{"id":354305,"date":"2026-09-23T05:14:39","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T05:14:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/354305\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T05:14:39","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T05:14:39","slug":"baby-boomers-flock-to-delaware-beaches-for-low-taxes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/354305\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Boomers flock to Delaware beaches for low taxes"},"content":{"rendered":"

The migration to Delaware\u2019s beaches<\/a> is no longer just about retirees hunting for a cheaper place to spend their golden years.<\/p>\n

As residents continue to flock to the First State\u2019s tiny coastline<\/a>, the influx is reshaping everything from the homes being built to the farmland surrounding its beach towns.<\/p>\n

Low property taxes, no state sales tax and access to the beach have been major draws, particularly for residents arriving from high-tax New York and New Jersey <\/a>\u2014 and even neighboring Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

Bethany Beach\u2019s walkable downtown and shoreline are major draws for Northeastern buyers. Tiffany Caldwell\/tiffpics.com<\/p>\n

A five-bedroom, four-bath waterfront home in Lewes is priced at $4.5 million. Ryan Owen Photography<\/p>\n

Indeed, as The Post previously reported<\/a>, more than 40,000 people have moved to Delaware\u2019s Sussex County since 2020, swelling its population by 17% \u2014 roughly five times the national growth rate.<\/p>\n

Delaware\u2019s population of residents 65 and older, meanwhile, surged 23% over the same period, more than any other state, as retirees increasingly looked beyond traditional destinations such as Florida.<\/p>\n

\u2018The best thing we ever disagreed on\u2019<\/p>\n

Maggie, 64, and Vince Dominici, 70, are among the Northeasterners putting down roots along the Delaware coast. Vince is retired and lives fulltime in Delaware, while Maggie still works and divides her time between Bethany Beach<\/a> and Bethlehem, Penn.<\/p>\n

The Pennsylvania couple discovered Bethany Beach in July 2020 while searching for a family beach house. After spending a day exploring coastal Sussex County, they returned for a weeklong rental in August, bought the house in September and closed that November.<\/p>\n

The home needed work, and Vince initially preferred moving farther inland, where their money could buy a newer property. Maggie held out for the location.<\/p>\n

Vince now calls it \u201cthe best thing we ever disagreed on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple later downsized to a smaller residence in Bethlehem and expanded and remodeled the Bethany Beach house, which has become the family\u2019s primary gathering place.<\/p>\n

Their younger son, Devon Dominici, took the Delaware plunge even further.<\/p>\n

Vince Dominici and his son Devon Dominici are pictured at Vince\u2019s home in Delaware. Vince and his wife Maggie downsized their Pennsylvania residence and expanded and remodeled the Bethany Beach house to divide more of their time between the beach and visiting family. Tiffany Caldwell\/tiffpics.com<\/p>\n

The family\u2019s remodeled Bethany Beach home has become a gathering place for relatives. Tiffany Caldwell\/tiffpics.com<\/p>\n

Devon grew to love Bethany Beach while staying with his parents.
\n Tiffany Caldwell\/tiffpics.com<\/p>\n

After living in his parents\u2019 beach house while working remotely during the pandemic, Devon built a four-bedroom, 3\u00bd-bath home of his own in Ocean View, about 2 miles from Bethany Beach.<\/p>\n

Property records show the newly built home transferred for nearly $600,000 in April 2023. A bank appraisal conducted in May valued it at 39% more than what it cost him to build, Devon said.<\/p>\n

He believes proximity to the water will continue to underpin values in communities such as Bethany Beach, Ocean View, Dewey Beach and Rehoboth Beach, where developable land close to the coastline is limited.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s really nowhere else to go,\u201d he said. \u201cSo you\u2019re buying existing inventory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Devon Dominici\u2019s four-bedroom home in Ocean View, near Bethany Beach. Cory Purdy<\/p>\n

An aerial view of Dominici\u2019s home and surrounding community. Cory Purdy<\/p>\n

The kitchen inside Dominici\u2019s four-bedroom, 3\u00bd-bath home, completed in 2023. Cory Purdy<\/p>\n

The home\u2019s dining area. The property is located roughly 2 miles from Bethany Beach. Cory Purdy<\/p>\n

There\u2019s even a good spit of outdoor space. Cory Purdy<\/p>\n

A decades-long migration reshapes the coast<\/p>\n

The Dominicis are part of a much larger Northeast migration into coastal Delaware \u2014 one that local brokers say predates the pandemic by years.<\/p>\n

Lee Ann Wilkinson, who has worked in Delaware real estate for decades, said buyers from other states have been retiring to the Delaware beaches for roughly 20 years. What has changed visibly is the amount and type of housing being created to accommodate them.<\/p>\n

Sussex County itself issued 3,885 building permits in 2025, according to Census Bureau data<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Many retiring buyers want low-maintenance communities where landscaping is handled for them, along with clubhouses, pools and social activities. First-floor primary bedrooms are another priority.<\/p>\n

Developers have even adapted their floor plans to Northeastern transplants.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people are looking for basements now, which we didn\u2019t 20 years ago,\u201d Wilkinson told The Post. \u201cNow there\u2019s a lot of homes with a basement because the people that are moving here are accustomed to having basements, so they had to start building basements here.\u201d<\/p>\n

For those on the hunt, this four-bedroom, four-bath home in Rehoboth Beach is priced at $1.89 million. Ryan Owen Photography<\/p>\n

