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Magnolia, Delaware - Moving

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PSUJC40

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Sep 24, 2004
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Any folks live in Delaware or know much about Magnolia, DE? Just south of Dover. Is it a nice area? Safe? Good schools?

I may need to relocate to Delaware around the Dover area. We are a family of 5. Three boys under the ages of 10. Was looking at new construction homes in Magnolia. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
 
DELion

DELion

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May 23, 2020
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I don't know much about Magnolia in particular but it is part of LSD (Lower Slower Delaware). The public schools in Delaware are generally not very good but the Kent County schools appear to be better than the average. Cost of living and housing down there is cheaper than in northern Delaware or the beach communities. I find Delaware to be a great place to live.
 
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Alphalion75

Alphalion75

All-Conference
Oct 24, 2001
14,405
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PSUJC40 said:
Any folks live in Delaware or know much about Magnolia, DE? Just south of Dover. Is it a nice area? Safe? Good schools?

I may need to relocate to Delaware around the Dover area. We are a family of 5. Three boys under the ages of 10. Was looking at new construction homes in Magnolia. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
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Where are you moving from? Looks like a fairly remote area of Delaware.
 
hohmadw1978

hohmadw1978

Heisman
Oct 7, 2021
3,925
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Being a long time Delaware resident for over 20 years, there are pluses and minuses to living here. Pluses include no sales tax, low property taxes and the ability to write off certain deductions on your State Income Tax return. Beaches are very nice and accessible.

Due to the lower property taxes, the schools are not the best. I was a substitute teacher for 18 months after retiring and found very few good public schools in New Castle County. However, I have been told that the schools in Kent County are a little better.

The second minus is heath care. The hospitals are the not the best run and a bit understaffed. I have two health issues that I get addressed accross the border in PA after having issues with Christiana Hospital.

Hope this helps. My wife and I generally have enjoyed living in this state the past 20 years plus.
 
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DaytonRickster

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May 29, 2001
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DELion said:
I don't know much about Magnolia in particular but it is part of LSD (Lower Slower Delaware). The public schools in Delaware are generally not very good but the Kent County schools appear to be better than the average. Cost of living and housing down there is cheaper than in northern Delaware or the beach communities. I find Delaware to be a great place to live.
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Have relatives who live in Delaware, some have been there many years when homes/property taxes ere much, much cheaper. Lots of growth (home construction going on in DE). Still, our relatives are very happy there.
 
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DELion

DELion

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May 23, 2020
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I don't think the low taxes are the reason for the poor quality of Delaware public schools. The state ranks 15th in per student expenditures ($18,000+/yr/student) but is 47th in public school SAT scores. Public school quality here has been a problem for as long as I've lived here (37 years). There are a large number of private schools in New Castle County but a lot fewer in Kent County.

With regards to health care, there is a primary care physician shortage in DE but that seems to be true of many paces across the country.

On the plus side, the parks are fantastic, there is easy access to beaches, mountains and major east coast cities.
 
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PSUJC40

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Sep 24, 2004
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I would be coming from Lansdale PA. Looking for a little more rural of an area with new subdivisions going up. Looks like Magnokia is about 10-15 drive up to Dover. Looks like Dover has everything we need. How crime ridden is Dover. Overall is Dover decent?
 
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Bardo

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Oct 28, 2021
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Magnolia is just below the Airbase (10-15 minutes). A quiet area, and rural. Plenty of farm land. But there is a huge growth spurt in that area. There is a fantastic sports complex off Rt 1 in Fredrica. I can’t talk about schools there. Winters are short. Summers are hot, but you are close to the “Beach”. COLA is very friendly. Compared to Lansdale, things will slow down dramatically. I lived in Middletown, and I loved it. They have a great school district, about 40 minutes from Magnolia, if you’re looking for an option.
 
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laKavosiey-st lion

laKavosiey-st lion

Heisman
Sep 10, 2013
15,522
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If it were me, I’d buy a new home in Townsend and commute to Dover. I work for the APPO school district and it’s considered the state’s best district. That said, it’s really not that great compared to my two sons hs education in central nj. I find the kids to be very casual about planning and executing next steps after hs.
I’d love to chat with you. I’ve been in Middletown (retired) for four years. Great empty nester spot, not so great school culture. If your kids were heading to North Penn HS, they will find it weird south of Dover. My wife is a bucks county girl, we started out in Doylestown, Lansdale and our first home in Perkasie. I’m very familiar with what your kids are used to.
PM me if you’d like to chat on the phone.
Rick in DE
 
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PSUJC40

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Sep 24, 2004
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Thanks so much everyone. Currently my kids go to catholic school so we are looking at Holy Cross Catholic school is Dover area. Not sure if anyone has heard anything good about it
 
hohmadw1978

hohmadw1978

Heisman
Oct 7, 2021
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PSUJC40 said:
Thanks so much everyone. Currently my kids go to catholic school so we are looking at Holy Cross Catholic school is Dover area. Not sure if anyone has heard anything good about it
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Being Catholic and knowing most of the schools in the area, I have heard that it is a good school.

One of our kids went to Salesianum (Catholic School in Wilmington) and it was excellent.
 
