Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:15 min drive to the beach for my entire retirement? Sign me up!

15 minute drive in off season, 2 hours to find parking!

No parking issues sept-may and 1/2 of June and aug.

We seriously looked into the Lewes Delaware area as a possible retirement site and actually visited with a high school friend of my husband and her spouse for dinner and saw their lovely home with one floor living and a lower basement. In talking, when her husband mentioned he would be going to Wilmington about two hours north for a knee replacement at some point, I realized that it was likely that medical facilities for more extensive conditions and traveling for those services would need to be considered carefully. Just driving out to Lewes from the DMV as we do like that area, you can see how "remote" from major health care services one could be. We were also considering services for a daughter with an intellectual disability who is used to working part-time and a variety of activities all within perhaps 20 minutes maximum of where we live now. In general in Delaware, there just seemed like there was going to be a lot more driving for services that all three of us have more at hand where we are. However, Lewes is a lovely place.

Also from having parents who went between Cape Cod and Naples for over 25 years in retirement, you realize that evaluating a place 65-70, it is hard to look at the needs which likely increase for most 85-90. I also think at least researching places with assisted living, memory care as well as skilled nursing are also important aspects. My parents were in the Boston area and did move into a CCRC at about age 92 which offered memory care just when my mother needed it, and my dad remained in independent living until he passed away in late August after a 3-week decline. There was a saying that you went to Naples at 65 and you went back home at 85 as my folks outlived all who started with them in their community down there.

Another area on the Eastern Shore of Maryland that we actually enjoyed going to visit and bike the rails to trails on is Kent Island, and from I have seen there are some new retirement communities there, too. It is right off of the Bay Bridge so closer to Annapolis and DC possibly for health care issues.

Anonymous wrote:I was in Lewes last year for the first time in decades and I kept thinking “who on earth is buying these houses?!” The indistinguishable neighborhoods just go on and on and on forever. Now I know!

LOL, except that you were not actually "in" Lewes, which is only 4 square miles.

That's Sussex County, as much as they try to sell it as Lewes.

I was in Lewes last year for the first time in decades and I kept thinking “who on earth is buying these houses?!” The indistinguishable neighborhoods just go on and on and on forever. Now I know!

Anonymous wrote:15 min drive to the beach for my entire retirement? Sign me up!

15 minute drive in off season, 2 hours to find parking!

https://www.ryanhomes.com/new-homes/communities/10222120151350/delaware/lewes/middle-creek-preserve?utm_source=yext&utm_medium=bingplace&utm_term=powerlistings&utm_campaign=ron&utm_content=middle-creek-preserve

Many communities like this one.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's cute. I can take it for 2 days.

I'd be bored out of my mid longer and its way too hot and humid in the summer.

I loathe that trafficked strip between Lewis and Rehoboth with the outlets and tacky shops.

Have you ever been to a beach, anywhere? Its all pretty much tacky shops, everywhere...

(cue MV poster...)

Yea. I would never retire to one of those beaches.

We live seasonally in Maine that is beauty and great temps in the summer. Zero beach tackiness or shit shops way up Coast.

I can't do mid-Atlantic or anything farther South.

Where in Maine? Would love some non-humid, non Route 1 place.

15 min drive to the beach for my entire retirement? Sign me up!

My grandmother didn’t move into an old person’s community until she was in her late 80s. I can see the appeal yet you have to be comfortable with the high rate of death. No one mentions that part.

With all these new housing developments, the traffic will soon be as bad as the DC area!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lewes is super cute!

I'm not talking about the old town. I am talking about a ton of suburban developments kind if north and west. New single family homes, all tan or greige, with first floor bedrooms and upstairs bedrooms designed for the over 60 crowd. Tons of lawn, a few trees. Not really close to the shore, you have to drive there.

Most houses here don't have first floor bedrooms, so that's one reason to move there. Lower prices another.

We figure we will either have to leave this area or get an elevator built in our house at some point.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I assure you, not "everyone" is doing this.

Well, about 70% of all the folks I know who have just retired.That is a lot of people. The others that I know have specific reasons that require them to stay such as grandchildren, unwillingness to leave their home, still caring for parents, or a chronic illness that is better managed here or really just don't like the beach area, or theylike the beach aream but not this beach area. Some have moved to Florida, some have moved to the Northern Neck. However, all in all, most are going to Lewes or the environs of Lewes.

+1

Well this post resurrected after 4 years.

How's things in Lewes now? What about areas around Lewes? Lots of building, but what about medical?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I assure you, not "everyone" is doing this.

Well, about 70% of all the folks I know who have just retired.That is a lot of people. The others that I know have specific reasons that require them to stay such as grandchildren, unwillingness to leave their home, still caring for parents, or a chronic illness that is better managed here or really just don't like the beach area, or theylike the beach aream but not this beach area. Some have moved to Florida, some have moved to the Northern Neck. However, all in all, most are going to Lewes or the environs of Lewes.

+1

Not to say the more sophisticated (critical) types would enjoy a Lewes retirement, my folks retired there 30 years ago and of course the area has since evolved! They lived in the town and really enjoyed it, my father ran/walked the beach everyday, and my mother volunteered and made new friends. Got a lot of visitors of course! Their health was good so the Dr.s were not an issue for them especially, but Beebe Hospital proximity was certainly a plus. The weather there is moderate all year with the occasional snow and Noreaster. The cost of living is lower than DC. They enjoyed decorating a home and working in their garden, and inside the city limits Lewes is a small town which is an acquired taste. The one obstacle they had which I am sure has resolved itself is transportation to and from airports since they traveled. They experienced no crime. A couple times a year they would come to DC for department store shopping, errands etc and that was enough, because the quirky shopping down there is really fun, especially in the winter when the tourists are gone! The restaurants there are as good if not better than DC area, and discovering out of the way places is rewarding too. But their kids were spread out and as they got older it was harder to reach them in emergencies so after my dad passed away we moved my mom back up to DC, but she has never re- adjusted to the culture here and I feel badly for doing the move, but we could not leave her down there. Another thing that was hard to comprehend is the work to live culture down there, hunting and fishing are a priority with the trades and are unapologetic about it. All in all a good thing, I would go if I could afford their retirement in the town.

Here's how it goes:

- Elderly couple visits Lewes and thinks.. wouldn't it be nice to live here? Nice beach, low taxes, etc.
- They start looking, and realize for their budget, they can't afford to live on the beach and then they need a place with low maintenance (condo) and with modern amenities... so they end up at the cookie-cutter developments.

When I was in college, my friend's parents were the same way. They liked Rehoboth and rented a beach house every year. Then they finally decided to buy, and ended up in a cookie-cutter condo a few miles outside the town, just off the highway. You'd look out the window and you could be in Ashburn or Gaithersburg and not Rehoboth.. You had no clue the beach was nearby at all, since it was miles away.

Median age is 55. 33% of residents are 65 of older. In Lewes itself, from census data.