Moving to Homewood, AL: The Complete Relocation Guide

Homewood at a glance

Data window: all Greater Alabama MLS figures on this page cover residential closings from September 1, 2025 through August 31, 2026 and were pulled on September 9, 2026. Census figures are the Vintage 2025 population estimate and the 2020–2024 American Community Survey five-year estimates. Comparison millage uses ALDOR’s October 2025 schedule; Homewood’s standard rate was also checked against Jefferson County’s 2026 table on September 21, 2026. Prices and rates change; verify anything time-sensitive with the issuing agency before you rely on it.

Is Homewood a good place to live?

For a household that wants a short commute, a sidewalk and one of the two or three best public high schools in Alabama, and that can absorb roughly $290 per square foot, Homewood is the strongest fit in the Birmingham metro. For a household that needs four bedrooms and a yard under $500,000, it is the wrong city and the numbers say so plainly: the median four-bedroom closed at $832,450. What follows is the balance sheet, unflattering parts included, before the sections that do the arithmetic.

What people love about living in Homewood

What people struggle with

Who should think twice. If your budget tops out around $450,000 and you want a four-bedroom house with a garage and a yard, Homewood will frustrate you. Hoover, Trussville, Chelsea and the Shelby County cities all deliver more square footage per dollar, and the applicable property-tax rate should be checked for each address. If you want new construction on an unbuilt lot, Homewood does not really have any; the growth here is vertical and infill. And if you are relocating with a company that expects you to house-hunt on one weekend trip, understand before you book the flight that a four-day median market rewards buyers who are pre-approved, represented and ready to write.

What does it cost to live in Homewood?

A household buying at Homewood’s $565,000 median should budget about $353 a month in property tax before exemptions, adjustments and fees if the Class III appraised value is $565,000, $100 to $200 for water and sewer, $150 to $280 for power, $20 to $150 for gas depending on the season, and $30 to $70 for internet, before the mortgage and before insurance. The Birmingham metro’s overall price level runs about 8% below the national average on the Bureau of Economic Analysis price index, which is true and also beside the point in Homewood: what you save on groceries and services you spend back on the house. Here is every line, with the source.

Home prices in Homewood (2026)

Over the twelve months ending August 31, 2026, 341 homes closed in Homewood at a median of $565,000 and an average of $665,710. Sellers received 100.58% of asking (above list, on average, across an entire year), and the median home was under contract in four days, with an average of 19. As of the pull date there were 67 active listings with a median asking price of $539,900.

The bedroom split is where Homewood stops behaving like a normal suburb:

That $294,450 step from three bedrooms to four is not a normal move-up ladder. It reflects a city built out in the 1920s through the 1950s on small lots, where most of the four-bedroom supply is either a substantial older house in Edgewood or Hollywood or a recent rebuild on a scraped lot. Buyers arriving from a market with a smooth price curve should plan for the jump rather than be surprised by it in month two.

And then there are the elementary zones. All three feed one middle school and one high school, so the zone does not change where your child graduates, but it changes the price of the house by more than a quarter of a million dollars:

Greater Alabama MLS, residential closings 9/1/2025–8/31/2026, pulled 9/9/2026. Zone pulls use the listing agent’s school field, so a small number of nearby non-Homewood listings can be included; read these as relative ordering and “about” ranges rather than precise medians. The Shades Cahaba zone contains condominium stock (its two-bedroom median is $167,750), which pulls the all-beds median down; for houses, compare the three- and four-bedroom columns.

Edgewood is the tightest sub-market in the entire Birmingham metro pull. It sold above list on average, at 101.82%, with an eleven-day average and a three-day median, on eleven active listings. If Edgewood is your target, you are competing for roughly one house at a time and you will not win it on a second showing. Hall-Kent, at a $440,000 median with a 21-day average, is where a family that needs Homewood schools on a Birmingham-metro budget actually has a chance, and it is the zone most out-of-state buyers have never heard of.

