Bear Delaware anyone? (new construction, live in, retire)

[doctorjef]

People's Plaza is a pit (IMO).

[Sandee1213]

I like People's Plaza. It is old looking, but it has everything we need there. (Grocery Store, restaraunts, Home Depot, Dr. offices, travel agent, ice cream, dollar store, movie theater, etc.)

[pvande55]

Being a bit of a rail fan, the only time I have heard of Bear DE is as the location of Amtrak's maintenance yards. I believe they give tours every year or two.

[Ann512]

Thank you so much for your replys. Our children are grown so schools are a none issue. However we are looking at retirement in the next ten years. To your knowledge is Brennan a good choice in terms of quit surroundings, or is it predominitly young families with small children? This is important.

[SassySpice]

Originally Posted by Ann512

Thank you so much for your replys. Our children are grown so schools are a none issue. However we are looking at retirement in the next ten years. To your knowledge is Brennan a good choice in terms of quit surroundings, or is it predominitly young families with small children? This is important.

You're going to have to venture out for yourself. Tip: Get the Saturday edition of the News Journal newspaper, they list all the current homes for sale, new construction as well as existing. I moved from NJ 13 yrs ago to Bear, we had a new home built & are happy here, the 1 major complaint I have is when it comes to entertainment there is none. Multi movie theater in People's plaza that's about it, when we want entertainment we always have to go to Philly, come here on any Sat night aft 11pm it looks like a ghost town, dead.

The positives are even though the housing bubble burst, we didn't get hit no where near as hard, my home still has tons of equity so that's a good thing. Considering everything about Bear, it's still a good investment.

And Brennan Estates is a family orientated community, it wasn't designed as a retirement community, if that's what you want you'll find several here but Brennan is not 1 of them. Look below the C&D canal, Middletown, Smyrna, & Odessa have a few as well, the further south you go in DE the cheaper real estate is.

[camplauren]

Originally Posted by misspascal

Hi ,
I'm considering moving to Bear, and I was wondering what it's like. If you live there please give me your opinion on it. If you know anything helpful please give me some advice. I would really appreciate it.

Bear is a large zip code with no real town attached to it. Bear's got a lot of shopping up and down Rte. 40: restaurants, warehouse stores, boutiques, etc. but the traffic does get heavy at time. Bear has really exploded in the last 20 years from the vague little quiet area it was previously.

[Ann512]

Thanks for your info. My husband & I are looking forward to retirement but not neccesarily a retirement community. We have 7 children & 7 grands as well who visit often enough. So we need to be ina area that doesnt have a lot of restrictions. We would like to stay within 1hr. or less drive into Philly, as we presently both work in the city. Brennan Estates is in that range. I believe Smyna, Middleton & Odessa are farther away. However I like the idea of cheaper real estate.

[beardogg]

Originally Posted by Ann512

Thanks for your info. My husband & I are looking forward to retirement but not neccesarily a retirement community. We have 7 children & 7 grands as well who visit often enough. So we need to be ina area that doesnt have a lot of restrictions. We would like to stay within 1hr. or less drive into Philly, as we presently both work in the city. Brennan Estates is in that range. I believe Smyna, Middleton & Odessa are farther away. However I like the idea of cheaper real estate.

brennan is a great community and you are correct in wanting to stay above the c&d canal for your commute. i live in bear and work in philly and need "only" 40 mins to get to work (near airport). so you will want to stay in the northern half of the county although there is more bang for the buck the more south you go

[dghornock]

Parts of what are called Bear are actually Glasgow. USPS designation aside, all of "Bear" that is in the Christina school district and Pencader Hundred (Delaware's name for a township) are actually in Glasgow. The real Bear is in Colonial school district and is in New Castle Hundred. We have not spent much time in the real Bear, but it is very commercial (even worse than Glasgow {which has three strip malls: Peoples Plaza, Fox Run, and Four Seasons.}) There are a lot of apartment complexes in Bear, but Fox Run is the only one I am aware of in Glasgow. Bear is much nicer and safer than much of the town of New Castle, but is in not as quiet as Glasgow. People think Middletown is much nicer than Bear or Glasgow, but its' population growth is accelerating at fast pace.

[kbuch]

We currently live in PA and are looking to retire and boat away our golden years possibly in DE! We're looking at a property on Porter Rd in Bear, DE but can't get a good sense of how busy a road it is because of the dang quarantine. Anybody have any insight?