5 Best Small Towns in Alabama To Retire or Buy Home

1. Cedar Bluff

Cedar Bluff is a town on Weiss lake about an hour and a half Northeast of Birmingham near the Georgia border. This area is known for its crappie fishing. It’s spelled crappy but it’s pronounced crappie fishing. It’s a type of fish. It’s not just horrible fishing anyway. This is a great lake town to retire. Cedar Bluff is a nice lake community with a lot of nature and farmland around it. The town is kind of spread out and they have about 1900 residents

The crime rate here is 16 percent lower than the national average. The cost of living in cedar bluff is 25 percent lower than the national average. When it comes to their real estate they get a thumbs up. You can get a home here for under 200 000$ within walking distance from the lake and nice homes on the water start around 400 000$. When it comes to the internet, they get a big thumbs up here they have TDS internet which gives one gig fiber and it covers 98 of the town. They also have spectrum one gig. It only covers about 20 percent of the town, but at least some of you would have an option. Healthcare gets a big thumbs up too. Cedar Bluff doesn’t have anything in town. They have an EMS there like an emergency services thing. Right across the Cedar Bluff causeway about eight minutes away, you have Cherokee medical center eight minutes away that might as well be in town and that’s a pretty good-sized place. Along with that whole area right there by Cherokee medical center has different doctor’s offices and orthodontists.

2. Owens Crossroad

Owens Crossroad is a small community about 25 minutes southeast of downtown Huntsville. This is almost too close to a major city but it’s just far enough outside to make this list. The area has a history that can be dated back to the 1800s. Pioneers drifted into this area from Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia with names like Wood Parker Craig Maples, and Carpenter. But, a gentleman named Thomas J Owens had migrated from Virginia and was the first to build his family home near the intersection of two crossroads. So, it became known as Owens Crossroad. Owens Crossroad has a population of about 2500 residents. They’ve jumped up in population quite a bit. In the 2010 census, they only had 1500, so they gained about a thousand people for this small area. They get a thumbs up for their crime rate. It’s 45 percent lower than the national average which is pretty good. Their internet also get a giant thumbs up because they have Xfinity one gig that covers 81 percent of the town. They have a T fiber 5 gig which covers sixty percent of the town and also, it gets better Google fiber two gig which covers eighty percent of the town. You got some really good options here. Great area if you’re a remote worker. With that kind of internet you know you’re working for Geico insurance or something working from home, this is a great place to live. When it comes to health care, they also get a thumbs up. You have Crestwood Medical Center on the south side of the Huntsville metro area. It’s only about 20 minutes away from Owens Crossing and they’ve got ER and everything you’re going to need. It’s a pretty big place. Owens crossroads gets a thumbs up when it comes to their real estate. They’ve got a lot of new construction. A lot of new homes have been built in this area and they start off around 250-270 000$. You could find older homes for under 250 000$ on the outskirts of town that are in decent shape. The occasional one will pop up that’s under 200 000$ that might need a little work. The area is surrounded by creeks and rivers. So, if you like fishing I’m sure you’re not going to be bored here.

3. Springville

Springville is about 30 minutes NorthEast of Birmingham just outside the Birmingham metro area. They have new construction all over the town’s center of Springville. They also have older homes and land outside of town that really show Springville as a rural place to live. There seems to be a little confusion when it comes to how many people live here. Wikipedia says they have 4700 residents.U.S census says they have 4200 residents so it’s somewhere around there. They get a thumbs up for their crime rate. It’s actually 57 percent lower than the national average which is outstanding. Their internet also gets a big thumbs up. They have a spectrum offering one gig cable internet to about 65 percent of the town. They also have a wind stream offering one gig fiber to 98.2 percent of the town. When it comes to healthcare, they also get a thumbs up. They have quite a few doctors and clinics in town. But if you really need a hospital, you have Ascension Saint Vincent East which is about 25 minutes to the Southeast near Birmingham. They also have one about 25 minutes to the North. Iif you need some real estate, they have a lot of new construction in and around town, those start off around 300 000$ and work their way up into the 700 000$. Some of them are really really nice but on the outskirts of town. You can still find things for around 220 to 270 thousand dollars that’ll look nice and maybe might need a little work nothing major. All in all Springville is a great place to live especially if you want to be near a major city, but still live the rural lifestyle. This part of Alabama is great for fishing. You could fish anywhere you want, stick a line in you’re bound to pull something out.

4. Hayden

Hayden is a great small rural town that has one requirement all good southern small towns should have. About 30 minutes North of Birmingham Alabama and just East of a place called smoke rise, Hayden has a population of about 1200 residents. They get a thumbs up for their crime rate. It’s 61 percent lower than the national average. If you want to get some internet, they get a big thumbs up. You have 18 T Fiber that covers almost 70 percent of the town and they offer five gigs outstanding. They have a spectrum that offers one gig to a little over 50 percent of the town. When it comes to health care they get a thumbs up, because right down the road just outside of town about eight minutes away they have an urgent care. If you need to go to the hospital, you can go right down into Birmingham about 30 minutes away. When it comes to real estate Hayden is gonna get a faded thumbs up because they only got a couple places for sale and two of them are lots couple acres going for about twenty-five thousand dollars. They also have 53 acres being sold in town that’s going for four hundred thousand. Now on the outskirts of town you can find some homes, that are around two hundred thousand that probably need a little work. But they’re only two hundred thousand and they usually come with an acre or two. Not a bad place to live especially when you consider such a low crime rate.

5. Marion

Marion sits about 90 minutes west of Montgomery, kind of the midway point between Montgomery and Meridian Mississippi. This is one of those great southern towns with the town square that has the county courthouse right in the middle of it and shops surrounding it, just the way an American small town should be laid out. This used to be creek territory. It was originally founded in 1819 as muckle ridge. In 1822, the city was renamed in honor of Francis Marion, the swamp fox hero of the American revolutionary war. Marion has about 3 500 residents and they get a thumbs up for their crime rate, it’s actually 76 percent lower than the national average which is outstanding especially for Alabama. The only knock on this place is their internet. They don’t have the best they’re getting a faded thumbs up. They’ve ATT DSL which covers about 70 percent of the town, but it only gets up to 100 mbps. After that, you get pine belt communications which offers 100 Mbps. When it comes to healthcare they’re going to get a thumbs up, because they have a couple different clinics and a few doctors in town along with an urgent care type place. But if you need a legit hospital, you got Vaughn regional medical center down in Selma and that’s about 30 minutes away. When it comes to real estate, we’re going to give them a thumbs up because they got a lot to choose from and it’s relatively inexpensive. Most of the homes that are really inexpensive are going to need some work but you got some choices. Houses here start off around thousand dollars and work their way up to about four hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Anything below two hundred thousand dollars, you’re gonna need to do some work and anything above two hundred thousand dollars is probably ready to go. They have some beautiful old homes that look like they were well maintained or recently redone and those go for about 125 thousand dollars. This is another part of Alabama that has creeks lakes rivers everywhere, so if you like to fish you like to be on the water.