For context outside the city limits: Vestavia Hills closed at a $585,000 median, Hoover at $490,000, Mountain Brook at $1,062,500, and the City of Birmingham at $249,000 across all its ZIP codes. Jefferson County as a whole came in at $300,000 on 8,675 closings. The Greater Birmingham housing market report tracks these month to month.

Rent in Homewood

The Census puts Homewood’s median gross rent at $1,463 a month on the 2020–2024 American Community Survey, essentially level with Hoover ($1,457) and Mountain Brook ($1,456), just under Vestavia Hills ($1,515), and well above the Birmingham metro’s $1,262. HUD’s FY2026 fair market rent for a two-bedroom in the Birmingham-Hoover area is $1,266, which is the number a relocation package or a housing allowance is likely to be benchmarked against; Homewood runs above it.

Homewood is also the one over-the-mountain city where renting first is a realistic strategy. Only 61.7% of occupied units here are owner-occupied (against 71.1% in Hoover, 78.0% in Vestavia Hills and 89.9% in Mountain Brook), because the city has apartment and condominium stock along Lakeshore, Green Springs and the Samford edge that the others simply do not have. If your closing date and your start date do not line up, or if you want to live in the district for a semester before you commit to a zone, Homewood will actually let you. Our renting versus buying in Alabama guide walks through the math on doing that deliberately.

Property taxes in Homewood, with the math

Homewood’s standard combined rate is 75 mills for tax year 2026. That is $75 per $1,000 of assessed value across the taxing authorities, not solely the city levy. Jefferson County lists separate Homewood subdistrict entries; confirm the applicable rate for your parcel.

The 75.0 mills are assembled from four levies (Alabama Department of Revenue, October 2025 schedule):

For a Class III single-family owner-occupied home, the starting assessment is 10% of appraised value. The example below assumes a $565,000 appraised value; a sale price or citywide median does not establish a parcel’s taxable value. Exemptions, other applicable adjustments and fees can change the final bill.

These figures illustrate the millage calculation, not a fixed effective rate for every homeowner. Check the current parcel assessment and approved exemptions with the Jefferson County Tax Assessor.

Here is how Homewood compares on an identical $400,000 owner-occupied home, so you can put the same house in every jurisdiction:

Comparison rates use the Alabama Department of Revenue’s October 2025 schedule. Examples multiply $400,000 by 10% and by the listed millage, before exemptions, applicable adjustments and fees; monthly figures are rounded. Homewood’s standard 75-mill rate was also checked against Jefferson County’s tax-year 2026 table on September 21, 2026. See ALDOR’s assessment method. Verify the actual parcel rate.

Apply for homestead relief through the Jefferson County Tax Assessor and confirm ownership, occupancy, the filing deadline and the effective tax year. Age, income and disability can affect eligibility; see ALDOR’s homestead guidance. Alabama’s 7% assessed-value cap has exceptions: a normal sale generally resets taxable assessed value for the subsequent tax year. Significant improvements or a classification change can also remove the cap. Do not assume the seller’s tax bill or exemptions carry over.

One more line most buyers forget: vehicles are taxed too. Alabama assesses cars as Class IV at 15% of market value, so a $30,000 car at a Homewood address runs roughly $338 a year in ad valorem on top of the tag fee. Budget it for each vehicle you are bringing.

Utilities in Homewood, by provider

Four different organizations will bill you, and the one that surprises people is the sewer line on the water statement. Homewood has no municipal utility of its own: power, water, sewer and gas each come from a separate regional provider, and only the garbage cart is the city’s. Here is who you will actually be paying.

Because water and sewer arrive together and sewer is the bigger number, it is worth seeing the combined bill at real usage levels:

Computed from the published Central Alabama Water residential rate schedule (effective January 1, 2025, carried into 2026) and the Jefferson County Environmental Services residential schedule. Jefferson County’s sewer charges are among the highest in the Southeast. Electricity and gas figures are Alabama Power and Spire published rates and U.S. Energy Information Administration state averages; internet coverage from BroadbandNow, September 2026. Your usage will vary.

