Relo. To Dover Need Help!! (Wilmington, Smyrna: best neighborhoods, real estate, house)

[stephdetroit]

Hello there-

Considerring relocation to Dover. 3 kids: 9,8, and 5. House budget: about 500K.
Coming from Cincinnati, OH.
Are public schools decent? Are people friendly? What are the best neighborhoods?

Thanks!!!

Moderator cut: corrected name of city

[elizamary]

Originally Posted by stephdetroit

Hello there-

Considerring relocation to Denver. 3 kids: 9,8, and 5. House budget: about 500K.
Coming from Cincinnati, OH.
Are public schools decent? Are people friendly? What are the best neighborhoods?

Thanks!!!

You are in the Delaware forum. Denver is in Colorado.
You may want to go to Colorado post.

[stephdetroit]

[stephdetroit]

Hi there...
Sorry about previous post...Meant Dover not Denver!
Anyway, 3 kids, considerring relo with my current job. Would be moving from Cincinnati. About 4-500K budget. looking 4bdr house. Suggestions? What are the best areas? How are the schools? Heard that public schools not too good....Any other surrounding communities?? Thanks for your help.

[elizamary]

Originally Posted by stephdetroit

You know, I was going to ask you that? anyway.......glad this is cleared up.
Good luck on getting the info you need and welcome to the De forum at City data.

[elizamary]

Originally Posted by stephdetroit

Hi there...
Sorry about previous post...Meant Dover not Denver!
Anyway, 3 kids, considerring relo with my current job. Would be moving from Cincinnati. About 4-500K budget. looking 4bdr house. Suggestions? What are the best areas? How are the schools? Heard that public schools not too good....Any other surrounding communities?? Thanks for your help.

I am not an expert on the school system but one of our posters is happy with Ceaser Rodney school district.
There are many new developments with different builders around that may suite you budget.
We live in Magnolia which is 15 mins south of Dover. There are many communities around here such as Magnolia, Felton, Frederica, rising sun and dover.
New communities are springing up all over.
We live in a 55+ but there are many communites with large homes for a family.
Pinehurst,
Chestnut Ridge,
Lauretown
And so on.
I'm sure some of our other posters will share more information that may help.

[stephdetroit]

OK cool. Also forgot to mention that we like older homes....

[rdlr]

Originally Posted by stephdetroit

Hi there...
Sorry about previous post...Meant Dover not Denver!
Anyway, 3 kids, considerring relo with my current job. Would be moving from Cincinnati. About 4-500K budget. looking 4bdr house. Suggestions? What are the best areas? How are the schools? Heard that public schools not too good....Any other surrounding communities?? Thanks for your help.

Hi Steph,
Delaware is about 94 miles long, and we have 3 counties....New Castle, Kent, and Sussex. Each is quite different from the other. The most northern county, New Castle County is closest to Philadelphia, PA, and the City of Wilmington is an urban area. Lower New Castle County becomes more rural, and there are 3-15 acre farmettes, vacant farm land, and new subdivisions popping up. Duck Creek, in Smyrna, is the division line of New Castle County and Kent County. Kent County is more rural in nature, and like New Castle County, there is a huge housing boom. Public transportation is limited to bus, only. Our roadways are deteriorating, and schools are over loaded because of all the people moving into the state. But, I understand this is happening in most states. The lower county of Delaware is Sussex, and there is an east and west side. The east side consists of those wanting to live near the Atlantic Ocean and Delaware Bay, and the west side is still predominantly farm land, although development is occuring there also. There are many small towns in all counties. Medium house price is a little higher in New Castle, but in Kent County, that is about $250,000, and statistics change monthly. In eastern Sussex County, the medium house price range is slightly higher. It's perfectly reasonable to expect to buy a very nice 4 bedroom house in any of the counties for $300,000+/- during this market time.

There are different opinions of schools, and everybody has their favorite, so I'm not going there. There are so many communities, in each county. I believe you'll have to narrow your county down first, then look for various communities. Hope this was helpful.

[stephdetroit]

Very helpful thanks! I would be working in Dover (Kent cty) so I guess I am looking for something close to this....Delaware Bay sounds nice, is it a city? What are the names of the different town so I can start looking at real estate?

[kat196]

In Dover, you might want to look at Wild Quail. It's one of the best (most expensive) housing developments in Kent County. Also look at Pennwood - very nice development. Both are in the Caesar Rodney School District which is quite good.

If you want to look nearer the beaches, you can find some very charming victorian homes in the town of Milton. It's a really cute town about 10 minutes from the beaches and about 25 minutes from Dover. It's in the Cape Henlopen School District.

If you don't mind forgoing a development, there are some very nice homes in Dover......especially the ones on State Street. You want to be careful in Dover though, since there are definitely some seedy areas to avoid.

You have a good budget for Delaware. With the exception of some of the northern areas of New Castle and the beach towns down south you should get a really nice house for $400,000 - $500,000.