Delaware in our sights - May - June move time (Lewes: condo, how much)

[Mattyshummel]

Hi, I have been posting and lurking, trying to educate myself about Delaware, focusing on the Lewes, Rehoboth area. I have been to the area many times having grown up in VA and vacationed in the area as well as attended many summer camps in Delaware. We are wanting a quieter, simpler life that is not so keep up with the Jones' and crazy fast paced. We have been in Northern California for years and we would like to return to the east coast with our kids. They are 13, 15 and are great students. One is into psychology and music composition the other a writer. My husband and I can both work from home and are employed by a large software company.

We are looking for a home near the ocean, tho not right no it. The high school for the kids is important and I understand Cape Henlopen is an excellent school. Not interested in sending them to private school. So I will answer the list provided by the moderators in hopes there is some of your wisdom from which I can make one giant step forward. We have a realtor in the area and are looking at many of the subdivisions in Lewes and Milton. We were out in Sept and my husband will be back out in Jan. We hope to move out @ the end of May if all goes well.

When are you moving? Lewes, Milton and would love feed back on Dewy, Bethany area or other suggestions
Where are you coming from? Northern California
Why are you moving? Get out of the rat race, return to the east coast to raise our kids
Where will you be working? Working from home - need good internet/Cable/FIOS connection
Have you been here yet? Yes, many times

Will you buy or rent? We would like to buy - have some reservations about wells and septic, hard water and septic fields, leach fields w/ such a high water table
If buying, are you looking for a house or a condo? How much can you spend? Looking for a house under $350K

Are you married or single? Do you have children? Married, 2 teens
Do you prefer public or private schools? Public
Do you have pets? 2 dogs, 2 cats
Do you want or need a yard? we need a yard,
Do you prefer bustling activity or calm and quiet? something removed from summer kaos would be good, 5-10 min drive to the beach is good.

What do you want to be closest to?
We would like to be near the Cape Henlopen, grocery store, farmers markets. This move is about slowing down, shopping malls are not a must. Had our fill of shopping in CA
Do you want to live with people of a similar age, race, religion or sexual preference or do you prefer a diverse neighborhood?
A family neighborhood would be nice. Diversity is fine
Beaches or City? The beach is a life long dream we are making a reality. It is a main goal of the move as well as quality of life for the kids post high school. CA is not all that.

[nuts2uiam]

Originally Posted by Mattyshummel

When are you moving? Lewes, Milton and would love feed back on Dewy, Bethany area or other suggestions

Will you buy or rent? We would like to buy - have some reservations about wells and septic, hard water and septic fields, leach fields w/ such a high water table
If buying, are you looking for a house or a condo? How much can you spend? Looking for a house under $350K

Do you prefer bustling activity or calm and quiet? something removed from summer kaos would be good, 5-10 min drive to the beach is good.

What do you want to be closest to?
We would like to be near the Cape Henlopen, grocery store, farmers markets. This move is about slowing down, shopping malls are not a must. Had our fill of shopping in CA.

I have eliminated the portion that does not require an answer.

I am a NY transplant to Rehoboth myself and can honestly say that the help from many of the CD'ers that I sure will respond to your questions you will have a wealth of information.

Given what you have stated, I would say generally speaking you are under budget for a home in Lewes or Rehoboth. Milton is a better fit for your budget. The grocery stores are all on Coastal Highway (route 1), John Williams Highway (route 24) or the newest one at 5 Points in Lewes. Again generally speaking 5 - 10 minutes from the beach in the winter or fall could be 25 minutes easily in the summer. Regarding the water and septic, some communities are tied into wells and other public water, it varies. Dewey and Bethany are very bustling in the summer and Bethany very quiet in the winter, most of Dewey closes down right after Labor Day, but not all. I am sure others can offer more insight but that is what come to my mind off the top of my head. The Cape School District and Indian River School District are both excellent. I am not sure about the Ocean View area in terms of your budget but it might also be a good fit for you.

Here is the Multiple Listing link SafeMLS® Error. look on the right side public website access. Then you can plug in your parameters. We will be here to help, just ask away!

[Mattyshummel]

Thank you for the feedback nuts2uiam, I appreciate you taking the time to answer. That's very helpful.

[EnjoyEveryDay]

I wouldn't give up on Rehoboth and Lewes without looking at homes there, because you may find something west of Route 1 that you will very much like in your price range. Agree with Nuts that it won't be 5-10 minutes to the beach in the summer, but if you are willing to give on this point you can find a lot of nice homes on both private lots and in developments.

