Do you Like Living At/Near the Beach? Why or Why Not? (Lewes: sales, rentals)

[nuts2uiam]

I am a LI transplant here, so I really can't add to what has been said except for one comment. I have heard many times since moving here a year ago the following comment.

I wish when we bought this place as a second home, we had thought about a permanent move here. If we had I would have bought a (name it) bigger place, more bedrooms, larger kitchen, smaller formal dining room etc.

If you are not yet sure you want to live here full time, I would rent for a year before buying a second home. Then you will be able to experience the area at all times of year, in all different weather conditions and learn about the different areas by actually living there. Sure you lose the $$ on the rent but I would rather lose the $$ than regret my decision.

[Mary2014]

Originally Posted by nuts2uiam

I am a LI transplant here, so I really can't add to what has been said except for one comment. I have heard many times since moving here a year ago the following comment.

I wish when we bought this place as a second home, we had thought about a permanent move here. If we had I would have bought a (name it) bigger place, more bedrooms, larger kitchen, smaller formal dining room etc.

If you are not yet sure you want to live here full time, I would rent for a year before buying a second home. Then you will be able to experience the area at all times of year, in all different weather conditions and learn about the different areas by actually living there. Sure you lose the $$ on the rent but I would rather lose the $$ than regret my decision.

nuts2uiam,

I have only been here a month (condo) and I have heard the same thing! Here it is about the mistake of not buying a condo with a garage and/or buying on a second floor where there is no personal elevator to access the unit.

These were people who bought their condo as a second home, but, who decided to make it their permanent home a few years later. Sometimes health issues happen and climbing stairs can become a real issue. Even new single family homes often have all the bedrooms on the second floor. I think that is a big mistake if someone is considering the possibility of it becoming their permanent home when they retire. As far as resale value down the road a master suite on the first floor of a two story home will attract retirees - which will increase your potential pool of buyers.

Mary2014

[hardworkpaysoff]

nuts2uiam.. thanks for responding. Regarding renting first, totally agree, that's what I mentioned in the past post. FINDING a good rental for year round or even just at least 3 months during the OFF season is sort of difficult in the areas I'm looking. Seems that you need to know somebody that knows other people and can ask around their communities or just know of word of mouth stuff.

regarding your move from LI.. where abouts in LI? my wife has family in the West Babylon and Long Beach, LI areas. We live around the Bergen County, NJ area of NJ.. are you familiar?
would love your input on how life is like to live down there full time.. where abouts in DE do you live now? If you don't mind me asking, what age range are you and do you have kids? if so how is it for families with younger children? We at first were thinking just a vacation/second home place down there but the more we read/research, etc. it sounds like maybe a full time residence wouldn't be such a bad idea! Of course as I'm sure you are used to, paying $10k+ in property taxes makes us NJ/NY'ers justify such as.. "well that's because we have the best schools anywhere, so our taxes are justified"... but I tell you, I'm beginning to really wonder if that assumption is correct.. looking at school ratings on GreatSchools.org the Indian River School District rates right up there with our areas. I still don't understand how it's possible to have such highly rated schools in a place where your property taxes are $1k or less, I guess we are just so conditioned to making reasons in our minds to justify the insane property taxes we pay up here LOL.

anyhow, any information you can provide for your experiences would be greatly helpful as coming from LI you are most likely used to many of the same places/people, way of life, etc. as we currently are.
If you also have some recommendations on area, communities, etc. we are all ears!!!

Thanks a bunch!

[DelawareLiz]

You'll find plenty of great homes in the area for under 400K. Like I said, there really are no bad areas or developments. You mentioned you like parks and hiking....well, we have plenty! James Farm and Delaware Seashore in Ocean View, Holts Landing outside of Ocean View, Assawoman Wildlife Refuge south of Ocean View, and there are even hiking trails in the woods by Bethany Bay that many people don't know about. They are for residents in and near Bethany Bay....over three miles of marked trails. I hike and run the ones near Bethany Bay too--very quiet back there. The parks and trails are the big reason I live here. We are into running, biking, kayaking, and hiking, and there are plenty of places for that in the OV area. You may also want to check out Bay Forest--a large, newer community just outside of Ocean View. It has a pool, marina, clubhouse, all kinds of fun stuff.

We live west of Whites Creek. We do not have a marina or pool in our development (wish we had a pool...or both), but Banks Harbor and Whites Creek both have marinas. Whites Creek has a nice neighborhood pool. You will find suitable homes in your price range in both developments. Home prices are coming up in the area and I do not see them coming down again anytime in the near future. Homes are selling fast as well. The market is healthy and alive in my area again .

