New Castle (Wilmington, Newark, Pike Creek: crime rate, how much, house)

[beckycat]

Any info about it?
) crime
2) convenience
3) weather
4) work
Rural, city, suburbs?
and anything else.

[ebuch]

New Castle County or actually New Castle?

I personally think New Castle is a run down city with LOTS of crime. You do have your nice areas but most of it is your Collins Parks hoods etc (white trash).

There are definitely better places to live than New Castle. ie. Newark, Hockesin, Pike Creek, Middletown and the weather will be the same.

[beckycat]

Could you tell me more about Middleton? Are Hockesin and Pike Creek just areas or actual towns? I couldn't find anything on them.

[doctorjef]

Outside of Old New Castle (the historic district), New Castle appears to be a pit. The high school is known to be a rough place and crime generally is a problem there. Old New Castle has a lack of amenities and half a mil would be a cheap price there for a property. The rest of the city does feature properties that can be snagged very cheaply indeed, but they are little boxes in very gritty working class to frankly impoverished neighborhoods.

[ron del]

Hockessin and Pike Creek are areas of New Castle county on a map, not towns. There are plenty of nice areas in New Castle County you might get information from the local newspaper, the Delaware Newsjournal, or a local realtor. It is a buyers market, people and banks are willing to negotiate. All of the variables that you list are subject to how much money you want to spend for a house. Employment is tight all over with the exception of certain industries that are less sensitive to the current economy.
Crime: New Castle County (http://www.co.new-castle.de.us/publicsafety/home/webpage4.asp - broken link)

[SXMGirl]

Old New Castle is surrounded by not-so-good areas. It is an expensive place to live and doesn't have the amenities that a small town with easy walking should have. I have to disagree with doctorjef about the local high school. The population is that of a small city (2,500 students) and like any city, there is a diverse population. I must say that when there are problems, they are dealt with firmly and swiftly. doctorjef needs to walk in and get a tour. I think he would be impressed at what goes on in the classrooms and on the athletic fields.

I ran federal programs in Chester for years so I think I am a fairly good judge of what is acceptable in these communities. The public high schools seem to have seriously poor reputations. Before making judgments, you need to speak to people who are in the schools every day. I am not necessarily talking about staff. How many times a week does an EMT have to go to the school? How many arrests are there on a monthly basis? Or, more important, how many students are on the honor roll, participate in school activities, and are generally good kids.

The weather in Delaware is just like most areas in the mid-Atlantic area. Sunshine, light snow (generally), high humidity in the summer, and gorgeous days like we are having now.

Jobs are not plentiful, but there appears to be something for everyone.

Shopping is just ok. There is a large mall with some stores vacant, and another small mall with a Boscov's. Strip malls are plentiful, but the better shopping is in North Wilmington. The best shopping is not in Delaware.

My opinion is that Delaware has too much crime based on its population. Part of that, again IMO, is the transient population that came and went in the banking industry. There are a lot of young people with probation and parole officers. That could be prevalent throughout the US, but I see it here every day.

If I was moving here today, I would look at Hockessin, Yorklyn, Greenville. If those areas are not in your budget, probably Middletown. The MOT area (Middletown, Odessa, Townsend) is diverse and is growing rapidly. However, shopping is still not plentiful except for grocery and home improvement centers.

We only moved here because my husband wanted to pay less taxes than PA or NJ. I prefer living in walking distance of most things and that is not in Delaware. You will find large homes here, low taxes, and an abundance of private schools. The tuition is more than you would pay in taxes in PA.

There are good public schools in Delaware, but a lot of time is spent on discipline problems. Since the 30-day count is now over, some of the students who were discipline problems will now be out on the streets--at least for a while.

Delaware is also not the healthiest state. We have cancer clusters throughout the state.

I see that you are in Florida. I think that I would stay there.

[beckycat]

Actually I'm researching for my sister that lives in PA. Her hubby will be working in Philly and it's too exspensive for them to live there. Schools aren't an issue b/c they don't have kids. I think Smyrna would work for them, but they'd like to be closer to Philly. He'd like to be within an hours drive.

[SXMGirl]

I don't think he can make it from Smyna to Philly in an hour. He really needs to try it out. I have heard that the crime rate has really increased dramatically as housing has increased. Why don't they look at some of the PA suburbs. Chester County generally has lower taxes than Delco.

[beckycat]

Their price range for a house is 120K.

[SXMGirl]

They need to spend a few weekends in DE and just drive around, see the area. Once they have established where they would want to live, then they need a realtor. I went to realtor.com, which I would encourage you or them to do, and there are a few homes under $100K in Smyrna. Since there are addresses on some of these homes, they can just drive by them and take a look at the neighborhood. It is always best to drive by a potential neighborhood at various times of the day and week, especially on weekend evenings.