What's with garbage/garbage collection in Sussex County (Georgetown, Lewes: sales, HOA fees)

[sunglo1]

I'm a novice at the pro's and con's of moving to LSD from my state of MD but learning. My question is: other then an HOA or maybe in a city limit, does Sussex County collect residential garbage? And if not, what would be the average cost if you had to contract it out?


Also, it seems that the property taxes are cheaper in LSD then my area of Annapolis ,and LSD has no insane piggy back tax like we have here from counties in MD; however, LSD has a school tax that seems kind of high, this garbage collection cost maybe, and in some communities insane HOA's. Can some locals or people that retired in this area chime in on these concerns? Is LSD really that much cheaper to retire too , or is it "kind of maybe sorta, well it can be close to a wash?"






Thanks!




John

[lyndyb]

I can only speak from my personal experience, but I think whether you get trash collection in your area depends on whether you live within the "city limits" of the town in which you reside. For example, I've been in downtown Lewes and I see the large trash receptacles that say "City of Lewes". I live in Lewes, but not within the city limits and most of us in my development use Blue Hen (receptacles are Blue - the Recycling one has a yellow lid). We get one large receptacle for trash and another for recyclables. We're billed quarterly at a rate of about $60 for that quarter and we get pick up once a week. The receptacles are gigantic, so you have plenty of capacity.

In my small community, each individual homeowner contracts with the trash collection service of their choice - it is not a part of our HOA fee. In addition to Blue Hen, I've seen houses with red receptacles that have the name Peninsula on them and one of our neighbors has green receptacles marked WM, which I believe is Waste Management.

I honestly am not sure what our school tax is, but our property tax is about $1200, whereas our property tax in Harford County was about $4600 for the same size house and then we had a few other smaller taxes as well. We did pay approximately 25% more for this house than the one we sold in MD, but we really wanted to live here and decided it was worth the cost and are happy with our decision so far.

HOA fees vary by development and, as a rule, the more amenities the development has and/or the more services that are provided, the higher they are. If you are looking at resales on realtor.com, for example, that information can typically be found in the listing - and if you're looking at building, you can ask each Sales Rep. That was a factor in our decision-making, as we didn't want a large HOA fee if we could avoid it, but we also weren't set on having a clubhouse or pool either.

If you look around on the past threads, you'll see several others have asked similar questions and people have provided some very good information, so I encourage you to look around - some are quite recent.

Good luck!

[culater88]

My quarterly garbage fee is $60 per quarter (Blue Hen) with weekly garbage pick up and bi-weekly recycling pick up. My HOA is $125 a month and that includes a pool, club house, lawn maintenance and snow removable

[sunglo1]

Originally Posted by lyndyb

I can only speak from my personal experience, but I think whether you get trash collection in your area depends on whether you live within the "city limits" of the town in which you reside. For example, I've been in downtown Lewes and I see the large trash receptacles that say "City of Lewes". I live in Lewes, but not within the city limits and most of us in my development use Blue Hen (receptacles are Blue - the Recycling one has a yellow lid). We get one large receptacle for trash and another for recyclables. We're billed quarterly at a rate of about $60 for that quarter and we get pick up once a week. The receptacles are gigantic, so you have plenty of capacity.

In my small community, each individual homeowner contracts with the trash collection service of their choice - it is not a part of our HOA fee. In addition to Blue Hen, I've seen houses with red receptacles that have the name Peninsula on them and one of our neighbors has green receptacles marked WM, which I believe is Waste Management.

I honestly am not sure what our school tax is, but our property tax is about $1200, whereas our property tax in Harford County was about $4600 for the same size house and then we had a few other smaller taxes as well. We did pay approximately 25% more for this house than the one we sold in MD, but we really wanted to live here and decided it was worth the cost and are happy with our decision so far.

HOA fees vary by development and, as a rule, the more amenities the development has and/or the more services that are provided, the higher they are. If you are looking at resales on realtor.com, for example, that information can typically be found in the listing - and if you're looking at building, you can ask each Sales Rep. That was a factor in our decision-making, as we didn't want a large HOA fee if we could avoid it, but we also weren't set on having a clubhouse or pool either.

If you look around on the past threads, you'll see several others have asked similar questions and people have provided some very good information, so I encourage you to look around - some are quite recent.

Good luck!

God Bless you and your family, and Merry Christmas. That information helped us out a lot. I hope you have a lot of fun down in DE ,and don't drink to much great DE craft beer, save it for me I do LOVE the people in DE !!!!!

GO RAVENS!!!!!!!!!!

john from Crownsville

[sunglo1]

Originally Posted by culater88

My quarterly garbage fee is $60 per quarter (Blue Hen) with weekly garbage pick up and bi-weekly recycling pick up. My HOA is $125 a month and that includes a pool, club house, lawn maintenance and snow removable

COOL! where about is that? God Bless!!!! and the great Americans that serve out great country!!!!

We say Merry Christmas!!!!


love!

John from Crownsville

[lyndyb]

Merry Christmas to you and yours, John from Crownsville.

I neglected to mention my HOA is $400/year - we have no amenities other than the development non-resident owned property being mowed. Our development is not yet completed - 6 lots remain - so the builder still runs the HOA, which will eventually be turned over to the residents.

The lowest HOA I ever came across was Wagamons West Shore @ $20/month and the highest was at Peninsula - and it varied depending on what level of membership you had to the community.

We window shopped for years before buying to get an idea of what was out there from a builder and development community. A good realtor may be able to help you shortcut that.

Plenty of craft beers and micro-breweries here, so you have no worries that we'll run dry before you make it here.

GO RAVENS is right!!

Good luck!!

[sunglo1]

Originally Posted by lyndyb

Merry Christmas to you and yours, John from Crownsville.

I neglected to mention my HOA is $400/year - we have no amenities other than the development non-resident owned property being mowed. Our development is not yet completed - 6 lots remain - so the builder still runs the HOA, which will eventually be turned over to the residents.

The lowest HOA I ever came across was Wagamons West Shore @ $20/month and the highest was at Peninsula - and it varied depending on what level of membership you had to the community.

We window shopped for years before buying to get an idea of what was out there from a builder and development community. A good realtor may be able to help you shortcut that.

Plenty of craft beers and micro-breweries here, so you have no worries that we'll run dry before you make it here.

GO RAVENS is right!!

Good luck!!

Thanks!!!!! I don't like the new red mill pond area , houses to close, but love the older parts of red mill pond. I like maybe developments where the houses are spaced apart with some trees. I looked at at river run and around that area, don't need pools etc but a walking hood with a few paths would be cool. Yea they can have that high HOA stuff. The whole point of moving to DE is to make it better in retirement no more expensive then Maryland, but I do love Maryland wish it was cheaper. I been all over the world and country, not a place that compares to Maryland AA County anyway IMO, but DE and its great people and life style are righ there.



Hey Santa, pass me that Dogfish head beer ! please! I promise going to Mass on Christmas.

[culater88]

Originally Posted by sunglo1

COOL! where about is that? God Bless!!!! and the great Americans that serve out great country!!!!

We say Merry Christmas!!!!


love!

John from Crownsville

Georgetown DE. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

[pete lynch]

Merry Christmas from SLD.

[rdlr]

Merry Christmas from Upper SLD
Hope everyone's garbage gets collected in a timely manner.