Delaware Questions

this is a complicated question
it will require someone who has time and knowledge
i have neither

 

Property taxes are cheap (mine are $650 / year) and there is no sales tax because Delaware makes a lot of money off companies that incorporate here (even if they arent physically located here) due to advantagous Delaware tax laws for companies.

Your not going to find any towns along the coast that dont have a high percentage of older retirees and summer rental houses. Lewes is probably the closest thing to a year-around community with family neighborhoods. Have to drive to waves tho...

Honestly, if living in a beach town with decent waves nearby (like walk/bike distance) is what your looking for, forget Delaware. If low cost living, but having to hop in the car and drive 30-45 minutes to find fun waves is something you can live with, then Delaware might work for you.

 

There are alot of corporations paying lots of taxes since they are based in delaware. It creates some relief for the rest of us. I believe they also collect a 1.5% tax when you buy or sell property that you don't have other places, but that's small unless you're flipping. It is true though, much cheaper. My family and I pay $400/year in taxes on our beach place in lower slower delaware, similar places in MD would have been 5-6,000/year. My house in northern Delaware I pay around 1500/year, if it were in MD it could be 5-8 depending on where it is. I obviously don't live full time in lower de, but check out Ocean View, Lewes, Milford, Fenwick, etc to start with for better community atmospheres.

 

jersey=high taxes

everywhere else=normal taxes

you could just move to tuckerton or something

 

The waves in NJ are much better as of late. The breaks in Delaware have been harmed by alot of dredging recently. It's now mostly shorebreak everywhere. The most consistent wave remains at one spot near Lewes. But, boy does it get crowded. Lewes is by far the best place in Southern Delaware to live year round with school age children. Schools are ok (the new High School is beautiful), at least as compared to Maryland.

 

I don't why people continually allow this crap to happen. It creates dangerous waves and completey ruins surf/boogie boarding breaks. It's because people won't stand together. I've seen it before on this site. People actually arguing on here FOR that nourishment crap with no regard to the affect on a break. Complete haters. Think crowds are bad now? Just wait until they destroy almost every surf break out there. They even try this crap in california http://www.surfline.com/surf-news/d...al-beach-sandbagging--surfline-san-die_19208/
But the surf culture is too strong to allow that crap to happen out there as much as it happens on this coast at least.

You can do nourishment projects while still keeping in my mind the wave quality as well and not completely anihillating a sandbar.

The army corps don't give a rat's ass about the sandbar, unless a lot of people stand up and complain.

 

100 surfers complaining about playing in the ocean compared to hundreds of millions of dollars in tourist revenue. You do the math.

 

Tourists don't understand what dredging even is unfortunately. Trust me, most would rather play in waves on a beach with a more gradual slope rather than taking two steps and being overhead deep water. A ton of tourists boogie board and many rent surf boards/take surf lessons. And of cours e a beach with a gradual slope is MUCH safter than a steep beach. That's just common sense. Shore pound is dangerous

And it's not 100's. It's thousands upon thousands of surfers. Every complaint matters. If no one complains, nothing will be changed. Sort of like voting.

It really doesn't take much to adjust the design of a dredging project so a beach isn't kept flat and to completely destroy a sandbar.

 

"Are the waves in Delaware equivalent to Jersey waves or do you need to travel south for better quality?"

As a practical matter, you probably need to go to OC, MD or Assateague. I'm hoping a couple of good coastal storms will change that though.

 

delaware sucks unless you live there. Theres no free parking anywhere ive ever seen, the tolls just to drive through are like eight bucks and state parks are eight bucks out of state

 

I live in DE and haven't surfed in DE in over 2 or 3 years. Beach replenishment killed all the good spots and as mentioned b4, the only break that really works gets crowded with about 5 people, and usually there's like 50 people out there...so i don't even bother. Taxes are way cheaper here, no sales tax and the schools are actually really good. Some good info on here, as mentioned b4, try oceanview, fenwick, hell even millsboro.

 

As others have said correctly, Delaware's spots have been mostly ruined by coarse grained beachfill turn everything into shorebreak.

So I'm definately talking about living in southern Delaware and making the 30-45 minute ride to Maryland to surf most of the time, where it is still pretty consistently surfable.

 

Must be the NJ Chris Christie factor. Delaware is Biden Country. I suspect Jersey's taxes are high because of all the toxic waste they have to clean up.

 

De

I live in Delaware. I go to the beaches all year round and its pretty great. The taxes are low because of the low population, small size, and because several corporations are DE based and they pick up the taxes for us ( ie. DuPont, Goretex). The surf is good in certain spots, but it used to be excellent everywhere but beach replenishment did a good job of killing most breaks. In the spots where it is good it does tend to get crowded though ( 20 people sometimes 30 in the summer). But when its good its incredible, id say better than NJ and OCMD ( ive been surfing in both several times). you have to be a local to know the good spots. Locals hate it when tourist come out to go surfing and dont know what they are doing. tourist have no consideration. A friend of mine worked on the beach replenishment project and he told me that nature should revive the breaks within a few years, not to their full potential though but it will be ride-able. also storms and hurricanes speed up the revivng process. If you have a jetski chicken shoals is the place to be during big swells. You can do tow-ins on monster waves!! me personaly has seen 20 - 30 ft waves out at the shoals during Hurricanes. Schools are pretty good. recently delaware has increased its public school funding so they should be improving. Lewes, rehoboth, Bethany, Fenwick, and ocean view are by far the best places to live. If you have a lot of money go big and buy in Henlopen Acres. hope this helps!!

 

20 to 30 feet seriously!? this response is a reason not to live in Delaware. Ever see Wayne's World: "Delaware, I'm in Delaware". The only reason i could even remotely think to move from jersey to delaware is if you took that money you saved on property taxes and traveled somewhere where there are waves. Factor in your sanity & gas money better to stay in jersey.

 

You are so right, the "science" is out there even by the Army Corp. how to maintain surfable beaches but not until those 100 or 1000 are motivated enough to wrap themselves around the concept of kicking the can a little harder down the road with Officials to maintain/improve beach profiles both under and above the water. The finer sand (2-4 mm) makes a better sand bar than (5 mm - 8 mm) coarse sand that is normally used by replenishment projects.

They're seeing increased traffic from NJ & MD in DE escaping the higher real estate taxes and other taxes in the Lewis area. Some are not excepting contingent contracts as a sign market has improved.

 

I know a shop owner in Lewis DE who owned a "cottage" across the river in Jersey his taxes were 17k a year !!! He had no idea where all the tax money went to other than now he pumps his own gas and saves 16k a year, he gave himself a pay raise.

Jersey has Christie, DE has Biden and MD has who, O'Malley, when you start to feel the effects of this years tax increases you might become the new Marylander who will be voting with their feet across State lines. The counties will have to raise property taxes to share the burden of contributions now levied by the State.

 

NOOO! im not saying 20 - 30 foot waves breaking on the beaches!, I am saying at chicken shoals during hurricanes ive seen 20 - 30 foot waves. Chicken Shoals is a sand bar a little less then a mile off the coast of Cape Henlopen. Its been there forever i feel like! its like 6 feet deep on the sand bar and around it its like 26 feet deep. I believe that its creation has something to do with the heavy cargo tanker traffic slightly beyond it ( probably about 1/4 to a 1/2 mile beyond) Big waves have been known to break off of it, and people (like myself) have towed into it with jetskis. Its pretty cool. but it does not break big like that everyday. Only during hurricanes and big storms.