re: Living in Tuscaloosa, AL and Waco, TX

If you are doing a medical residency, you might want to buy or lease a condo - there are some very nice ones in Tuscaloosa. If you are going for a house, choose Northport

While I would never live in either....

Waco sucks. Tuscaloosa all day.

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I am leaning towards Tuscaloosa due to its relative closeness (~4 hours) to our families in Louisiana, as well as the big college town feel we've always talked about wanting. Housing looks good. Of course, I assume the further you get from campus the worse the areas are.

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Not necessarily. It just depends which direction from campus you head. There are even some areas very close to campus that can be sketchy. I lived in Tuscaloosa for over 20 years, buy I've also been away from Tuscaloosa for over 20 years, and the city has changed a LOT in that time, so I'm not as plugged into it as I once was. All of my friends that still live there constantly complain about the traffic. The University has nearly doubled in attendance over the last 20 years, and city infrastructure is still trying to catch up I guess.

Tuscaloosa really isn't big enough to have any suburbs. Northport could be considered one, but is its own defined city, while together they feel like just one city. If that makes sense. Like, downtown Tuscaloosa and downtown Northport are literally less than a mile from each other only separated by the river.

If it means anything, my favorite neighborhood in Tuscaloosa is Pinehurst. Close enough to walk to campus while still feeling like you're far enough way from the chaos of campus. It is pretty close to a lot of student rentals though if that's a concern.