Homeowners insurance, wind and hail

Alabama homeowners pay about 11% to 14% more than the national average for insurance, roughly $1,600 to $1,750 a year on the most recent NAIC data, and 2026 quote models put a typical policy anywhere from about $1,900 to $4,900 depending on the home’s value, roof and deductible. A Homewood house at the $565,000 median sits in the upper part of that range, and an Edgewood rebuild well above it. The driver is wind and hail. Most Alabama policies carry a separate wind/hail deductible of 1% to 5% of the dwelling coverage, and tornado damage falls under it. On a $565,000 house a 2% deductible means the first $11,300 of storm damage is yours. Read that line on the declarations page before you bind.

Two things make Homewood different from a newer suburb here. First, roof age: much of the housing stock predates 1960, and a 1954 roof and a 2021 rebuild roof on the same street can quote hundreds of dollars apart. Second, flood: a standard homeowners policy does not cover rising water anywhere in the United States, and a meaningful share of Homewood sits near Shades Creek. There is a full due-diligence section on that below.

Two programs are worth knowing before you shop. Alabama law (Ala. Code § 27-31D) requires insurers to discount the wind portion of your premium for a home certified to the IBHS FORTIFIED standard, typically 20% to 35% for a FORTIFIED Roof and up to about 55% for FORTIFIED Gold. And the Strengthen Alabama Homes program, run by the Alabama Department of Insurance, pays up to $10,000 toward a FORTIFIED roof on an owner-occupied home; grant rounds open by county, so check the schedule. If the house you want needs a roof, that is an offer-structuring conversation, not a deal-breaker; ask us. Our Alabama homeowners insurance guide covers the rest.

Sales tax and income tax in Alabama

Homewood’s combined sales tax is 10% (4% state, 2% Jefferson County and 4% city), the same rate charged in Birmingham, Vestavia Hills and Mountain Brook. Hoover is the outlier in this metro at 9.5% on its Jefferson side and 8.5% on its Shelby side. Groceries are taxed less: Alabama cut the state rate on SNAP-eligible food to 2% effective September 1, 2025, so food in Homewood carries the 2% state rate plus the unchanged county and city rates. Outside any city limits the general rate falls to 6% in Jefferson County.

Alabama’s income tax tops out at 5% on taxable income over $3,000 (single) or $6,000 (married filing jointly), with 2% and 4% brackets below that, and the state lets you deduct the federal income tax you paid, which lowers the effective rate meaningfully. For retirees Alabama is unusually generous: Social Security is fully exempt, and defined-benefit pensions (private, military, federal and state) are fully exempt, with taxpayers 65 and older able to exclude the first $6,000 per person of 401(k) and IRA withdrawals under Act 2022-294 (2022 Regular Session), codified at Code of Alabama Section 40-18-19(a)(13) (Alabama Department of Revenue, Schedule RS).

The wrinkle that matters most in Homewood, because so many residents work at UAB, Children’s or downtown: the City of Birmingham levies a 1% occupational tax on wages earned inside its city limits regardless of where the employee lives, and Homewood does not levy one (City of Birmingham Tax and License Administration). Living in Homewood does not exempt you from it if your workplace is inside Birmingham; on a $90,000 salary it is $900 a year, straight out of the paycheck, so build it into the budget.

How Homewood compares to the cities people move here from

Homewood is where Birmingham stops being a bargain metro and starts being a normal one, and it is still cheaper than every city on this list except Tuscaloosa. Families we relocate into Homewood most often arrive from Nashville, Atlanta, Texas, Chicago, the Washington area, New York and Southern California. The table below uses one consistent source per column: National Association of REALTORS® median single-family sale prices for the second quarter of 2026, Census Bureau median gross rents and effective property tax rates, and the Bureau of Economic Analysis 2024 price index with the United States set to 100. Homewood is a city rather than a metro, so its row uses the Greater Alabama MLS twelve-month median, the Census city rent, and the millage arithmetic above.

