Brook HighlandAL
Some 8,146 people live in this town, in Alabama.
Is Brook Highland a good place to live?
Brook Highland does the important things well, at a cost. Health is its strong suit (A): CDC estimates put its residents' health ahead of 93% of the country. The catch is cost of living: the typical home is worth about $427K, 6 years of the Birmingham metro’s $71K median household income. Put together, the subjects come to an A− overall, better than 83% of U.S. towns. In the ranking it comes 16th of 187 in Alabama. Just over three in five adults 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or more locally, where Alabama’s towns sit at 23% and U.S. towns at 29%. On hazard risk, just 14 of Alabama’s 308 towns do better. The median household earns $80K.
Figures: health, CDC PLACES · home values, Zillow · incomes, Census ACS, 2020–24 · FEMA National Risk Index.
100% of working residents leave Brook Highland for work
Where Brook Highland’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
How Brook Highland grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Alabama), ordered by how far Brook Highland is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Legion Field and 20 more within 40 miles
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Brook Highland. Close and well known come first.
10 mi Stadium & arenaLegion Field
10 mi Stadium & arenaProtective Stadium
8 mi MuseumSloss Furnaces
10 mi Stadium & arenaLegacy Arena
9 mi Stadium & arenaBirmingham–Jefferson Convention Complex
9 mi MuseumBirmingham Museum of ArtPhoto credits
Legion Field: USGS, Public domain · Protective Stadium: Unknown, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Sloss Furnaces: DXR, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Legacy Arena: AuburnShuffle, CC0 · Birmingham–Jefferson Convention Complex: Chris Pruitt, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Birmingham Museum of Art: Birmingham Museum of Art, CC BY 3.0
Moving to Brook Highland: who provides what
Brook Highland is unincorporated, so Shelby County and regional agencies provide most services.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Nov 18, 2024.
The data
Ordered by what stands out in Brook Highland.
Brook Highland has less tooth loss than most of Alabama, but it has homes that cost more against local pay than most of Alabama and has little public open land.
A smaller share of adults in Brook Highland report frequent physical distress than in the typical Alabama or U.S. town
Its widest gap with Alabama is tooth loss: 5.8% of those 65+ have lost all their teeth, against 15.4% statewide.
For adults in Brook Highland, the share who had a checkup this year is 78%. Only 7 of the 187 Alabama towns we compare have a lower share of adults who say their health is fair or poor than Brook Highland. Against the Alabama average, Brook Highland comes out ahead on 21 CDC measures out of 32, and behind on 2. In Brook Highland, nearly one in ten adults have diabetes, and 18% get no exercise outside work.
| Brook Highland | Alabama towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 9.7% | 15% | 14% |
| Diabetes (CDC PLACES) | 8.8% | 15% | 12% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 18% | 30% | 25% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 9.1% | 16% | 14% |
| What stands out | Brook Highland | AL |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer older adults who have lost all their teeth | 5.8% | 15.4% |
| Fewer adults with COPD | 4.2% | 8% |
| More binge drinkers | 17.6% | 14.1% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Brook Highland stands out in Alabama and nationally, with fewer of its working residents who work locally
Brook Highland has 647 jobs for its 3,268 working residents: even if every job went to a resident, most would still commute out. Jobs based here fell from 852 in 2013 to 647.
The share of residents in Brook Highland who live below the poverty line: 4.6%. Employers in Brook Highland shed 205 jobs between 2013 and 2023, to 647. Its average commute comes in at 27 minutes. The top destinations are Birmingham (32%), Hoover (14%) and Homewood (5%).
| Brook Highland | Alabama towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work from home | 18% | 6.7% | 11% |
| Below the poverty line | 4.6% | 16% | 9.6% |
| Working residents who work in town | 0.5% | 10% | 8% |
| Average trip to work | 27 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Top of a low hazard risk in Brook Highland: tornadoes
Since 2013, Brook Highland has seen 2 flood insurance claims paid out. Expected damage from storms and floods is lower here than in 63% of U.S. communities. 42% of the town’s expected losses from natural hazards come from tornadoes, followed by inland flooding at 35%.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
0.4% of the land in Brook Highland is protected from building
Just 8 of its 1,795 acres are conserved, so there is little public open land in Brook Highland itself; its outdoors grade is C−.
In 2 parks and preserves, walkers have 0.3 miles of trail. The concentration of trails for Brook Highland comes to 0.1 miles per square mile.
| Brook Highland | Alabama towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conserved land | 0.4% | 1.2% | 4.3% |
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.1 miles per square mile | 0.1 | 0.4 |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Edenton Park West | — | 1 |
| 2. Edenton | — | 1 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
A home in Brook Highland sells for about $492K at the median
At 6 years of the Birmingham metro’s $71K median household income, the typical home costs more against local pay than in 94% of Alabama towns; that ratio is one input to its C− for cost of living. The median property tax bill is $1,796, against $788 across Alabama, another input to its cost-of-living grade.
In Brook Highland, the median rent is $1,460 a month. Only 9 of the 187 Alabama towns we compare have a lower share of homes lived in by their owners than Brook Highland. On the market locally: a median 66 days to sell.
| Brook Highland | Alabama towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 47% | 70% | 73% |
| Median rent | $1,460 a month | $940 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Everything we know about Brook Highland
Colleges nearby
7 within 15 miles of the center of Brook Highland
About 5 of every 100 Brook Highland residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Alabama.
About Brook Highland
Census-designated place and Unincorporated community in Alabama, United States
Brook Highland (formerly known as Lake Purdy) is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in northern Shelby County, Alabama, United States. At the 2020 census, the population was 7,406.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Area
- 2.9 sq mi
- Elevation
- 663 ft
- Area code
- 205
Brook Highland’s neighbors
2 towns share a border with Brook Highland.
| Town | AL rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brook Highland | #16 | A− | C− | — | A− | A |
| Birmingham | #164 | D− | B | D− | D | D |
| Hoover | #19 | A− | C− | B | A+ | A |
Brook Highland reports no FBI crime data of its own. Compare Brook Highland with a neighbor →
Questions about Brook Highland
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Brook Highland, AL a good place to live?
For most people who can afford it, yes. Brook Highland grades A− overall, better than 83% of U.S. towns and #16 of 187 in Alabama. It grades A for health and A− for schools. Cost of living is its weak spot, with a C−.
Is Brook Highland, AL expensive?
Yes. The typical home is worth about $427,000, 79% above the Alabama typical home. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades C−.