Retiring to Sussex County (Dover, Seaford: real estate, travel, jobs)

[karmel]

I would love to get some input regarding retirement living in Sussex County. I would love to be near the beach (within 20-30 minutes), and I would also like to be fairly close to the DC area where my daughter lives. Since I am single, I don't want to relocate and find that there isn't any way to meet people. Any thoughts?

[elizamary]

Karmel...............We live in Kent county in a 55 plus community where quite a few singles moved in. It is a great way to meet people with the activities and social gatherings.
I made friends with a woman that moved from South Dakota. She is a widow and made the move to be close to her daughters.
First she felt funny but now she is joining in. There are also a few other that are single too.
Sussex county is nice too but we are only 35 min from the beach where we are and it is a great life.
Good luck to you

[ekgee]

Karmel,

It looks like I can help you on this one. Thanks for your replies to my Desperate for your advice thread. I posted a reply to you on there.
I am from Sussex County and I would not suggest you move there unless you were moving to one of those 55 plus kind of communities that ElizaMarie was talking about. Sussex County is still quite rural and has a very small town mentality. Everyone is friendly but they still stick close to their friends that they have known for years.

ekgee


PS Please see my post on desperate for advice, I am looking forward to any info you have on pa retirement.

[rossc]

IMO, The Eastern Shore beach area is the only part of the state that has anything to offer, but if you want to be close to DC, somewhere closer to the Bay Bridge might be better. There is still water, just not ocean. You also need to consider traffic in the summer. Being 30 minutes from the beach in normal traffic means 2 hours from the beach in summer tourist traffic.

My definition of waterfront is when I can look out the window and see water and see my boat tied up at the dock in the back yard. The real estate agents seem to have a different definition. You'll see many communities advertised as waterfront because they are "only" a 15 minute drive to the coast.

[zarabeth]

karmel, I can only echo what rossc and ekgee have said.

Sussex County is quite rural. Along with wanting to be close to a beach(which it isn't) and meeting people, I'd also consider the fact that the medical facilities aren't impressive at all( medical is our business).

There's no shopping of any kind unless you drive to Dover in the North, or cross the state line to Salisbury, Maryland, in the south. The individual retirement communties springing up everywhere are nice, yes, but you can't spend your life within their confines.

Traffic here is crazy in the summer, with everyone from Baltimore and DC flocking to the shore. rossc is correct, you're fighting it all the time, especially on the weekends.

As for being close to DC? Ask anyone who lives here what going across the Bay Bridge is like with shore traffic....gridlock to the max, and as for the bridge itself....i'm not a nervous person, but let's just say it's built as to not give me a whole lotta confidence travelling across it, especially on a windy day.

Sussex County, is rural. It's mostly chicken farms, seriously. Unless you are directly in the heart of the little(older) towns, it's also mostly well water and septic tanks, and a lot aren't up to passing current standards(according to the septic tank guy who came to see my malfunctioning one). Real estate agents throw those glossy, attractive ads out there, but it's a WHOLE different ballgame to actually move here, and see what rural and small town life is like.

You have to like small, rural towns. Chicken farms, and the smell that goes with them when the wind blows. Locals who smile and mostly say hi, but that's as far as you get, since you're an outsider. Unless you have a ton of money, you can't touch real estate near the beach, where at least the people are more diverse.

Do I hate it here? No, I don't hate it. I don't LIKE it, either, and am certainly not going to spend my retirement here. Living 25 years behind the times (in so many aspects, school, medical, roads, town mentality, etc) may suit some folks, but it just isn't for me.

[karmel]

EVeryone's replies were so helpful. You can read an article in a magazine that claims that Rehoboth is a wonderful place to retire, just to find out that there are many drawbacks as well. It is very important to me to have a lot of interesting things available. Guess I need to explore a bit more. Thanks for your advice.