Sources: metro home prices from the National Association of REALTORS® Metropolitan Median Area Prices, Q2 2026 (existing single-family). *The Homewood figure is the Greater Alabama MLS twelve-month city median for all residential closings (9/1/2025–8/31/2026); the Tuscaloosa figure is the Alabama Center for Real Estate’s July 2026 metro median, since neither is in NAR’s metro list. Rents: Census ACS (Homewood 2020–2024 five-year; metro rows 2024 one-year). Homewood’s entry is the standard Class III calculation before exemptions; metro entries are ratios of median taxes paid to median home value (ACS 2024). These are not directly comparable measures. Cost-of-living index is the BEA all-items Regional Price Parity, 2024. Income tax rates from the Tax Foundation, 2026. Retrieved September 2026.

Use the table as context, then compare the actual properties and household budget. Homewood’s tax calculation before exemptions and the metro-level historical tax ratios use different methods, so their difference is not a reliable estimate of your savings. Ask for a parcel-specific tax estimate, insurance quote and financing costs. Our home affordability guide and mortgage pre-approval guide explain the next steps.

Where should you live in Homewood?

In most cities this question means “which neighborhood.” In Homewood it means “which elementary zone,” because the three zones are what the market actually prices. The city’s named neighborhoods (Edgewood, Hollywood, West Homewood, Rosedale, Grove Park, Mayfair and the Lakeshore corridor) sit inside those zones, and an address two streets apart can land in a different one. Every child still walks into the same middle school and the same high school. Start from what you need, then check the zone at the address before you get attached.

Two clarifications that save people money. First: the zone is set by the address, not by the neighborhood name or the mailing city, and Homewood City Schools says plainly that its online locator map is “for informational purposes only, and it is not legally binding.” Verify with the district’s Residency Department at (205) 870-2011 before you write, not after. Second: a Birmingham mailing address does not mean Birmingham City Schools and a Homewood mailing address does not guarantee Homewood City Schools. The city limits and the postal boundaries do not match, and this is one of the most expensive mistakes an out-of-state buyer can make in this metro. We check it on every house before you see it.

If new construction is what you want, understand what it means here: Homewood has essentially no unbuilt subdivision land, so “new” is a rebuild on an existing lot. That is why the four-bedroom medians run where they do. Our new construction guide covers how the contract and inspection process differs, and the first-time home buyer guide walks through the rest.

What are the schools like in Homewood?

Homewood City Schools is a five-school district serving about 4,500 students, and the structure is its defining feature: three elementary schools feed one middle school which feeds one high school. There is no zone competition above fifth grade, no magnet lottery and no second high school: every child in the city arrives at Homewood High School, which U.S. News & World Report ranked #2 in Alabama and #212 nationally in its 2026–27 Best High Schools edition and #2 in Alabama the year before. The district posted a 96 (A) on the 2023–24 Alabama state report card, with an achievement index of 94.98, a growth index of 100, and a 93.36% graduation rate. The superintendent is Dr. Justin Hefner.

One caveat on the year label: the state released 2024–25 report cards on November 13, 2025, and Mountain Brook (99), Vestavia Hills (97), Hoover (95) and Birmingham City (77) published theirs, but Homewood’s 2024–25 figure had not been posted on the district’s site when this guide was written, so the 96 above is the 2023–24 score. Ask the district for the current number, or look it up on the Alabama State Department of Education’s report card portal.

The Homewood schools and how zoning works

School scores are the 2023–24 Alabama state report card as reported by the district and local press; the district’s own page describes enrollment as approximately 4,200 while the National Center for Education Statistics reports 4,492 for 2024–25; both are shown rather than picked. Sale prices are Greater Alabama MLS closings 9/1/2025–8/31/2026 by the listing agent’s school field, pulled 9/9/2026, and describe the housing market in each zone, not the schools.