We had considered moving east of Whites Creek on Cedar Road to avoid route 26 traffic too, but we decided to stay put because it's easier for us to get to work living here (we have to head inland). We also enjoy "rural" bike rides to see farms just outside my development and Holts Landing is closer as well.

Sorry, don't personally know of anyone renting on Cedar Neck. We do have somebody who rents their very nice home out in my development year-round, but like I said....no pool or marina here. Hope this helps!

[DelawareLiz]

Other towns you might be interested in: Lewes and Fenwick (or west Fenwick, sometimes listed as "Selbyville"). Lewes has parks and trails.....Fenwick probably not so much. However, both are very nice coastal areas in very good school district. IRSD covers Fenwick/Selbyville and Cape Henlopen covers Lewes.

[hardworkpaysoff]

thank you Liz..

1.) Bay Forest seems very nice but the HOA dues are all over the map on different communities, theres seems sort of high at I believe around $2,500 per year. It seems you can go from HOA fees of a $300 - $6,000+ per year depending on the neighborhood, that's a huge consideration.

2.) Putting aside your reasons for work commute, why were you considering the east side of Whites Creek to move? do you find that area nicer than the west side of the creek? How do prices for homes compare on the east versus west side of Whites Creek.

3.) For us being in an area with easy boat access because I like to fish is idea. We don't NEED to have a marina in the community, as my understanding is that you can purchase/rent boat slips at most the marinas around there, but it would be an added plus to have a place to either launch or park your boat nearby your community. I understand you have to be careful on what part of the creek you put your boat in due to shallow waters. I would told to stay near the northern part of Whites Creek to get the deeper water (my future boat would probably be in the 23-25ft range with dual outboard motors, so I'm thinking I would need at least 4-6 foot of water to easily launch/park it.

4.) Our home I'm sure would get many visits from our family up north, so being close to the beach would be idea as they I'm sure would want to often visit the beach while visiting us :-)

5.) That's encouraging to know that real estate is picking up and the outlook is positive for the Ocean View, DE are, the last thing we want to do is buy a house and watch the market go down. Up here in northern NJ we are surrounded by lots of short sales and foreclosures and our local market is still having a very rough time, we are losing population from what I understand so that is only going to keep putting downward pressure on prices here. Plus it's our understanding that our local towns are closing down some elementary schools because enrollment is down 20-30% (young folks go away to college and want to live closer to the city and work, plus they are not having as many kids or waiting til later in life to start families due to high COL and student loans.. this is all what we are hearing at least)

[DelawareLiz]

Yes, Bay Forest is around $2500/year HOA. Our HOA fee is only $60/year, but the only thing we get out of that is street lights and an annual picnic. No pool, no snow removal, nothing else. However, our HOA is active (husband is vice president) and you need that to keep some renters (and homeowners who rent to anything with a heartbeat) in line in this area.

Home prices are about the same east vs. west side of Whites Creek. We considered selling our home a few years ago because we wanted to be closer to route one and I LOVED the idea of living near Delaware Seashore State Park. We also had druggies staying at the house across the street from us for almost two years...it was maddening. I never knew druggies could be in nice areas until the elderly lady across the street took in her orphaned niece and nephew. She also had other shady family members visit and the orphaned kids had their druggie friends over all times of the day and night. Well, their drug dealer died from an overdose, the boy was sent to prison after getting busted, and the girl eventually went to prison as well. They are out now, but they will never be back because the elderly homeowner died and the house is up for sale. So, now we really don't have a reason to move...other than my next door neighbor gets on my nerves sometimes because he retired last year and now minds everybody's business but his own. That's about my biggest complaint now.

Yes, stay to the northern part of Whites Creek and you won't have any issues. Our development has deeded water rights to Banks Harbor, but we don't have a boat to launch so I don't know how that works. I know some of my neighbors have boats and launch over there or rent slips.

There were quite a few short sales and foreclosures in OV a few years ago...they're all gone now. This area is definitely booming and it's a major "growth zone".

[skeddy]

Originally Posted by hardworkpaysoff

First I must say a big THANK YOU to the folks who are sharing all this great information. Having highly helpful LOCALS like yourselves who take the time to share area information are the reason this forum is such a great place for people like us doing our research on places to relocate to, so again, a big thank you!!!

Being from the northern NJ area (located 45 minutes outside NYC) it's just getting to the point that home prices and property taxes are hard to justify anymore, especially being that my wife is now a stay at home mom and I run my own internet business which I can do from almost anywhere. We are a professional couple in our mid 30's, have a young child and looking to have another child or two in the next 2-5 years. What's most important to us is the quality of life for our children and their education.

