Where to live/Will be working in Wilmington (Pike Creek, Hockessin: real estate market, apartment)

[chuckny508]

My job will be relocating to Wilmington, DE. I work and live in NY now. I dony mind commuting 30 mins or so to get to work (right now I do 1 hr and 45 min). My family is in Central NJ so i dont want to be too far. Was thinking outside of Philadelpia. Want a nice, upperscale area with shopping, gyms and good place to eat. I'd love any and all suggestions.

[remike2]

Smyrna is just about the fastest growing community in Delaware. You can be in downtown Wilmington in approx 1/2 hr. to 45 mins. Also with the depressed real estate market there are bargains to be had.

Mike

[trayandtom]

Don't live in Smyrna if you want to live in an upscale area with places to eat unless you want to eat at Waffle House and shop at Wal Mart. You are better off in Delaware County, PA or Chester County, PA south of Philadelphia if this is what you are looking for. You will pay alot more in property taxes though. Try Greenville, Centerville, and Hockessin in Delaware. You will not find much in Delaware at all in the way of good shopping-just the normal places.

[Joe84323]

Chuck, everything literally depends on where you'll be working in Wilmington. Is it in downtown Wilmington itself, or is it in the suburbs? We need this information.

If you're going to be in Wilmington itself, live in Trolley Square - there are lots of places to eat, it's a safe, vibrant area to live in in Wilmington with shopping by car, and places to eat, and somewhat of a nightlife.

If you're going to be working in the Wilmington suburbs (or the city) and you really want upscale areas, look at Ardmore, PA. Your commute will be 45 minutes, more with traffic, and you will be among the elite of suburban Philadelphia.

If you are partial to Manhattan, and will scoff at anything less, you should live in the Rittenhouse area of Center City Philadelphia, but this will be at least a 40 minute+ commute. This will provide you upscale shopping, tons of places to eat, and go out, and many gyms.

Your other option would be to live in West Chester, PA which is far from Wilmington and Philadelphia but offers you a calm town atmosphere with lots of places to shop and eat and go out at night.

Give us some more info.

Although you seem to think living around Philadelphia will put you closer to Central Jersey, this is a bad assumption. Living around Wilmington will put on on the other side of the bridge that starts the Jersey turnpike. This is always a faster shot up to Central Jerz than living in Philly suburbs, battling suburb traffic, then Philly traffic, then navigating South Jersey city and suburb traffic just to get a notch up on the turnpike.

[ananyasavur]

I agree with the previous post about living in West Chester. Its a great place to be for some good restaurants, good shopping district as well as walk-friendly downtown (Restaurants and Dining in West Chester, PA - WC Dish). Infact I know a lot of people who travel to and fro from Wilmington, DE. The travel takes not more than 30minutes. I live in WC myself and it takes me not more than 2hrs to get to central NJ to meet my friends every other weekend. If you are renting, I would suggest Springhouse at Brandywine Apartment in West Chester, which will take away another 10mins of travel to wilmington.

[Catrina302]

I would suggest:

Trolley Square, Union Park Gardens (near Trolley Square), Pike Creek, West Chester Pennsylvania is also a good choice.

There are alot of nice places in Wilmington, Middletown, Townsend as well. You might want to consider looking into those as well.

If you are in the Wilmington/Middletown Area, There is the Christiana Mall, 202(Concord Pike - which has shopping and restaurants as well as the Concord Mall, smaller mall) Concord Pike is right next to West Chester.

They are all within minutes from one another. The nice thing about Delaware is that if you have to travel about 20 miles, your travel time will be about 20 minutes! What type of home are you looking for? Are you looking to buy a home? build a home? a townhome? How much land do you want to be one? That also depends on where you would like to be.

I noticed that someone mentioned Smyrna. Depending on how much recreation and shopping you would like, I am not sure if Smyrna would be ideal for you. However, it is accessible to route one which takes you to all of the places I mentioned above.

[Catrina302]

After reading the other posts, I would suggest Wilmington (Trolley Square, Downtown Wilmington, Union Park Gardens) or the West Chester Area.