Retirement from NYC to Middletown, DE (Wilmington, Dover: where to stay, sale, real estate)

[mizvee2003]

My husband and I are both born and raised in NYC and plan to retire in 2022. We are starting our "Forever Home" search in DE this Spring to familiarize ourselves with the properties and neighborhood in Middletown.

I have been in contact with a salesperson at the "Ponds at Bayberry" (Builder, Blenheim Homes) a 55+ community in Middletown. The Villas start at $300K, HOA is $100, property tax is between $2,600 - $3,600 depending on the size of the home, which all sounds too good to be true to us, coming from New York where the cost of living is extemely high...
Is anyone familiar with the builder or the Ponds at Bayberry?

Any thoughts, feedback, suggestions or personal experience regarding relocating to Middletown would be greatly appreciated, specifically in the area of Middletown on Vivaldi Drive. How close is the supermarket, pharmacy, shopping, healthcare, hospital, beach, restaurants, etc. to the Ponds at Bayberry?

I have been reading some of the comments on here, and Middletown sounds like a good place to retire.

[nuts2uiam]

Originally Posted by mizvee2003

My husband and I are both born and raised in NYC and plan to retire in 2022. We are starting our "Forever Home" search in DE this Spring to familiarize ourselves with the properties and neighborhood in Middletown.

I have been in contact with a salesperson at the "Ponds at Bayberry" (Builder, Blenheim Homes) a 55+ community in Middletown. The Villas start at $300K, HOA is $100, property tax is between $2,600 - $3,600 depending on the size of the home, which all sounds too good to be true to us, coming from New York where the cost of living is extemely high...
Is anyone familiar with the builder or the Ponds at Bayberry?

Any thoughts, feedback, suggestions or personal experience regarding relocating to Middletown would be greatly appreciated, specifically in the area of Middletown on Vivaldi Drive. How close is the supermarket, pharmacy, shopping, healthcare, hospital, beach, restaurants, etc. to the Ponds at Bayberry?

I have been reading some of the comments on here, and Middletown sounds like a good place to retire.

My advice to you as a former NY'er (LI) is to do your research on Middletown and not the homes. This is just my opinion, FWIW. Then and only then, start to look online into the various housing opportunities that are available to you in that area. Armed with this info, plan on a few weekends (at a minimum) visiting and getting the lay of the land and then start looking into specific developments.

I don't have a problem with Middletown at all, or almost any location, rather the approach of looking at homes when you don't know the lay of the land. When DH and I started our search we spent a lot of time here. In fact there were many long weekends and a few week vacations before we finally decided. We spent time here every month but January and we were here Feb 2nd, because we wanted to see what the place was like in the winter months. The reason I say what I did is because you may love a community on paper and find it is a little inconvenient to get to the stores for example. Then you find yourself playing the justification game, you love the amenities and costs in development one as opposed to development two but number one is not as well located. You need to check the location first. Only you can determine what is important to you.

The first rule of Real Estate is Location, Location, Location.

[mizvee2003]

Originally Posted by nuts2uiam

My advice to you as a former NY'er (LI) is to do your research on Middletown and not the homes. This is just my opinion, FWIW. Then and only then, start to look online into the various housing opportunities that are available to you in that area. Armed with this info, plan on a few weekends (at a minimum) visiting and getting the lay of the land and then start looking into specific developments.

I don't have a problem with Middletown at all, or almost any location, rather the approach of looking at homes when you don't know the lay of the land. When DH and I started our search we spent a lot of time here. In fact there were many long weekends and a few week vacations before we finally decided. We spent time here every month but January and we were here Feb 2nd, because we wanted to see what the place was like in the winter months. The reason I say what I did is because you may love a community on paper and find it is a little inconvenient to get to the stores for example. Then you find yourself playing the justification game, you love the amenities and costs in development one as opposed to development two but number one is not as well located. You need to check the location first. Only you can determine what is important to you.

The first rule of Real Estate is Location, Location, Location.

Thanks for your in depth feedback. I totally agree with your approach to relocating to a new city/state. We have started educating ourselves and researching the pros and cons of relocating to Middletown, DE. We will plan a few weekend trips down to get a feel for the lay of the land before making a decision about where we want to purchase a home.


Location Location Location is key!

[nuts2uiam]

Originally Posted by mizvee2003

Thanks for your in depth feedback. I totally agree with your approach to relocating to a new city/state. We have started educating ourselves and researching the pros and cons of relocating to Middletown, DE. We will plan a few weekend trips down to get a feel for the lay of the land before making a decision about where we want to purchase a home.