A view of the open layout. Ryan Owen Photography<\/p>\n

Buyers look inland for value<\/p>\n

Jen Barrows, a coastal Delaware broker, said a typical retiree she works with has a budget of roughly $400,000 to $800,000.<\/p>\n

Even buyers who sell a New York-area home for $1 million or more frequently don\u2019t want to pour all of the proceeds into their next house, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want to bank some of that money,\u201d Barrows said. \u201cThey don\u2019t want to spend it all on their next house.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, many look several miles inland, where large planned communities offer amenities while keeping residents within reach of the coast.<\/p>\n

Asked where buyers can find the best value, Wilkinson singled out Milton.<\/p>\n

Barrows agreed, calling Milton \u201cthe one town that I think is probably the best value and has the most going on for the money.\u201d<\/p>\n

She pointed to its historic downtown, library, theater and nearby Dogfish Head brewery, along with a mix of new construction and existing homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cMilton\u2019s just really a gem,\u201d Barrows said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of communities that are still very reasonably priced, from new construction to resale.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recent sales data bear out the price gap. Over the three months ending in August, the median sale price was about $439,000 in Milton, compared with roughly $774,000 in Lewes, $859,000 in Bethany Beach and $909,000 in Rehoboth Beach, according to Redfin.<\/p>\n

This four-bedroom, four-bath home in Rehoboth Beach is priced at $1.9 million. Ryan Owen Photography<\/p>\n

An aerial view shows the home\u2019s location near the water in Rehoboth Beach. Ryan Owen Photography<\/p>\n

Prices across coastal Delaware, however, are no longer the bargain they once were.<\/p>\n

The Federal Housing Finance Agency\u2019s home-price index for Sussex County climbed about 57% from 2020 through 2025. More recently, the market has begun to normalize: The county\u2019s median sale price was about $439,000 in August, down 1.9% from a year earlier, according to Redfin.<\/p>\n

For New Yorker Diana Rohan, a former member of the New York City Police Department who now works as a flight attendant, and her husband, also a former NYPD officer, the tax savings demonstrate why Delaware remains difficult to resist.<\/p>\n

The couple bought a Delaware townhouse about five years ago after previously owning a second home in North Carolina.<\/p>\n

Their annual Delaware property-tax bill is just $1,071, Rohan said.<\/p>\n

Their property and school taxes back in New York<\/a>? Nearly $17,000 a year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big difference,\u201d Rohan told The Post. \u201cWe save a lot of money by purchasing here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The townhouse remains a second home shared with their children and other relatives. Delaware offered the couple a beach retreat considerably closer to their family in New York than their former North Carolina property.<\/p>\n

Five years after buying, Rohan said they are \u201cvery happy\u201d with the decision.<\/p>\n

Growth comes at a cost<\/p>\n

Still, she has watched the landscape around her change.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like they\u2019re overdeveloping, though, because people are just buying like crazy,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of farmland that is turning into development.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEverywhere you go, you see the trucks and they\u2019re building all over the place.\u201d<\/p>\n

That building boom is one of the growing pains accompanying Delaware\u2019s newfound popularity.<\/p>\n

Rapid population growth has brought worsening beach traffic and strained access to doctors and dentists, while rising incomes and housing costs threaten to make Sussex County increasingly difficult to afford for teachers, healthcare workers and other year-round employees.<\/p>\n

Vince Dominici and his son Devon inside Vince\u2019s remodeled Bethany Beach home. Tiffany Caldwell\/tiffpics.com<\/p>\n

The Dominicis have experienced those shortages firsthand.<\/p>\n

Maggie and Vince said they had to rely on a personal connection to secure Vince a doctor\u2019s appointment. Even then, an appointment they arranged in April was not available until the following February.<\/p>\n

Traffic has become another persistent frustration, with ordinarily short drives turning into lengthy crawls during the summer.<\/p>\n

Yet those drawbacks haven\u2019t been enough to push the Dominicis away.<\/p>\n

Bethany Beach, Devon said, remains something of a quiet bubble between more nightlife-heavy destinations such as Dewey Beach to the north and Ocean City, Md., to the south.<\/p>\n

The town\u2019s family-oriented character \u2014 along with restrictions on building heights, noise and late-night activity \u2014 was part of what attracted his parents in the first place.<\/p>\n

Bethany Beach\u2019s quiet, family-oriented coastline drew the Dominici family to the area. Tiffany Caldwell\/tiffpics.com<\/p>\n

It\u2019s even become a good home for the family dog. Tiffany Caldwell\/tiffpics.com<\/p>\n

Still given the perks of Delaware, Rohan isn\u2019t ready to abandon New York entirely<\/p>\n

Her 88-year-old mother remains there and relies on her for help with shopping, appointments and other daily needs. The couple\u2019s daughter and other close relatives also live in New York.<\/p>\n

For Rohan, the ability to keep one foot in each state is the point.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe won\u2019t leave New York full-time,\u201d she said. But Delaware has given the couple a second life by the beach.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen my husband and I are here, we go out to eat a lot. We go to the bars,\u201d Rohan said. \u201cWe walk on the boardwalk. There\u2019s a lot to do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The migration to Delaware\u2019s beaches is no longer just about retirees hunting for a cheaper place to spend…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[10476,7631,27523,3640,9,11,10,1491,3006,8138],"class_list":["post-354305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-baby-boomers","tag-beaches","tag-delaware","tag-florida","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-real-estate","tag-residential-real-estate","tag-vacation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}