How to check a zone before you write an offer. Homewood City Schools publishes an online School Locator Map, and the City of Homewood posts a 2026 school district map as a PDF. Both carry the same disclaimer: “for informational purposes only, and it is not legally binding.” The authoritative answer comes from the district’s Residency Department at (205) 870-2011 (by appointment). Do this before the offer, not during the inspection period: in a market with a four-day median, a zone surprise found late is a lost house and a lost deposit.

For the 2026–27 school year the district opened kindergarten enrollment on May 6, 2026 and grades 1 through 12 on June 1, 2026. If you are closing in the summer, register the moment you have a signed contract and an address you can prove; do not wait for the moving truck. Alabama requires a certificate of immunization (the blue slip) from an Alabama provider or a transferred record, plus proof of residency; the Residency Department will tell you exactly which documents it accepts for your situation.

Ask about transportation before you pick a zone. Not every over-the-mountain district runs daily buses for general education students, and in a compact city like Homewood the answer shapes the morning routine, the carpool culture and which side of a school a family wants to live on. The district’s Residency Department ((205) 870-2011) can tell you what applies to a specific address; we ask on every house we show.

Private and parochial options

Homewood and the streets immediately around it hold an unusual concentration of private schools, several of them within a mile of the city limits. Tuition figures below are the schools’ published 2026–27 rates; enrollment is from the National Center for Education Statistics Private School Universe Survey for 2023–24 unless noted.

Samford University sits inside Homewood, on a 247-acre campus, founded in 1841, enrolling roughly 6,100 to 6,300 students. The Wall Street Journal ranked it third nationally for career preparation in 2026, and the university reports a $453.3 million annual economic impact in Alabama. Practically, for a buyer, Samford is three things: a large employer minutes from most of the city, the reason Homewood’s median age reads around 30, and a source of student rental demand along the campus edge. Across Red Mountain, UAB is the largest single employer in the state and about four miles away.

Who’s hiring in Homewood?

Homewood’s economy is mostly other people’s economies on the other side of Red Mountain. The Birmingham-Hoover metro carried about 569,800 nonfarm jobs in July 2026, up 0.7% year over year, with unemployment at 3.5% (Bureau of Labor Statistics, preliminary). Statewide unemployment was 3.4% and Alabama set employment records in June and July 2026. What makes Homewood distinct is proximity: the metro’s largest job center is on the other side of Red Mountain, which is why the average commute here is 17.1 minutes.

The employers that matter most to a Homewood household:

By sector across the metro in July 2026: trade, transportation and utilities 112,400; government 95,800; education and health services 78,600; professional and business services 74,300; leisure and hospitality 56,800; financial activities 42,700; manufacturing 39,800; construction 31,000. Over the year, leisure and hospitality (+6.0%), government (+2.6%) and education and health (+1.6%) grew, while financial activities (−3.6%), trade and logistics (−1.5%) and construction (−1.6%) shed jobs. Alabama’s labor market is tight in this metro: Shelby County recorded 2.9% unemployment in July 2026, the lowest of Alabama’s 67 counties, with Vestavia Hills at 2.8% and Hoover at 2.9%. Current figures are at the Bureau of Labor Statistics Economy at a Glance page for Birmingham-Hoover.

Two practical notes for a job-linked move. If your work address is inside Birmingham city limits, the city’s 1% occupational tax on wages applies no matter where you live. Homewood residents who work at UAB or downtown pay it, and it is worth asking payroll about before you sign an offer letter. And if you are moving without a job in hand, the metro’s sector mix says the opportunity is concentrated in health care, higher education, government and hospitality; the finance and logistics sides were contracting through 2026.

What’s the weather really like in Homewood, and what about tornadoes?

Long humid summers, short mild winters, a lot of rain, and two severe-weather seasons a year. The nearest long-term climate station is Birmingham’s airport, about eight miles away, and its NOAA 1991–2020 normals are the right benchmark: a July normal high of 91.0°F, a January normal low of 34.9°F, and annual precipitation of about 54 to 57 inches, roughly double the national average, and the reason everything here is green. Snowfall is an inch or two in a typical year and none at all in many. Homewood sits over Red Mountain from downtown, at higher elevation than the valley, which changes the view more than it changes the forecast.