Location Location Location is key!

Above all keep asking the questions. There are many here that are only too happy to help. Remember sometimes the only question that needs to answered is the one you didn’t ask, so ask away.

[mizvee2003]

Originally Posted by nuts2uiam

Above all keep asking the questions. There are many here that are only too happy to help. Remember sometimes the only question that needs to answered is the one you didn’t ask, so ask away.

I totally agree. Thank you.

Are there hotel options in Middletown because when I checked online I only saw maybe 2....most of the hotels were in either Dover or Wilmington. I guess because they are the larger cities. Do you have any recommendations on where to stay for a weekend drive down? Thanks.

[Seaponies]

Another thing you may want to do is to research the builders' reviews onliine beforehand to weed out ones that are risky. I've been doing research and have ruled out Ryan, insight,NV, Hovnanian and Schell to name a few. These are all very well known and although there are many satisfied homeowners, there are quite a few recent reviews that have me ruling them out. I don't want to deal with shoddy workmanship and/or poor support.

[mizvee2003]

Originally Posted by Seaponies

Another thing you may want to do is to research the builders' reviews onliine beforehand to weed out ones that are risky. I've been doing research and have ruled out Ryan, insight,NV, Hovnanian and Schell to name a few. These are all very well known and although there are many satisfied homeowners, there are quite a few recent reviews that have me ruling them out. I don't want to deal with shoddy workmanship and/or poor support.

Great suggestions. Thanks for sharing your list of builders you are staying away from....very helpful. I will definitely reaearch the builder before we give anyone our business because like you said sometimes the larger, more well known companies have shoddy workmanship, and who has time for that!

[nuts2uiam]

Originally Posted by Seaponies

Another thing you may want to do is to research the builders' reviews onliine beforehand to weed out ones that are risky. I've been doing research and have ruled out Ryan, insight,NV, Hovnanian and Schell to name a few. These are all very well known and although there are many satisfied homeowners, there are quite a few recent reviews that have me ruling them out. I don't want to deal with shoddy workmanship and/or poor support.

I used to be the ARC chairperson here in my community and while I have not worked with all of the above, I will suggest that you consider that more often than not you hear the complaints but not the good experiences. Rather than just go by a list I would suggest that you visit a community that you like and drive through until you see a resident and ask what their experiences were. Then ask several more. No builder, no matter if they are spot building or tract building will have problems. The real measure is how well they respond to the problems and what the problems are. If, for example, they build your home at the bottom of a hill and you have water seeping into the foundation and basement that is entirely different than if they missed a nail on moulding. There are people and there are people. I have seen people pitch a fit over the most insignificant things and then they blast the builder online. Sometimes, not always, it is not the "problem" rather the buyer. This is not to suggest that all builders are good, rather you need to do your home work.

[Penna76]

I would honestly suggest Lancaster, Pennsylvania over Middletown, Delaware.

Pennsylvania does not tax retirement income. Delaware does. Therefore Pennsylvania is actually ranked as one of the most retirement friendly states in the Northeast. Property taxes can be slightly higher in parts of Pennsylvania.

But few are aware, Delaware had a major legal battle in 2020, and most property taxes across the state will be increasing over the next few years with new reassessments.

Lancaster is a very very nice small/mid size city with large city amenities. Its only about 60 minutes to Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware. About the same distance from Philadelphia as is Middletown, DE.

Lancaster has a Whole Foods, Apple Store, Costco, Wegmans, West Elm, Nordstrom Rack, etc. just to give you a sense it has large city amenities.

COL is the same as Middletown, DE and you are still fairly close to the shore.

Lancaster also has direct high frequency Amtrak access to Philadelphia and NYC. And it has Penn Medicine and Penn State health in its vicinity. So top quality healthcare. More so than Delaware.

Just IMO. You would be better off in Lancaster.

[Seaponies]

Nuts,Penna - Totally agree with your comments. I have suggested in the past to talk to existing neighbors in the communities one is interested in. That is how i found out about a radon problem that the builder didn't disclose to me. If u are interested in a lot it would be helpful to meet your next door neighbors to see if u get along too. Of course there will be a punch list with any new home but some builders do a quality build while others use low cost materials. Some builders offer good after sale support while others mostly ignore the homeowner. Lancaster is definitely a place to look as i am looking there too.

But reviews on the web go a long way to weed out some builders. For example, just doing a google on 'ryan homes delaware reviews,' i see that there are many many poor reviews.

Mizvee - let us know which builders/areas u are considering, some of us may be able to offer some help.