any safe area near U of Delaware (Wilmington, Newark: cheap apartments, renting)

[annamom]

Daughter is going to U of Delaware and I am thinking buying/renting a house/condo near the campus....
I went through several pages and still not able to identify which area is safe...
I have consider Wilmington, but it seems that the area is not safe...
What about Governor House Cir.?

What exact is Old New Castle? I can only find New Castle...

Where should I look into in the Newark area?

[Kristin730]

I'm confused, would this be for you or your daughter?

[annamom]

for my daughter and possibly be for us... we live in NJ and can spend the weekends there...
Younger daughter skates, and can use the facility
Is the area between E Chestnut hill road and S Chapel Street safe?

[tone77]

Newark is a safe town on the whole. Nothing to worry about there.

[youngprodigy21]

What is your price range?

[Pine to Vine]

You are not far away - Jersey huh? Drive over and take a look. Newark is not large and UD dominates the town. Like small towns everywhere, it has its random crime. But there are two types of crime that are most likely to hit a college student. The first is assault. I would recommend your daughter adopt common sense and street sense. She should be aware of her surroundings. Newark is pretty safe, as tone77 says, so I am not suggesting she be paranoid - just aware. This advice goes for anyplace, really, including where you live now. As an example of good street sense, your daughter should not walk down a dark empty street when alone but use major and better lit walkways. But before getting overly concerned about this, let's have some perspective: UD has more than 20,000 students and just a handful of assaults occur each. Common sense will certainly lessen your daughter's chances of being one of those victims.

The second and more prevalent crime risk would be break-ins. There are parts of town where break-ins are more prevalent and cheap apartments with flimsy locks are certainly more vulnerable. I would hope that when looking for a place, you would have your own sense of its safety just by looking around. If not, a general rule of thumb is that the lower the price, the more risk you are assuming.

You have not said how old your daughter is. I would imagine she would want some sort of social life so being near campus would better facilitate that. There are numerous places that offer safety and ready access to campus and new friends in Newark. If in doubt of your own ability to identify such place, I'm sure a realtor would be happy to assist.

[doctorjef]

RE: old New Castle -- this is the historic district within the City of New Castle. It is not a student area and is not close to the UD campus.

[SXMGirl]

If your daughter is a freshman, she probably would want to spend her first year living in a dorm, even though I think that housing is currently hard to get. Dorm living would get her acclimated to college and give her a better opportunity to make friends.

As far as housing near campus, I have a friend who lives in the area of Chrysler Avenue. This is an older residential community and the housing prices are average or maybe even a little lower than average because the homes were built in the 60's, i.e. not generally open concept. It is a nice walkable community and easy walking to campus. If you go to Trulia, it gives a breakdown of crime, which has nothing for that community. Most break-ins are in off-campus apartments. Like anywhere, keep the doors locked and be vigilant.

If you are serious about purchasing a home within walking distance of campus, find a realtor who specializes in that area.

If you are thinking Old New Castle, you should be thinking 750K+ to be in a safe area, but it is not a place for a college student and it is definitely not convenient to campus unless she switches to Wilmington University.

[youngprodigy21]

Originally Posted by doctorjef

RE: old New Castle -- this is the historic district within the City of New Castle. It is not a student area and is not close to the UD campus.

Needless to say, your daughter would most likely be bored to tears living in Old New Castle.

[Pocopsonite]

Originally Posted by SXMGirl

If your daughter is a freshman, she probably would want to spend her first year living in a dorm, even though I think that housing is currently hard to get. Dorm living would get her acclimated to college and give her a better opportunity to make friends.

I had the same thought, SXMGirl. Dorm life is such a unique experience and I think the college kids who go straight to an apartment complex miss out on a lot. The other advantage of a year in the dorms is that their daughter could begin to get a sense of the neighborhoods she might like to live in, and the parents could make several visits to explore as well.

OP, you definitely want to stay within walking distance or on a campus bus route. New Castle and Wilmington are much too far away to be a reasonable home for someone attending the UofD. At that point they're commuters, and have none of the advantages that young commuting students normally have -- like home-cooked meals ready when they get home and someone to do their laundry.