Moving to Delaware from CA, Need Advice on Safe Place to Live. (Wilmington: sales)

[yuna12]

My wife and I are a couple of millennial from Southern California. We sold our business recently and we are planning to buy a house on the east coast. After some research, we decided to focus on Northern Delaware. We are still in SoCal at the moment and won’t be able to leave until early November. I would like to locate a few properties during this time using Zillow and Redfin. But we really don’t know much about northern Delaware in general, so we would deeply appreciate any opinion/advice you can give me.

Our budget is around 300K and our top priority is the safety of our family. I would like to find a family oriented community and stay relatively close to the cities in this region (no more than 20 miles). We both love nature but would like to stay clear of the beaches, a good school system will help with resale value but not very important to us right now.

1. Crime can occur in any neighborhood, but some are known to be safer than the others. Which communities or neighbor should we start our house hunting?
2. My wife and I are both Asian Americans, we respect all ethnic/culture groups; even the ones known for their willingness to keep their neighborhood racially homogenous. Please steer me clear of any racial crime hotspots.
3. How is the job market in and around northern Delaware in general?
4. My understanding is that DE has no sales tax and a very low property tax rate, however, are there any obscure/hidden fees we need to consider?
5. We pay around 300 a year for water, 200 for Gas and 300 to Socal Edison. There is no garbage, no HOA. How about Delaware?
6. If you can think of a more suitable state for us to move to, please let me know!

Thank you so much for your input. It’s perfectly fine to be subjective too!

[goldenage1]

Originally Posted by yuna12

5. We pay around 300 a year for water, 200 for Gas and 300 to Socal Edison. There is no garbage, no HOA. How about Delaware?

You will certainly pay more for electricity or gas, as the east coast has real winters and hot summers. If you are in city limits, trash pick-up is part of your taxes. See this tread for more about utilities: https://www.city-data.com/forum/delaw...gton-area.html

Many communities with pools will have an HOA, and they are generally safe neighborhoods for kids. Hockessin is known to have the best schools, but it is expensive. A good friend lives in Devonshire in north Wilmington near Concord Mall. It is a more affordable neighborhood, but convenient to I-95 for commuting the Philadelphia.

If you tell us more about your job skills, people will be better able to describe the job market.

[yuna12]

Goldenage1, thank you for your quick reply. I expect utility to be around 2000 a year in total and we are going to look into the concord mall region. As far as job goes, we are curretnly not looking for work, althogh economic performance tend to impact home value. Do you thinke job market is as bad as the papers make it out to be?

Thx.

[SassySpice]

Originally Posted by yuna12

Goldenage1, thank you for your quick reply. I expect utility to be around 2000 a year in total and we are going to look into the concord mall region. As far as job goes, we are curretnly not looking for work, althogh economic performance tend to impact home value. Do you thinke job market is as bad as the papers make it out to be?

Thx.

Your utility bills will reflect your usage & the square footage of your house. Is there some particular reason why you're concentrating on northern DE? Many new home developments are in Bear, Middletown, & Smyrna & many do have HOA's which is a good thing cause it keeps people from doing things that could bring the value of your home down. Most of the homes I've seen in northern DE are older & way more expensive, you might have a hard time finding one in your budget depending on what you're looking for. DE is a good state to relocate to due to no sales tax, property taxes are low, great shopping (the Christiana Mall is superior to the Concord Mall), & our close proximity to Phila.