We found extensive "internet study" using the realtor web sites gave us a good feel for what we could get in our price range, so would encourage you to do that. Makes it easier to zero in on specific areas with your realtor when you have a feel for the price/value of different neighborhoods.

And Nuts is right about the school districts, both are very good.

Best of luck in your search!

[nuts2uiam]

Just noticed the link came up with an error. This is a little longer but try this.

delmls.com and then enter
You will come up to the Sussex County Association of Realtors or SCAOR
on the upper right you will see INNOVIA
Click on that and select Public website.

I also neglected to mention that you should be aware of fee simple (you own land) vs. ground rent. There is a beautiful community, Baywoods, which may be right up your pocketbook but it is ground rent, which may or may not be the route you want to go.

[longnecker]

Originally Posted by nuts2uiam

I also neglected to mention that you should be aware of fee simple (you own land) vs. ground rent. There is a beautiful community, Baywoods, which may be right up your pocketbook but it is ground rent, which may or may not be the route you want to go.

Baywood is a nice location. As nuts pointed out you would not own the land. Tunnel Properties does provide great landscaping and a lot of services for that ground rent. It is not in a congested area.
My thoughts on beach access and time to reach beach.... Tag your vehicle in Delaware and buy a resident's season pass for the State Parks. It would save a LOT of time finding parking spaces and of course parking meter fees.

[Mattyshummel]

Thanks everyone! I understand the commute to the beach in the summer would be impeded by the tourists and we would probably save these months to venture out to see other things and relish the ocean in the off season months.

I will be tagging the car in DE and think the State Park pass is a brilliant idea! It is similar here in CA, the annual State Park pass is a god send in tourist season.

We have found many choices for homes in our price range so not too worried about that. Thank you for the feed back on the high schools as I have found similar info @ other resources.

I have my RE license in CA and learned about Baywood early on. It is not really something that interests us. We also don't play golf.

Looking forward to the scouting mission my husband will be in DE w/ the Realtor on week after next.

[nuts2uiam]

Just a quick mention that as far as cable, internet and phone are concerned. I had little choice here in Rehoboth (outside of the city limits) it was Comcast or nothing. Fios is not in this area. I can get Direct Tv or Dish but the internet connection speed is far less than Comcast. When we were looking to buy, a CD'er also mentioned Mediacom as a provider but they do not service this area. Long and short of this, since you need a good internet, that would be among the important questions for the realtor.

As a point of info, Comcast service is excellent in this area, across the board. Great internet speeds. Their customer service is far from stellar however, and if you have problems expect to be frustrated.

[longnecker]

[quote=nuts2uiam;37855323]Just a quick mention that as far as cable, internet and phone are concerned. I had little choice here in Rehoboth (outside of the city limits) it was Comcast or nothing. Fios is not in this area. I can get Direct Tv or Dish but the internet connection speed is far less than Comcast. When we were looking to buy, a CD'er also mentioned Mediacom as a provider but they do not service this area. Long and short of this, since you need a good internet, that would be among the important questions for the realtor.

As a point of info, Comcast service is excellent in this area, across the board. Great internet speeds. Their customer service is far from stellar however, and if you have problems expect to be frustrated.[/QUOTE
MediaCom serves a wide area west of the Comcast service area at the beaches. I work seasonally in the "resort area" and have Comcast at work. At home we had Verizon and dropped it because of price when we went with MediaCom. I honestly do not feel that service on one is any better or worse than the other.

[nuts2uiam]

[quote=longnecker;37855906]

Originally Posted by nuts2uiam

Just a quick mention that as far as cable, internet and phone are concerned. I had little choice here in Rehoboth (outside of the city limits) it was Comcast or nothing. Fios is not in this area. I can get Direct Tv or Dish but the internet connection speed is far less than Comcast. When we were looking to buy, a CD'er also mentioned Mediacom as a provider but they do not service this area. Long and short of this, since you need a good internet, that would be among the important questions for the realtor.

As a point of info, Comcast service is excellent in this area, across the board. Great internet speeds. Their customer service is far from stellar however, and if you have problems expect to be frustrated.[/QUOTE
MediaCom serves a wide area west of the Comcast service area at the beaches. I work seasonally in the "resort area" and have Comcast at work. At home we had Verizon and dropped it because of price when we went with MediaCom. I honestly do not feel that service on one is any better or worse than the other.

I am coming up on my two year original sign up and unfortunately for us, if I drop Comcast I am looking at a much slower internet at least as I have thus far been able to research. I would switch to Fios but like I said it is not an option for us. Our choice here is Direct or Dish and they are hop on's for internet.