Retirement at the beach in Delaware (55, weather, vacations, moving)
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My sister in Maryland goes to Rehobeth Beach at least once a year and really likes it. Apparently the property taxes are quite low in DE for some reason--a big draw for retirees.
We considered that option a few years ago but decided to stay put for a bunch of reasons. We live in central MD, about three hours from the general Rehoboth/Lewes area and are quite familiar with it from decades of vacations in the general area.
We looked at many of the DE/MD retirement beach communities, as well as non-retirement places there. Your pros and cons will obviously be specific to you but I'll summarize it from our perspective. The tax issues I'll leave to you. I've lived in both DE & MD and you've got to crunch your own numbers, they are specific to your situation which I'm sure you obviously know.
Unless memory fails me, CD had some threads on this area a while back, might want to do some searching on it.
Pros
It is a beautiful area and a popular choice for retirees, lots of similarly situated folks, many options on housing (though I wasn't keen on the ones with land rent communities), great shopping at the outlets, definitely a super nice playground for boating/beach interests. You've got the special option to do both ocean and Bay water activities, that seemed to be a big draw for my water focused friends.
In season, it can get a bit busy traffic-wise and the tourist crowd can be a pain for permanent residents but thats life in a tourist draw area.
Cons (My views)
The entire area is flat country and you may have to "get out of Dodge" in a major weather event. That was a serious issue for me. I prefer to live on higher ground a bit away from the coast and not be subject to evacuation orders. The probability is small but it was a genuine consideration for me.
International Airport access - that was a major consideration for us. You either have to hike to BWI or the DC options or run up to Philly/New York unless you want use the feeder flights to get to the Internationals. I looked at that as a major negative because we travel pretty frequently and it wasn't attractive from that standpoint to us. We're spoiled with extended family in the immediate area and usually can bum rides to and from the airports. (I seriously consider it "munchkin payback" and am shameless in using it.)
Its a growth area, i.e., lots of folks are apparently moving there. That is a downer from my perspective. I'm oriented to more stable and established locales. I don't want to be surprised with future development - thats just my viewpoint.
In general, a lot of folks are making the move to there. I can understand the attractions but it didn't add up for us. Best of luck.
Last edited by Pilgrim21784; 10-03-2011 at 04:32 PM..
Cons in addition to those mentioned are tourism and, remember the wind is always blowing at the beach. In the winter that wind is cold and stels heat from your house no matter how well insulated it is.
Cons in addition to those mentioned are tourism and, remember the wind is always blowing at the beach. In the winter that wind is cold and stels heat from your house no matter how well insulated it is.
The cold, wind and humidity is horrible on joints if that is a problem.
Global warming and rising sea levels = more frequent flooding. Tourism is an issue at some of the DelMarVa beach towns, but not all of them. If you need to drive to the mainland on a weekend, give it plenty of time to get over the bridge(s).
Global warming and rising sea levels = more frequent flooding. Tourism is an issue at some of the DelMarVa beach towns, but not all of them. If you need to drive to the mainland on a weekend, give it plenty of time to get over the bridge(s).
That is the joy of owning at the beach and being retired. You have much greater flexibility of when to head down or if it is your permanent home when to visit elsewhere.
In-season tourist and crowd issues and seasonal and extreme weather issues and inconvenient access...
will apply to almost any beach town at almost any latitude facing any water.
Aside from those factors however... the Delaware shore isn't a bad choice.
Rehobeth, Lewes, Dewey, Bethany. You could do worse
The cold, wind and humidity is horrible on joints if that is a problem.
Interesting thought. I'm going in November and again in late January and will pay particular attention to see if this is a problem.
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