L

LMTLION

Sophomore
Mar 20, 2008
98
189
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My brother lives more so in the Middletown area (a bit further north than where you were talking about in Dover), so that’s where I have my experience with the state. In fact, I just visited him last weekend. Beautiful state, close proximity to the Delaware and Chesapeake bays if you like boating or fishing, and a short drive to the Delaware and Maryland beaches. It was once a discount on housing and taxes overall, but not nearly as much of a discount anymore. According to my brother, most of the school districts are pretty awful, but as you said that’s not a concern for you. The northern half of the state is becoming very developed and is essentially a bedroom community for Philadelphia. Dover is a little awkward for travel as there are no interstate highways, but if you don’t travel not as much of a concern for you. Good luck with your decisions. He moved there from the Poconos 10 years ago, and does not regret his decision.
 
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Bison13

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May 26, 2013
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School ranking should always be taken with a grain of salt. One of the criteria in those rankings is number of AP classes available and another is number who have passed an AP test. I went to a district that didn’t offer any AP classes because everything they offered was through dual enrollment with a local university. Therefore our school received no points in those categories and we had a large portion of the kids at our school who were not going to go to college, they were going to learn a trade or work on a family farm.
But in the same token, most of those Farm kids are pretty smart and about half of the school was taking dual enrollment classes and we had Harvard come out to talk to our little rural district because we had one of the highest average SAT scores in the state. So while we weren’t ranked very high, it was a really good school for academics, it was exceptionally safe and was a great community for the kids to grow up in.
 
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LionJim

LionJim

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Oct 12, 2021
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Bison13 said:
School ranking should always be taken with a grain of salt. One of the criteria in those rankings is number of AP classes available and another is number who have passed an AP test. I went to a district that didn’t offer any AP classes because everything they offered was through due enrollment with a local university. Therefore our school received no points in those categories and we had a large portion of the kids at our school who were not going to go to college, they were going to learn a trade or work on a family farm.
But in the same token, most of those Farm kids are pretty smart and about half of the school was taking dusl enrollment classes and we had Harvard come out to talk to our little rural district because we had one of the highest average SAT scores in the state. So while we weren’t ranked very high, it was a really good school for academics, it was exceptionally safe and was a great community for the kids to grow up in.
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DHS?
 
Big_O

Big_O

All-Conference
Jun 28, 2001
1,087
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I lived in Lower Slower for 9 years back in the 90’s. For a year I lived near the intersection of Barratt’s Chapel Road and Canterbury Road (15), but worked in Milford. That is not too far (SW) of Magnolia. It was very rural there at the time, but probably less so now due to enormous population growth in southern DE.

After a year we moved to Milford on the north shore of Haven Lake. At the time Milford schools were considered some of the better in the state, but we found them lacking. After first grade or kindergarten, we were able to enroll our kids in Holy Cross School in Dover, which at the time was an excellent school. When we moved to Ohio in 1999 to one of the top academic school districts in the state (Olentangy School District), our older daughter was in 5th grade but she was a full year ahead of her classmates. One of the reasons that precipitated our move was the lack of decent high schools in mid to southern DE. Our friends from Milford whose kids were also attending Holy Cross eventually moved to Dover to avoid the 25 minute commute to the school. Their kids went to Caesar Rodney High School and they felt they got a decent education there. Their kids all went to good colleges and two of them then went on to law school.

That is all about what I can say about the area since I have not been back there for probably about 10 years. I do have a good home builder to recommend if you are in the market for a custom built home.
 
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PSUJC40

Redshirt
Sep 24, 2004
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Big_O said:
I lived in Lower Slower for 9 years back in the 90’s. For a year I lived near the intersection of Barratt’s Chapel Road and Canterbury Road (15), but worked in Milford. That is not too far (SW) of Magnolia. It was very rural there at the time, but probably less so now due to enormous population growth in southern DE.

After a year we moved to Milford on the north shore of Haven Lake. At the time Milford schools were considered some of the better in the state, but we found them lacking. After first grade or kindergarten, we were able to enroll our kids in Holy Cross School in Dover, which at the time was an excellent school. When we moved to Ohio in 1999 to one of the top academic school districts in the state (Olentangy School District), our older daughter was in 5th grade but she was a full year ahead of her classmates. One of the reasons that precipitated our move was the lack of decent high schools in mid to southern DE. Our friends from Milford whose kids were also attending Holy Cross eventually moved to Dover to avoid the 25 minute commute to the school. Their kids went to Caesar Rodney High School and they felt they got a decent education there. Their kids all went to good colleges and two of them then went on to law school.

That is all about what I can say about the area since I have not been back there for probably about 10 years. I do have a good home builder to recommend if you are in the market for a custom built home.
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PSUJC40

Redshirt
Sep 24, 2004
21
29
13
Yes I agree from visiting it’s getting built up. Can you share which home builder?
 
Big_O

Big_O

All-Conference
Jun 28, 2001
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PSUJC40 said:
Yes I agree from visiting it’s getting built up. Can you share which home builder?
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Davies & Thornley Construction in Milford. Can’t say enough about the quality of their work. They won an award in 2018 as a business that delivers on their promise of exceptional service.
 
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