can anyone suggest some good cities to live in? (Seaford: real estate, leasing)

[JWells]

Hello Everyone. I am new to the DE forum. Can anyone suggest some good cities to live in? I am married and we have 3 girls 5, 3, and 1.

We currently live in NJ and I really feel that to be where we want to be finanically we need out of NJ. We are considering NC but then someone suggested DE. Which would be ideal since all of our family is in NJ still and my parents will probably retire in Cape May.

But is DE really less expensive then NJ? I have no clue. I just always thought they were about the same.

We would like to find a good area to live in, single family home(but doesnt need to be real big) and less then 200k. Am I asking too much? I know for NC I'm not in fact there we could get a house for around 150k give or take both ways.

Thanks so much everyone. I am looking forward to learning more about the wonderful state of De!

[Honeycrisp]

Probably any # of cities w/b good for you, offhand Im not sure of the prices but you can always go to realtor.com to compare your area in NJ to any particular area you're interested in, in DE or NC or anywhere else. Where do you work and how much time do you want to spend commuting? Generally, I believe S DE is less expensive than N DE. Personally, we're not in DE so giving an opinion wouldnt really carry much weight. I can say though that taxes are much cheaper in DE - we're in NJ so I feel your pain re property taxes - check out this link -

The Tax Foundation - State and Local Property Tax Collections Per Household and Per Capita by State, Fiscal Year 2005

it's quite the eye opener! Would guess that food is about the same if you shop around carefully, not sure about gas alth. I think NJ is on the lower end (of the high prices everyone's paying now) and not sure about utilities. Am sure you'll get some good info here.

[maryCh]

Hi JWells,

Welcome to the forum! We are coming up on 1 year here in central DE, having moved here from central NC. Honeycrisp made some good suggestions, and put out some good questions to ask yourself.

For our family, DE was a good decision. As I have posted elsewhere, we have a child with autism and felt "forced" to seek other areas to live... primarily for his future benefit. In fact, we checked into various areas of NJ before deciding on DE. The future was bleak for him where we were, so we had serious choices to make.

From what we saw, some things in DE are considerably less than NJ; others are about the same. As far as finding real estate in the price range you mentioned, that is getting tougher as time goes by. And yes, you can get a lot more for your money in NC, but my biggest advise to you, as a parent, is to check out schools thoroughly before committing to any place in NC (or DE for that matter). With 3 young children, that is a big priority, as you know.

Let us know a little more of what you're considering... as Honeycrisp mentioned, there are a ton of things to factor in when making this sort of decision. Post a bit more and I'm sure others will pitch in soon.

Good luck!
Mary

[movn2del]

I agree with marych. Once you've decided on an area you would like to live, check out the schools. Call them, meet with them, see the schools. Get as much information as you can before you make your final decision. Once you decide on the school(s), then you can figure out the town according to what's available and how much you want to, or can, spend. Good luck.

[rossc]

Originally Posted by Honeycrisp

Generally, I believe S DE is less expensive than N DE.

That's the way it should be, but actually you can get a lot more house for your money further north. The retirement crowd is driving the prices up in southern DE. Realtors are now pushing just about anything below the canal as being close the beach. When I was looking two years ago I saw a "waterfront" listing for a very reasonable price. It turned out to be in Seaford and was listed as waterfront because it was "only" 45 minutes to the beach.

[Honeycrisp]

Sheesh, that's a shame and probably happens more often than not - it's definitely something to keep in mind. Getting quite an education here (potnets, landleasing, etc). THanks for the heads-up, rossc.

[rossc]

Don't think that pot-nets is the status-quo for land leasing. They are an exception and frankly, I'm shocked that so many people sign their name on those leases. They do raise rents unfairly but the fact that this can happen is clearly stated in the lease. There are plenty of very honest leased land deals out there. Pot-nets just happens to not be one of them.