Many families visit Delaware each year for its terrific tourist spots, amazing accommodations, tax-free shopping, and its long beaches. But when it comes time to settle down and invest in a new home, however, a number of more serious considerations come into play. Fortunately, the most important factors that new home buyers tend to consider when selecting a new hometown are easily quantifiable: factors such as the quality of the public schools, the cost of living, and whether the area is growing economically or if it is showing signs of being on a decline. Since the 2008 recession, home buyers are much more savvy about these kinds of things.
A town has to feel inviting in order to draw in people from outside, and we have added this more subjective factor into our methodology in order to select the top five small towns in Delaware that are your best bet when looking for a great new place to raise a family.
While Hockessin may have some of the most expensive real estate on our list, there's good reason for that. It also has some of the highest income averages in the state at approximately $130,190 a year per household. Public education in Hockessin is worth looking into as well. North Star Elementary students, for example, tend to test quite well with an average reading score that exceeds the state average by more than 20 points.
Hockessin tops out the Delaware real estate market with an average home value of $436,200. It also takes the cake for the average monthly expenses at just under $4,500 per month. It enjoyed a growth factor of 29.1% in the 2000's, which is among the lowest in the state, but well above some of the worst performers not mentioned on this list.
Just at the border of Dover, Delaware's state capital, Camden has outstanding schools. The U.S. Department of Education named Camden's Star Hill Elementary a National Blue Ribbon School. Star Hill was one of only 269 schools across the country to win this award. The NBR award sites schools for both their strength and improvement in student performance scores on standardized tests.
With an average annual income per household of $64,526, Camden is not the wealthiest community in the First State, but it's doing quite well for its size. The average home is worth $194,800, and Camden shows an overall growth of just a touch over 37% in the last decade.
Just a short drive from Dover, Clayton is an ideal place for public service employees who work primarily in the state capital. The children of Clayton attend classes in the Smyrna School District, where the award winning school- Clayton Elementary is located. The students in this district have been cited for their exemplary testing performance by the state government and won a $50,000 grant for their school in 2012.
One of the richest real estate markets in Delaware, Clayton's median home value is $230,600. It rates high on the average household income meter at just under $73,900 per year. Clayton shows a growth factor of an impressive 67% in the 2000's, an unmistakably promising sign.
With it's regionally high quality of life, Middletown was recently recognized by state officials for its commitment to the health and wellbeing of its residents. Middletown has also been noted as having fared among the best towns in regards to weathering the 2008 recession. It recovered very rapidly by comparison to its peers as evidenced by the many large business enterprises that broke ground in Middletown since 2009 to include its new multi-million dollar healthcare facility.
With the second highest average housing prices on our list ($264,000), and the third highest annual income ($70,942), Middletown makes up for this with low monthly costs to run a home at an average utility expenditure of $1,822. This is evidenced in this town's 70.3% growth rate in the last decade which places it second from the top on that account.
Ranked first for fasted growing areas in the region, Millsboro is chock full of opportunities for financial growth and business ventures. Some of its largest employers include the famous Dogfish Head artisan brewery and the massive Beebe Medical Center. Millsboro's East Elementary has proven itself excellent on standardized tests and took home the U.S. Department of Education's Blue Ribbon award.
Our winner could hardly have been engineered to have a better-adjusted cost of living to overall quality of life. The median value home is worth roughly $229,700 and the average cost to run the home is third from the highest on our list at $1,390. The average household income ranks last on our list at $47,649. However, with an impressive growth factor of 74%, it is clear that Millsboro must be doing something right.
Honorable Mention: Milford
This small town offers an excellent get away from the officious bustle of Dover and Georgetown with its beautiful old fashioned townhouses, its art oriented downtown district, and its outstanding agricultural community. Since this little town started working to appeal to folks interested in art and culture it has expanded beyond being a simple farming collective into a kind of grass roots Mecca for enthusiasts of folk art and crafts. It also doesn't hurt that it has got a few of the finest restaurants in the state.
This gem of a town is not to be judged by its current low rank on our list as its revised form is a fairly recent manifestation of its desire to please. When you consider that the better part of its 36.3% growth factor has registers over the last five years, its clear that they have managed to turn on to something good. The average home value is still noticeably affordable at $196,100, and the relatively low cost of ownership, rating at $1,440 is far from unmanageable.
