I’m going to be there for my summer job next year which is likely to turn into a long term job after graduation. I’ve visited, but I’d be interested to know what it’s like. Good places to live/buy a house? I will at some point be with my wife and child(just one toddler right now). Anything else to watch out for? I’ve read anecdotally that the nightlife isn’t all that, but I’m past the age for that kind of stuff anyway. Should I live in PA? I’ve been looking at houses and there are some real nice ones in West Chester, PA.
What’s the job?
Lawyer.
According to the old teevee show, Tales of the Unexpected, it’s okay to murder your wife if you catch her committing adultery. So you’ve got that going for you.
I’ve spent some time in Wilmington, but not enough to give housing advice. I know lawyers who live in North Wilmington, which is the tawny section of a city that also includes some of the poorest census districts in the nation. Lawyers with kids tend to live further away, like Newark, DE.
There isn’t much night life by city standards. Not that I’ve seen. People are more likely to go to Philly for that kind of stuff, or the college campuses.
Are you a summer associate at a firm? The legal scene is interesting. Very small and tight-knit. Likely to see the jusge you are appearing before at the Y that morning.
West Chester is lovely and close. As are some of the other Pennsylvania suburbs near by. Also it’s very close to Philadelphia which is great fun to visit. I don’t know much about Wilmington itself but I spend a fair bit of time on the PA side of the boarder for work purposes. It’s not a bad place to settle at all.
Yes, summer associate at a firm. I thought North Wilmington was the good part? That’s where they put us up for the job fair on our first visit and it seemed to be a fairly typical suburban residential area with a couple of strip malls.
Yes, the north is the rich part.
Tony become tawny in my post.
I am very familiar with Wilmington and have lived there. Also, have best friends in North Wilmington and downtown. One is a lawyer. I also worked there. I am in NJ just 15 minutes from Wilmington. PM me and maybe we can take this off SDMB, because there is virtually nothing I can’t address about Wilmington… North Delaware and the Philly burbs, such as West Chester.
If you’re going to start out in this area, you live in DE. Property taxes are 1/4 of PA and 1/5 of NJ.
Kennett Square/Chadds Ford area is really nice, but pricey. Traffic around there (Wilmington area) sucks. Downtown is busy during the day but turns into a ghost town at night.
The tax situation was pretty confusing. So there are state income taxes which are hgher in DE than PA, but if you live in PA and work in DE you’re still paying the DE tax, but only the DE tax because it’s higher than the PA tax and you(effectively) just pay the higher one. What about the Philly wage tax? Presumably West Chester is not Philly, right? I think starting out I will definitely live in North Wilmington, are property taxes really that much lower than the other states? I can also see that living closer to Philly (as opposed to Newark, say) is a better location if only so that you can be closer to the airport.
Philly tax is only if you are in the city limits of Philly. It should not be an issue for you in any of the surrounding areas. You probably don’t want to live right in Philadelphia anyway as the areas close to Wilmington are not…they aren’t where you want to live right now. Lots of great places to live in Philly, but they are all pretty far for your purposes. Close enough to visit, but you don’t want to do that commute twice a day every day.
Yeah I wasn’t thinking of being close to the actual city of Philidelphia, I was thinking of the West Chester-Kennett Square direction, becuase I don’t actually want to be close to a big city and also I don’t have to drive on the I-70, but in the direction of PHL as opposed to Maryland or Baltimore.
I asked about the property taxes beccause a quick google doesn’t indicate a large discrepency in the tax rates. Am I missing something?
I’m not sure, but a piece of political subtext you should know is that the DE property values haven’t been reassessed in decades and the schools are strapped for cash. Consequently, it’s quite likely that property rates are going to shoot up sharply in the next year or two.