Single mom of 4, might be relocating to DE...ADVICE PLEASE!!!! (Newark: foreclosures, skateboarding)

[Danni923]

Hi,

( It seems not be many people reply on the DE threads, so I am keeping my fingers crossed here. NEED HELP PLEASE)


I am thinking of relocating from VA with my four kids, ages 9-16. We are looking for a new town to start over in after a few years of bad luck. (bankruptcy, divorce, foreclosures)

1) We would like to find an area were the kids can walk and get and ice cream, a latte, or sit outside and enjoy lunch at a cafe. My kids are not into major sports, more on the lines of ice skating, laser tag, and skateboarding.

My daughter is into art, photography, manga, anime and anything Japanese, France or England related.

What about Science centers, aquariums, theme parks, water parks (here it is $38 a piece for 4 hours...YIKES)


2) I am just starting my research on different areas, but would like some in put on hospitals, crime...what areas to really avoid, shopping (food & clothes), weather (daughter can't take huge amounts of humidity) and schools. I currently academically homeschooling them. Yet, they are interested in returning to school rather it be a public, private, alternative such as a Sudbury. (I have a LD child who needs OT and Speech, which is also why we need a great hospital near by)

3) What is insurance, electricity, and taxes like?

4) How are the recycling laws? Here, we take our trash to the dump. I have a friend who lives in CT and she has to wash anything (even dog food cans) that goes into the trash and remove the labels. Just wondering if NH is that strict or not.

5) We are religious but don't go to church. (Here in Virginia you are the devil himself if you do not go to church) Want an area where it is not talked about every minute of the day.

6) I will be renting ($1000-1400) and work from home so not tied to a curtain area. My dream house would be a 4 bedroom/2 bath, with garage and yard, but could deal with 3 bedroom with full basement. Not sure if this would be out of my price range.

7) Are there areas to avoid due to smells, race tracks (noise), etc?


8) Also an area where I will NOT see anymore bumper-stickers around town that say, "Terrorism has been going on since 1861." (Civil war 1861-1865)
(True story: when I moved here I went to the land deed office. The guy heard my Boston accent and said, "You a Yankee? You better get your deed and get the hell out of here." He was NOT joking!!!!!!)

I was also looking at Houston because I can afford rent there, but those on the Houston threads say it is 90% humidity. Just to much for my daughter to take. (Also why I crossed FL off the list) Then looked into New England area, but those on the threads say the heating bills will kill me. Others say to go to Seattle, but would like to stay on the East Coast. (Lived in Seattle 16 years ago. I just like New England better.)

Just know we need to get the h*** out of Virginia.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Danni~

[camrynh]

Just curious -- where in VA do you live? We just moved to DE from VA 2 months ago, and your VA sounds a lot different from mine!

[camrynh]

3) What is insurance, electricity, and taxes like? They seem to be comparable to Richmond, Va, and Fredericksburg, Va. There are no personal property taxes here, but you do have to pay a fee when you register your car for the first time (I think it's around 3% of the car's value).

4) How are the recycling laws? Here, we take our trash to the dump. I have a friend who lives in CT and she has to wash anything (even dog food cans) that goes into the trash and remove the labels. Just wondering if NH is that strict or not. This probably depends on where you live in DE. Where I live in Middletown, you take the recyclables to the transfer station (or you can pay extra to have them picked up). You don't have to sort, but of course everything needs to be rinsed out.

5) We are religious but don't go to church. (Here in Virginia you are the devil himself if you do not go to church) Want an area where it is not talked about every minute of the day. Hm. I never experienced that in VA, so I can't compare. No one's ever hassled me about not going to church. (We are agnostic.)


8) Also an area where I will NOT see anymore bumper-stickers around town that say, "Terrorism has been going on since 1861." (Civil war 1861-1865)
(True story: when I moved here I went to the land deed office. The guy heard my Boston accent and said, "You a Yankee? You better get your deed and get the hell out of here." He was NOT joking!!!!!!)Again, never experienced this in Va, but it's also not been an issue here.