[twinsmudder]

Originally Posted by karmel

EVeryone's replies were so helpful. You can read an article in a magazine that claims that Rehoboth is a wonderful place to retire, just to find out that there are many drawbacks as well. It is very important to me to have a lot of interesting things available. Guess I need to explore a bit more. Thanks for your advice.

Hi, thought I would give my input since I live in Delmar, Delaware, which is right on the maryland/de line. Shopping at the delaware beaches is great, you have the Rehobeth Outlets, the ocean city outlets, and the salisbury mall, salisbury is 30 minutes from ocean city, plus their is the normal walmart for your daily stuff... We are at the beachs every weekend, the traffic is there in the summer, but its not as extreme as you think, the worst is getting into the beach area between 5-8 on a friday night, other than that, it is not bad... the eastern shore is great, if my husband didn't have a stalking psyco ex-wife who lives to make us miserable, then we wouldn't be interested in moving to NC. haha.

[rdlr]

Originally Posted by twinsmudder

Hi, thought I would give my input since I live in Delmar, Delaware, which is right on the maryland/de line. Shopping at the delaware beaches is great, you have the Rehobeth Outlets, the ocean city outlets, and the salisbury mall, salisbury is 30 minutes from ocean city, plus their is the normal walmart for your daily stuff... We are at the beachs every weekend, the traffic is there in the summer, but its not as extreme as you think, the worst is getting into the beach area between 5-8 on a friday night, other than that, it is not bad... the eastern shore is great, if my husband didn't have a stalking psyco ex-wife who lives to make us miserable, then we wouldn't be interested in moving to NC. haha.

I agree twins! The Lewes/Rehoboth Outlets are a shopper's delight! But, they are extremely crowded, except for off season times, and during the week. They have shuttle busses that pick up visitors from New Jersey who've boarded the Cape May/Lewes Ferry (New Jersey to Delaware) and then they are transported to the outlet shops for all that tax free shopping. Delaware is only between 9 and 42 miles wide at the widest point, and is about 97 miles long. So you can get to those shops from anywhere in very short order. The west side of Delaware (Seaford, Laurel, Delmar) is more rural, but you are 30 minutes from chaos! And, as was said, you can cross the southern line of Delaware and be in Salisbury, MD (no tax free shopping)I've been here forever, travel the entire state almost on a daily basis, and see it all!

[CMTAD]

Originally Posted by twinsmudder

Hi, thought I would give my input since I live in Delmar, Delaware, which is right on the maryland/de line. Shopping at the delaware beaches is great, you have the Rehobeth Outlets, the ocean city outlets, and the salisbury mall, salisbury is 30 minutes from ocean city, plus their is the normal walmart for your daily stuff... We are at the beachs every weekend, the traffic is there in the summer, but its not as extreme as you think, the worst is getting into the beach area between 5-8 on a friday night, other than that, it is not bad... the eastern shore is great, if my husband didn't have a stalking psyco ex-wife who lives to make us miserable, then we wouldn't be interested in moving to NC. haha.

I agree about the shopping in Rehoboth as well. My wife is a teacher and each summer when we come down for our visit, we go to the outlets and she picks up her wardrobe for the next school year. There's plenty of variety, great prices and no sales tax. Can't beat that in New York!

Charley

[oncesir]

Originally Posted by rossc

IMO, The Eastern Shore beach area is the only part of the state that has anything to offer, but if you want to be close to DC, somewhere closer to the Bay Bridge might be better.

I couldnt agree more. Im not even close to being a retiree but "slower lower" DE, esp Sussex county, is a joke to me. Very few things to do(other than the beach) and real estate is expensive and corrupt. The Eastern Shore, in general, is geared more towards ppl who already have money and not towards those looking to make a living. The real estate prices to decent paying jobs ratio is horrible and for such a small area crime can be quite a problem. For some its their cup of tea, for me its just "ok". BTW, the mention of chickens and the smell they bring should be experienced before you move anywhere on the shore. Its a nasty almost smothering smell that is evident almost yr round but even more so when the wind picks up. hth