’t know you were still in the country. I’m glad you were able to work it out, since you wanted to stay.
There is a cheap apartment complex right outside of Redstone Arsenal’s Gate 10. It was nice and had a pool, but the landlord didn’t give us our deposit back. So I figured now (five years later) I can get back at that asshole by saying to you, “Don’t rent in the apartment complex right outside of Gate 10!”
Man, I really liked Huntsville though, and I only lived there for about six months back in 2001. I might even move back when I get out of college.
scr4: I will definitely check out the Colonial Apartment at Lady Ann Lake and the one on Old Madison Pike.
Osip: Thank you for the advice. I will keep it in mind.
Spectre of Pithecanthropus: I am not a rocket engineer/scientist. I am an engineer though. I am not sure if they still build rockets or not. I know they still do a lot of work on the space shuttle, etc. The research park is so large that you can find work in just about any technical area. I don’t know anything about the Redstone, but I do know that Redstone Arsenal is out there so that’s probably where it was developed.
DrCube: Thanks for the heads up. 
I can’t add anything better than what you’ve already been given, just wanted to add a welcome to the 'hood. I’m in Birmingham, but stop in for lunch one day if you’re around!