housing

Despite otherwise dismal news in real estate, Realtors along the coastline say this year the options for last-minute vacationers are better than ever.

With new development throughout the beaches, Jack Lingo Realty Rental Manager Jo-Ann Bacher said many owners of investment properties are eager to rent.

"(Summer rentals are) shaping up really well," Bacher said. "Even at this late date there are still lots of properties to choose from."

Every summer Rehoboth Beach and the Cape Region are flooded with young international students, 1,500 in Rehoboth Beach alone, who come to study and work in the United States.

The International Student Outreach Program (ISOP), a nonprofit organization made up of volunteers from local churches and state and federal government agencies, attempts to help foreign students adjust to life here in the United States.

By reading the news these days one would think the state of the U.S. housing market is about as depressing as The Cure’s “Disintegration” album.

However, those in the Rehoboth Beach rental market aren’t feeling quite as gloomy. With the cost of flights and gas getting higher by the minute, more people are renting short-term properties that enable them to have a good time without raiding their children’s trust funds.

The issue of housing and the future of jobs will be addressed at the annual Sussex County Today and Tomorrow Conference, Wednesday, Oct. 31, at Delaware Technical & Community College, Owens Campus.

Back in the 1980s, the term “affordable housing” applied to almost everyone; it meant almost anyone with reasonable credit could purchase a modest home. Today an affordable home is beyond the reach of a great number of Sussex County residents. An affordable home has become just a dream for many.

Judging by Jeanne and Ed Fox of Rehoboth Beach and Jean and Tom Reale of Lewes, sharing your home with international students means that you expand your family. You aren't just taking in "boarders." And some of those students work here, all summer long, into the month of October.

You are there for them in good weather and bad. You get them to places such as doctor's offices, Social Security, banks and other places where they have to go, and you show them, despite their heavy work schedules, the fun side of the beach area. You even take them or get them in on local and distant sightseeing trips with the help of neighbors and other friends. And, when it's time for them to leave, you know that you will miss them. And hope that they come back.

Mike Moshos was among more than 100 people drawn to Cloud 9 Restaurant by the promise of cocktails, hors d’oeuvres and an opportunity to learn about the latest housing proposal for the Rehoboth Beach area, The Villas at Harmon Bay.

A half-hour into the event, with people crowding around drawings of the community that is to be built near Rehoboth Beach Country Club, Moshos conceded that he was favorably impressed by the project.

A new report is showing that home sales have dipped to the slowest pace in four years.

According to the National Association of Realtors, this is the 10th month in a row where there has been a drop in people buying homes. This has resulted in the highest surplus of existing homes in 16 years.

The statistics do not necessarily hold true for the whole country though. Sussex County is actually seeing a boom. What is the attraction? Taxes, or the lack thereof.

Robert Rydz was startled last month when he went to a free dinner for foreign students who work in this beach resort. He encountered a line extending 20 yards beyond the front door of Holy Savior Church’s hall.

“It was beyond my expectations,” said Rydz, a graduate student from Poland who is working here for a third summer. “In 2002 it was just seven of us. Two years ago it was more, but it was never as crowded as it is today.”

Margaret Szczepanska had spent nearly a day in the air, flying from Warsaw to Zurich, then to New York City. From there, she took a bus for the six-hour trip to Salisbury, Md., and after that, a taxi to Ocean City.

About 3 a.m. May 27, as America was sleeping off a long holiday weekend night, the Polish college student, who was in Maryland for a summer job, was stuck at Eighth Street, desperate and in need of help.

By Rachel Swick
Cape Gazette staff

Delaware is the 12th most expensive state to rent two-bedroom units.

Minimum wage workers make about $6.15 an hour. It would take about two minimum-wage jobs to afford the $12.21 an hour necessary to afford two bedrooms in Sussex County.

To afford a two-bedroom apartment, a minimum wage worker must work 79 hours per week, 52 weeks a year. That means in Delaware, the 28,586 people who make minimum wage or less cannot afford to rent here.

Affordable housing is at the forefront of issues affecting Delawareans, said Ken Smith of the Delaware Housing Coalition. Many low-income residents cannot afford to buy, so they must find rental properties, said Smith.

People who work in eastern Sussex and cannot afford to purchase a home have been forced to move west and look for more affordable rental units.
Numbers distinguishing differences in apartment rents east of Route 1 from rents west of Route 113 are not available.