Tornado risk, honestly

Central Alabama is in Dixie Alley, the risk is real, and the honest version is more useful to you than either the brochure or the panic. Two things distinguish it from Tornado Alley: the season is two seasons (a primary peak in March through May and a secondary one in November and December), and a meaningful share of events happen at night and under rain-wrapped conditions, which is why the warning system matters more than the sky does.

What the National Weather Service Birmingham record actually shows for this part of Jefferson County:

What to actually do in your first week. Sign up for JeffCoAlert, the Jefferson County Emergency Management Agency’s Smart911-powered notification system, and save (205) 254-2505 as the number alerts come from; county EMA is at 709 19th Street North, (205) 254-2039. Jefferson County operates an outdoor siren network with an online locator map, and the EMA itself warns that sirens carry “a maximum audible range of about a mile and a half” and that you should not rely on them alone; they are designed to be heard outdoors. Buy a NOAA weather radio, program it to Jefferson County, and put it where it will wake you at two in the morning. Community storm shelters in Alabama are operated by the local jurisdiction rather than the county, so ask specifically what Homewood provides, and if the house you are buying has a safe room or an interior room without windows, note it during the inspection rather than after your first warning.

One insurance point, repeated because it costs people money: tornado damage falls under your wind and hail deductible, which is a percentage of dwelling coverage rather than a flat amount. Confirm it before you bind, and see the FORTIFIED discounts described above.

Flooding and flood zones

Shades Creek runs the length of Homewood, and flood-zone due diligence here is a step in the transaction rather than an afterthought. The Shades Creek Greenway exists precisely because the land along Lakeshore Drive is the creek’s floodplain; that is what the trail is built on. Griffin Creek and the Lakeshore corridor have their own history. A standard homeowners policy does not cover rising water anywhere in the United States, and a lender will require flood insurance only if the structure sits in a Special Flood Hazard Area, which means a house can be genuinely at risk and carry no requirement at all.

The October 6–7, 2021 storm is the local reference point: the Weather Service measured six to ten inches of rain overnight, with just over ten inches near the Jefferson–Shelby line at US-31 and I-65. Roads were impassable across Birmingham, Vestavia Hills, Hoover, Helena and Pelham, there were “countless water rescues,” townhomes took several feet of water, and four people died statewide, two of them in Shelby County, both swept off roads in vehicles. Rain like that does not respect a flood-map boundary.

Do these four things on any Homewood house, in this order:

One further Alabama-specific item, unrelated to water but on the same checklist: the state requires a wood infestation report (the termite letter) on most transactions, and in a city of pre-1960 housing stock it is not a formality. Our termite letter guide explains who pays and what a finding means for the contract.

Your Homewood relocation timeline

Alabama gives new residents 30 days to transfer a driver license and 30 days to register a vehicle, the homestead exemption has to be claimed with Jefferson County after you close, and school enrollment opens in May and June for the following August. None of those deadlines move for you. The buying side, by contrast, moves faster than almost anywhere else in the state: a four-day median means the house is decided before most people have finished packing. Here is the sequence we hand every relocating client, working backwards from the date you need to be here.

How do you buy a home in Homewood from out of state?

Homewood is one of the hardest markets in Alabama to buy remotely, and the reason is arithmetic: a four-day median with 67 active listings citywide, and eleven of them in the zone most transferees want. The decision usually has to be made before you can get on a plane. That is workable (many of our relocating clients see the home once, and some close without visiting), but only when the groundwork is done first. Here is how The Williams Group runs a remote purchase in this city.

What’s it actually like to live in Homewood?

The city turned a hundred this year. Homewood was founded in 1926, and the centennial has been the thread running through 2026: a Makers and Music Market at The Edge in September, a 9/11 remembrance at City Hall, the ordinary civic calendar of a place small enough that the council’s budget hearing on a proposed $76.9 million general fund is genuinely news. That scale is the point. Twenty-eight thousand people in a metro of 1.2 million produces a city where the mayor’s office answers the phone and the school district has one high school.

