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I am pretty excited to be leaving Delaware. I grew up in New Castle County, worked in Wilmington, Newark, and New Castle. For the last 16 years I have lived in Dover. Spent much time at my parents homes in Sussex county, including the beaches. I have many customers in Delaware, and I have a pretty unique perspective on the area. I feel like I have seen it all.
Want some subjective observations? Sure.
1. When you ask locals about why Delaware is a good place to live, the number one answer is its geographic proximity to other areas (Philly, Baltimore, DC, and NYC). That should be a warning sign to you. In my opinion, living NEAR other areas is not a feature.
2. The three counties have distinct characters, and even sub-characters to them...
New Castle County
It has the city of Wilmington. It USED to be a banking center and chemical center when duPont and Hercules had their headquarters there. The banks moved out. MBNA was sold. Wilmington Trust went under. Chase Bank went out. The big banking center of Wilmington is not as huge as it once was. The duPont buildings there are pretty much empty.
Wilmington has some very bad areas around it. West side is where a lot of crime is. East side is where a lot of poverty is. Center and south central has some high rise apartments and condos that are decent, near the waterfront and baseball stadium. That is an improving area. Northwest is nice. North (Claymont) is bad. I lived in Claymont as a kid and still have bad memories.
Greenville is the "rich area" of the state. It is small, and northwest of Wilmington. Its where the duPont family and heirs are.
Hockessin is one of the nicest places to live in the state, but it is next to PA Mushroom country. Meaning that it smells awful there in the summer time. True story.
Overall traffic in NCC is awful. No doubt about it. Not just the volume, but the danger and the construction.
There are some nice parks around NCC, but they are spread out.
Newark is where I grew up. It is home to the University of Delaware. There are more people from NJ in that university than locals. The University is not just a school. It is an enterprise. As such, it has BOUGHT UP most of the real estate in downtown Newark. This has good and bad effects. It has transformed a neat, charming place into a plastic place. I really don't go there anymore. It feels very empty to me.If you aren't a student, I don't see much value in being near Newark.
Christiana Mall - one of the best things about living in Delaware is the low taxes and no sales tax. No place better to see this than the Christiana Mall, which is the best mall in the state. You will find better malls in other metro areas, but this mall is pretty fantastic for this area. It is one of the few nice things about Delaware. And there appears to be continued investment in the mall.
Middletown - grew very rapidly leading up to the housing crash. Development there now has halted. It is an immense bedroom community. Meaning, many people live there, but they travel from there to work in Wilmington. So it is a suburb that doesn't have much to do other than strip malls. Like all of Delaware, it has no culture, charm, arts, good restaurants, or geographic scenery.
Smyrna - It is where the state prison is. That is all locals think about it. It is growing. But yeah.
Dover
Where I live now. Don't recommend it. There are many retirees here. If you are under 40, you will hate hate hate it here. A major employer was MBNA/BOA - they left. Aetna left. All that is left now is the State of Delaware (the largest employer) and the Dover Air Force Base. You have big, loud planes flying over you. A lot depending on where you live in Dover. It has a NASCAR track and a casino. If you are a redneck you will be in heaven. Locals leave town when races come to town and there is a reason for that. I could go on and on. With businesses closing left and right, the economy has taken a toll on this area.
If you must be in Dover, get into the Caesar Rodney School District. It is one of the best in the state. Choosing the capitol school district could be a mistake.
LOWER, SLOWER DELAWARE
Anything below Dover is LSD. You have the beaches, and the rest is rural farmland. That is it. It is Hicktown, USA. Milford isn't too bad, and is one of the better non-resort areas to live. Harrington has a huge drug crime problem.
Georgetown is one of the largest cities, and it is where the corporate courthouse is. Other than that, Sussex County is a wasteland. The beaches are a different story, but most property owners are from DC and PA. You will see MANY Pennsylvania license plates when you visit the beach. And PA drivers are the WORST when they come to Delaware Beaches. Don't know why they lose their minds, but ask any Delaware local about it. Beach traffic is terrible in the summer. You have one way to go north, and that is Route 1. Multi-mile backups are not uncommon. Going west to DC, there is one bridge over the bay that gets backed up many miles as well sometimes.
REHOBOTH BEACH
The beaches have the outlets for shopping, that is decent.
I prefer Ocean City Maryland's beaches, or the Delaware State Park beaches (below Dewey Beach) to Rehoboth. Rehoboth lost a lot of sand years ago due to storms, and they dredged up sand from offshore. This RUINED the beach. It now has a ton of pebbles in it. I am not kidding - I don't go there anymore. The south end of the beach is known as "Poodle Beach", and is nationally known as one of the largest gay beaches in the world. There is a huge gay business owner contingient in Rehoboth. If you are not a liberal, you should stay away. You WILL see gay couples hand in hand on the boardwalk. IT doesn't bother me, but at the same time they can't promote themselves as a family resort.
LEWES
Nice, small, near Rehoboth, good school system down there.
DEWEY
Party town. Disfunctional government. Upside down tax revenue, cutting police force, is very ugly. Not a place to live. Hotels are now bullying them and getting around ordinances. Not good.
CANCER HOTSPOTS
There are some cancer hotspots in Delaware. Mainly around the refineries in Delaware City. But there are also other chemical dumping grounds in central Delaware that the chemical industry created. You can search online for where these areas are. As a whole, I don't think Delaware ranks very well with cancer risk (going from memory, but research it).