We visited for the first time Bethany Beach last month and really loved the beach and surrounding area. I also love to fish and my wife loves to be on the beach, we've both always dreamed of living by the ocean and I always wanted a fishing boat with bay/ocean access. We both love taking walks along the beach/bay/nature trails, etc. We would love a nice community/area to walk with our baby (pushing a stroller right now) but later riding bikes.. something that has both a mix of walking near the water (bay or ocean) and also some nature trails. I went down again recently for a couple days to meet with a realtor and I drove A LOT around the areas of South Bethany,Frankford,Millville,Ocean View, Dagsboro, Millsboro. We really prefer being closer to the bay/beach and places like Millsboro,Frankford were just a bit too out there for us. Yes there are some local homes with large property but we currently are living in a rural area up north so we would prefer something with a little bit more convenience but still not very urban or city like. It seems that Ocean View meets most of this feeling... any other areas I'm very open to suggestions?

We are undecided whether we want to buy a second home to use say once a month or so throughout the year for a week at a time or whether we may want something more as a permanent residence. So the tossup between a condo/townhouse/single family home is undecided yet, although we are leaning more towards a single family home. If we decide as a second home and we only get down there once a month or maybe even less in the winter month, we are afraid a single family home might be too much maintenance living 4 hours away?
There are simply SO MANY developments down there that trying to narrow it down to a handful seems like a daunting task given we are not local.

Some things we would like in a development..
- 3 beds,2 baths, 2k - 2,500 square foot is plenty
- price range is 400k and below
- safe neighborhood with nice neighbors and family friendly
- a community pool (don't care much about tennis)
- low(er) HAO fees and a less restrictive HAO
- a pet-friendly neighborhood (we have a 50lb dog and 1 cat)
- a garage
- ability to keep a boat in your driveway (as I would most likely trailer my boat to/from a boat launch)
- it would be nice to have boat access to Indian River Bay within the community, boat would be roughly 23foot so water must be deep enough to launch and get out to the Inlet to the ocean relatively quickly and easily
- ability to rent our place in the future if we decide the area is not for us or if we wish to purchase a larger home nearby (seems there is SOOO much for sale down there right now)

From driving around it seems like staying on either side of Whites Creek may be the best option. Of course the eastern side of Whites Creek will give closer beach access and should allow us to avoid rt. 26 traffic (by taking Road 360 north of Salt Pond)

We have been looking at these developments, so any comments are greatly appreciated!

(eastern side of Whites Creek)
- Cedar Landing
- Fresh Pond
- Bayside at Bethany Lakes
- I'm sure there are some others I'm missing

(western side of Whites Creek)
- don't really know the names of them but I think there is a small marina in one of them and then going north all the way to Bethany Bay community.. that whole area seems to have a bunch of communities.

Some other areas that seemed nice but will probably put us too far inland away from the beaches (for my wife's sake) is Bay Colony and parts of Long Neck.

So given my very LIMITED time and knowledge down there, right now it seems like the Cedar Neck Road area might be best HOWEVER I am very open to other developments, as you folks are the locals and know way better than we what the story is in different communities.

One of the things we would LOVE to do is to rent a place down there for both 1 week this summer and again for a few months off season (say Oct - December). We think that will give us enough time actually living here to get a great feel for the area and particular neighborhoods, then we would know 1.) do we want to buy a full time house or just a second home and 2.) what particular neighborhood(s) would be best for us.

If anybody knows anybody who is around the Cedar Neck Road area and willing to rent we would be very interested in talking further. My wife and I are both young professionals, we have a baby, and are very clean people and both meticulous about keeping the things we use in perfect condition (for instance whenever we go away the first thing my wife does is clean an already cleaned condo/home,hotel room, etc. haha) So we understand a lot of people don't want to rent their places because you never know what sort of tenants will be there, in our situation it's different, we are looking to rent only because we are looking to live in the area, hence where ever we stay will be treated like our own.
We are finding that realestate companies don't often have the inside knowledge of particular communities and they only have access to publicly listed rentals. We figure asking the locals may be the best way to find a nice rental, maybe somebody who doesn't use their home much and would consider helping us out?

Thank you so much everybody!!!

what is your time frame? There is a townhouse community called Bethany Grand where someone may want to rent for the winter. They don't allow weekly rentals .... 3 bdrms ...2.5 baths ... community pool, 1 car garage, 1791 sq ft. They also have 5 units to sell, I believe starting at 229K.

Does anyone know what happened to the little old farmer with the produce stand on Cedar Neck? I saw the medivac helicopter land on his farm yesterday afternoon.

[hardworkpaysoff]

what road is Bethany Grand on?

[skeddy]

Originally Posted by hardworkpaysoff

what road is Bethany Grand on?

Cedar Neck Rd. right after Murray Estates.