What the numbers cannot convey is the shape of the place. Homewood sits on the near side of Red Mountain, which means it is over the mountain from Birmingham in the local idiom but only minutes from it in practice. The oldest neighborhoods (Edgewood, Hollywood, Rosedale, Grove Park, Mayfair) were laid out in the streetcar era on small lots with sidewalks, and that inheritance is why Homewood is the one over-the-mountain suburb where people actually walk to dinner. Downtown Homewood along 18th Street South and SoHo Square is a real commercial district rather than a lifestyle center, with the restaurants and the hardware store and the library within a few blocks of each other.

The Shades Creek Greenway is the city’s spine. Between three and four paved miles run beside Lakeshore Drive through the creek’s floodplain, with trailheads at 1280 Columbiana Road and at Brookwood Boulevard, passing Homewood High School, Samford’s campus and the Lakeshore retail corridor. The city has broken ground on an extension that would take it to six miles and connect through to Jemison Park. On a spring evening it is where the whole city seems to be.

The biggest physical change in a generation is happening right now at Brookwood Village. The indoor mall at Lakeshore and Brookwood Boulevard, bought in 2021 by Birmingham-based Fairway Investments with Pope and Land Real Estate, went to demolition in early March 2026 after interior demolition began late that month. The stated plan is to turn a 57-acre enclosed mall inside out into a mixed-use district with green space, explicitly modeled on Birkdale Village near Charlotte and Avalon near Atlanta — in the developer’s words, “a place where people can go and not just shop and then leave, but to go and stay.” Creekside Brookwood LLC bought the portion adjacent to Andrews Sports Medicine in April 2026 and is converting roughly 40,000 square feet into office and retail. Full plans were slated for announcement in fall 2026. If you are buying near Lakeshore, this is the most consequential thing on your street for the next five years, and you should ask us where the current plans stand the week you write your offer.

Samford University gives Homewood a second character. Six thousand-odd students on a 247-acre campus founded in 1841 mean concert series and lecture calendars and a supply of young renters, and they are a large part of why Homewood’s median age reads around 30, the youngest of the four over-the-mountain cities, with a caveat that a university skews any city’s median downward.

Everything the metro has, Homewood reaches quickly, and the ridge itself is the first stop: Vulcan Park & Museum sits at the crest of Red Mountain on ten acres, where a fifty-ton iron figure cast in 1904 by Giuseppe Moretti (the largest cast-iron statue anywhere) looks back down at the valley that made him. Descend the other side and downtown begins with Railroad Park, nineteen acres opened in 2010, and the ballpark beside it, Regions Field, where 8,500 seats have held Barons baseball since 2013. A few blocks away Protective Stadium seats 47,100 for UAB football, Legion FC and the Birmingham Bowl, and on 16th Street North the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute anchors a Smithsonian-affiliated national monument. Hikers have three choices without leaving the county: 1,500 acres at Red Mountain Park (six of them an off-leash dog park), 1,038 acres and fourteen trail miles at Ruffner Mountain, and, south of the city in Pelham, the 11,861-acre Oak Mountain State Park, Alabama’s largest, with six fishing lakes and two beaches.

Getting out of town is easy. Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International handled 3,283,164 passengers in 2025, its busiest year on record, with nonstop service on American, Delta, Southwest, United, Breeze and Spirit; Atlanta, Dallas and Charlotte are the heaviest routes. Amtrak’s Crescent stops daily at 1801 Morris Avenue downtown on the New York–Atlanta–New Orleans run. Tuscaloosa is 58 miles west and Atlanta 146 miles east.

The honest caveats: this is still a car city outside its walkable core, US-31 construction started in September 2026 (the city says nighttime work should not affect daytime traffic), and the housing stock is old enough that a buyer should treat a pre-1960 house as a pre-1960 house: knob-and-tube, cast-iron drain lines, and original windows are all live possibilities. That is the trade for sidewalks and a seventeen-minute commute.