If you move here, you will miss:
*Name brand chain stores
*Restaurants
*Having a sports team
*Good roads
*Scenic roads (route 9 doesn't count)
*Large parks
*The Arts
*Good movie theaters
*Wide range of employers
*Hills (it is all flat)
*Good economy (there are many states better)
I am leaving because my kids are grown, and I am moving to a state that isn't missing all of the things that Delaware is missing. Don't move here to save on your NY, PA, or NJ taxes. Many people do, and that is not a good enough reason to be here. There are many parts of NJ that are terrible, so that would be a good reason to come to Delaware.
If I offended anyone, I am sorry. Just being as honest as I can be.
Well you are certainly entitled to your opinion. I hope you find all that you are looking for in your next state. Where exactly was it you didn't say you were going?
WOW!Great information,very detailed,Thanks for the honestly,Not one Realtor I have emailed or talked to in Delaware ever said any of this.They tell me everything and everywhere I ask about is perfect.This is something to really think about.Great Post!
Thanks for that narrow-minded, extremely biased, and often inaccurate post.
It is simply untrue that Delaware has no culture. Delaware Art Museum. Opera Delaware. A wide range of music and theatre at the Grand Opera House, and at the DuPont Theatre. The largest collection of American antiques and decorative arts in the nation at Winterthur. Hagley. Nemours. Wilmington Symphony and Chamber Orchestras. To name only a few things in the very north end of the State.
Rehoboth. Not family oriented? Is the existance of a vibrant lesbian and gay community, and the identity as - strictly in part - a regional gay and lesbian resort, somehow incompatible with this Atlantic beach town also being a family-oriented resort? I really don't think so. I see both the gay community and a rather larger number of heterosexual couples with kids in Rehoboth. And since when don't gay couples have families?
Thanks for the laugh. That post took some time and energy, and I'm sure that's a big relief getting it out. Many times writing down gripes results in a cleansing of the mind, before one can move on.
I'm a local of 73 years, and needless to say, there's not much in there I agree with. But, everybody's got an opinion, and I wish you the very best.
For someone who's main interest in life is The Mall, I will agree with you. Delaware is not for you and you definitely need to explore bigger and better Malls, something Delaware can't provide. Good Luck!
JMac51, I don't blame you for trying out other states to live, especially since you've never lived anywhere else. The grass isn't always as green on the other side as you may think. What state are you moving to?
JMac51, I don't blame you for trying out other states to live, especially since you've never lived anywhere else. The grass isn't always as green on the other side as you may think. What state are you moving to?
The grass is greener on the other side usually on account of the BS over there... ;-)
I've lived in/near Philly for much of the last 20 years and there are things I hate about it and things that I love. If you find a "perfect place" please let us all know! We are planning on moving to DE this Fall when our new house is complete!
I don't think I am unrealistic at all. I am an adult and I realize there is no perfect place to live. To say that 100% of my points are false is not realistic.
I agree there are some good museums around Wilmington like Hagley. But when I lived in NCC I would travel to the Philly Art museum, etc. Be honest, there isn't much here.
Realtors are NOT ALLOWED BY LAW to say why one community might be better than another. It is called "Steering". I had a real estate license once so I am very familiar with this. Since I am not a Realtor, I can say whatever I want. It does feel good to "get it out". There are so many things here that bug the crap out of me. I have gay friends and customers. So my comments about Rehoboth were not meant to put them down, but to point out a fact that Realtors aren't allowed to talk about. I got my real estate license just to save money on a large transaction. Realtors and Brokers can't give you honest opinions on everything. Period.
I am moving to Denver, CO. Austin, TX was my second choice. GREAT economy in Austin, very cool city. More outdoor options in Denver. Yes one is cold and one is hot. In my experiences, Delaware seems to be a place that many people are born, or end up due to; family, a job, or the military. It isn't a place people dream of living at. Except for maybe the beach.
No, I don't "live for the mall". But if you want to go to the Apple store, where are you going to go? Milford? Dover? Millsboro? NO! You are going to the Christiana Mall. Even if you hate Apple products it somewhat makes my point.
Among the worst neighborhood-level clusters, they found:
• Laryngeal cancer cases in Northeast Wilmington next to Brandywine Creek between Northeast Boulevard and Market Street.
• Melanoma in a small tract around Brandywood, south of Naamans Road between Grubb and Foulk roads.
• Ovarian cancer rates in the Hockessin area that were more than four times the state average.
• Thyroid cancers in the Overview Gardens and Minquadale areas southwest of Memorial Drive.
• Leukemia in a suburban and rural tract west of Dover and northwest of Wyoming.
• Ovarian cancer east of Bridgeville and Greenwood.
• Melanoma, kidney and esophageal cancers west of Rehoboth Beach.
Census tracts with unusually high cancer rates turned up in all three counties, from the top of Brandywine Hundred to west Dover and the Love Creek area in coastal Sussex County.
Some of the findings:
•The Middletown-Odessa census division, which runs from the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal almost to the Kent County line, and has about 41,000 people, had a colorectal cancer rate 44.8 percent above the state average.
•The Kenton area near Dover, home to about 6,000 people, was 22.4 percent above average for all cancer cases.
•The city of Wilmington, with 72,000 people, was 10 percent above average for all cancers, 21.1 percent above average for prostate cancer and 17.5 percent above average for lung cancer.
•The Millsboro area had a lung cancer rate 29.8 percent above average.
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I hope you find all that you are looking for in your next state. Where exactly was it you didn't say you were going? 