[doctorjef]

Many of the OP's questions would be answered by looking through past threads on the DE forum. This is a lot of questions to ask all at once and have systematically addressed by people here. I have a few contributions. In DE you will not see silly bumper stickers like the one quoted. I have only seen one car here ever that was plastered with a bunch of anti-Obama hate-stickers. DE is politically moderate, anywhere from moderately liberal to moderately conservative. The alarmists and noisy tea party types are thankfully thin on the ground. As to cost of living, I personally find utilities here - except maybe for water - relatively expensive. However, I like a warm house in winter and a cool one in summer, so I no doubt use more electricity and gas than many people. I also have a rather poorly insulated house built in 1951 when energy and utility costs weren't much of a concern (unfortunately I think there are quite a lot of houses that fall into this category in DE). As to humidity, DE is moderately humid in the summer, though probably not as much as DC, at least upstate where I live. It's probably worse downstate. I don't find the humidity too bad, really. Houston is indeed terribly humid, but my impression is you might find the cost of living in the Houston suburbs to be quite a bit lower than in DE. I'm afraid you're hope of a really walkable community with a mixture of convenience, youthful coolness, art and culture is going to be hard to realise in DE, especially given your rental price point. Areas in Newark (pronounced New Ark) that are close to the University of Delaware campus/Main Street might fit your requirements, but I'm not sure about your rent and housing requirements. I think overall that you will have to sacrifice some of your preferences to achieve others almost anywhere here. The biggest problem as I see it is the disconnect between walkability and your rental price range. You can live in walkable, convenient places in this state but I don't think they are likely to fit your price range, especially for the size home you need with four kids. You can also get a place within your price range, but it probably won't be in the cool, cultured and convenient neighborhood you want and in fact it might be in an area where you definitely will not want to live. As to rubbish collection, you'll get either municipal service or you will contract with one of the many private rubbish collection services. Most of the state also has recycling, run by the state authority and they come around and pick up your recycling fortnightly. I like DE. Everything is a series of compromises and no place offers everything many of us might want. Sounds like you must live in a relatively southern and rural area of VA -- DE has plenty of rural areas downstate but I don't think you will find them to be culturally like the more southerly and rural areas of VA. If I were trying to match the OP's requirements to places in VA I would suggest Charlottesville, except for the cost of housing, which again I don't think will be compatible with the type of areas/neighborhoods she is looking for. My overall recommendations for DE in this case would be for Newark, as I mentioned, or for an area within the Cape Henlopen school district, close to Rt 1 but almost certainly west of Rt 1, as close to the amenities of Lewes, Rehoboth and the coastal highway as possible. You might find something within your price range but not impossibly far from the amenities of the beach towns and strung out along Rt1/Coastal Hwy.

[longnecker]

The only place I know of down state with those walkable amenities would be down town Rehoboth. There are places spread out along Rt1 but it is not walkable. Way too dangerous. Might get housing in that price range west of Rt1 but not what you are looking for. Maybe a nice doublewide.

[doctorjef]

Well, the town of Lewes (the old town) is certainly walkable, but it's way out of the OP's price range and I'm not sure you can really find rentals there anyway. The town of Rehoboth is equally problematic. My thought is you might be able to get within a short driving distance somewhere back of Rt 1 and then you'd have all the amenities along Rt 1 and in Rehoboth and Lewes, although most of it wouldn't be walkable. By dangerous, I assume what was meant was the heavy traffic along Rt 1. There's not much chance of doing without having to haul the kids around if they aren't old enough to drive themselves. Again, it might be possible to find something that would offer some of the amenities and walkability that the OP is looking for in Newark. I think it may be hard though and not the kind of house she is looking for, at least within that easy walking distance and close proximity to stuff.

[virgode]

Danni......

Do you have an interest in a specific area, its easier to give a general run down of whats available to fit the needs of your family.

[jdoll]

Originally Posted by camrynh

Just curious -- where in VA do you live? We just moved to DE from VA 2 months ago, and your VA sounds a lot different from mine!

Sounds like Lynchburg or SW Virginia to me.

To the OP:
The area that best matches your list would be Newark, DE. Housing cost may be your limiting issue there. I am not current on the home rental market.

[toobusytoday]

Did I miss something? I don't see anything about needing a beach and there are several small towns in lower Delaware that would be walkable and affordable. The only problem I see is humidity. It might not be Florida summer humid, but it can get pretty bad. Actually, I don't know of anywhere on the East coast to avoid humidity unless you go north and then you are back to the snow and expense of heating.

[longnecker]

Originally Posted by toobusytoday

Did I miss something? I don't see anything about needing a beach and there are several small towns in lower Delaware that would be walkable and affordable. The only problem I see is humidity. It might not be Florida summer humid, but it can get pretty bad. Actually, I don't know of anywhere on the East coast to avoid humidity unless you go north and then you are back to the snow and expense of heating.

1) We would like to find an area were the kids can walk and get and ice cream, a latte, or sit outside and enjoy lunch at a cafe. My kids are not into major sports, more on the lines of ice skating, laser tag, and skateboarding.
The beach towns are the only ones I know which would be walkable and have these.