Why do relocating buyers work with The Williams Group?

Because in a market with 67 active listings and a four-day median, the whole game is being ready before the house exists. The Williams Group at Keller Williams Realty works from two physical offices (Birmingham for the metro and Northport for West Alabama) and is ranked #6 in Alabama by both sales volume and transaction sides in the 2025 RealTrends Verified rankings, having closed more than 200 homes in 2025 for more than $63 million in volume. Many of the families we help each year are arriving from another state. In practice that means someone can walk a house the day it lists, because this is a team and not one agent; it means the school zone, the flood panel, the roof age and the HOA are checked before you spend a Saturday on a house that will not work; and it means that if you are still deciding between Homewood, Hoover, Vestavia Hills and Tuscaloosa, the same team shows you all of it without a referral. Read what clients say on our reviews page, meet the whole team on our agents page, or start the conversation here.

Your relocation team

Both specialists work the whole Greater Birmingham market, so the conversation is not limited to Homewood; if the four-bedroom math sends you to Hoover or Trussville, the same person keeps working the search. The Greater Birmingham team line is (205) 292-7142; if your move also involves West Alabama, that office is (205) 292-2108.

Frequently asked questions about moving to Homewood

Explore Homewood and nearby communities

This page is part of our Complete Guide to Relocating to Alabama. It handles the relocation mechanics: taxes, utilities, school zoning, the out-of-state buying process and the checklist. For the day-to-day view of each community, including the neighborhood tours and current listings, start with the local guides:

For the current numbers each month, follow our Greater Birmingham housing market report. Selling a home elsewhere at the same time? Start with buying and selling together, or get a free valuation of the house you are leaving. Veterans should read the VA home buyer guide before shopping for a lender. And if a rental or an investment property is what brought you here, the investment property guide explains the Class II assessment rate that catches most first-time Alabama landlords: non-owner-occupied property is assessed at 20% of value rather than 10%, which doubles the starting assessed value before exemptions and other adjustments.

Sources and data note: Housing figures are from the Greater Alabama MLS (residential closed sales 9/1/2025–8/31/2026 by city and elementary attendance zone, retrieved 9/9/2026 by The Williams Group at Keller Williams Realty) and the Alabama Center for Real Estate at the University of Alabama; national and metro home prices from the National Association of REALTORS® (Q2 2026 metro medians). Population, income, rent, commute and homeownership figures are U.S. Census Bureau estimates (Vintage 2025 population; ACS 2020–2024). Fair market rents are HUD FY2026. Millage components are the Alabama Department of Revenue’s October 2025 millage schedule; the worked tax examples are our arithmetic before exemptions, applicable adjustments and fees. Homewood’s standard rate was checked against the county’s 2026 table on September 21, 2026. Homestead and vehicle ad valorem rules are from the Alabama Department of Revenue. Utility figures are the published Central Alabama Water and Jefferson County Environmental Services rate schedules, Alabama Power and Spire published rates, and U.S. Energy Information Administration averages; internet coverage from BroadbandNow (September 2026). Insurance figures are from NAIC data as published by the Insurance Information Institute and 2026 rate-comparison models. School data is from the Alabama state report card as reported by the district and local press, the National Center for Education Statistics, Homewood City Schools and U.S. News & World Report (2026–27 edition). Private school enrollment is the NCES Private School Universe Survey (2023–24) and tuition is as published by each school for 2026–27. Employment from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Alabama Department of Labor. Climate normals from NOAA/NCEI (1991–2020); tornado and flood events from the National Weather Service Birmingham. City facts, garbage collection and budget figures from the City of Homewood; Brookwood Village redevelopment details from WBRC reporting (February and April 2026); greenway details from the Homewood Chamber of Commerce and TrailLink. All data deemed reliable but not guaranteed and subject to change; verify time-sensitive items with the issuing agency. The Williams Group provides real estate brokerage services; we are not lenders, attorneys, insurance agents or tax advisers. Consult licensed professionals about your situation. Guide published September 2026.