Mark your calendar! On Saturday, March 27th Teller Wines will have their 7th Annual Wine Expo & Benefit at the Lewes Yacht Club from 1 to 4pm. This is a great event with over 100 top-knotch wines to taste and really great gourmet food (appetizers and small bites). This year, a portion of the proceeds from the event will benefit the Historic Lewes Farmers Market. Tickets are $60, and they sell out quickly.  For tickets, call 302-644-7400 or pick them up at Teller Wines, 1201A Savannah Rd. in Lewes.

This year the HLFM will be offering three fabulous silent auction items at this event that are so special that you will want to get a ticket just to be able to bid on them!

Have you been to First Thursday yet in the downtown Lewes shopping district? This year they continued the monthly event right through the winter. The local shops are open from 6 pm – 8 pm and many offer special pricing, refreshments and a chance to meet your friends and neighbors. Shop awhile and then visit one of the many great restaurants for dinner. Striper Bites is always a busy spot with a great bar and varied menu. If you’re coming this Thursday, let me know. Bill and I will be there and I’ll have my camera. Maybe we can meet for drinks?

Winterjam,the Cape Henlopen Educational Foundation’s(CHEF) biggest fundraiser of the year, Friday, February 5th, is also a fun event! I just heard that two of our favorite local bands will be entertaining! Comfort Zone is a terrific local jazz group and The Funsters – well they’re hard to describe. Let’s just say they are both popular local groups and the Rehoboth Beach Convention Center will be rocking for all ages.

CHEF invites the public as well as alumni to Winterjam from 7 to 11 pm, Friday, February 5th, 2010, at the Rehoboth Beach Convention Center. Advance tickets are $10 each and are on sale at the Cape District Office and all the school offices. Tickets will also be sold at the door for $15 each. Local businesses are donating gifts for the event which will include a silent auction, raffles, 50/50, food, drink and more!

For more information click here!

That’s one of the questions on everyone’s mind these days and I hear it at the gym, at the Chamber of Commerce meetings and when we go out to dinner or a movie. “How’s the market, Kathy?” I yell right back “Great! The real estate market is doing great!” And it really is. This time last year we weren’t sure just how 2009 would turn out. Late spring we noticed things picking up and by September, we were crushed.

I just took a look at the overall numbers for all of 19958, the Lewes zip code, and here’s what I found:

At least 234 single family homes were sold and settled. It’s possible that more were settled and just not available in the system yet. More may have gone under contract but not yet made it to the settlement table.

Homes sold in the historic district, in Lewes Beach and Cape Shores, in Pilottown Village and the many newer subdividions in and around town. The Lewes zip code goes halfway out Route 24 until you hit the Long Neck area; then it becomes a Millsboro address.

According to the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), at the high end of the market, 6 homes sold for over $1Million. Another 34 homes sold between $500,000 and $1 Million. Most of the sales activity was under $500,000, and the largest number of homes sold - 139 - sold below $350,000. In fact, the average sale price of all homes sold in Sussex County in 2009 was $341,639, down from $378,414 in 2008. Inventory is down however over 7%.

So, what does this mean? Prices have come down, sales are increasing and inventory (of homes for sale) is decreasing. Sounds like a good time to buy.

Clients always ask me how to pronounce Lewes. Then they ask me where the name came from. I had a few minutes at the office today, so I went to the Lewes Historical Society site to see what I could learn. Here’s the “rest of the story” -

Pronounced Loo-iss (not Lose), Lewes, Delaware, the county seat of Sussex County, Delaware until 1791, was named for Lewes, Sussex, England. Previously known as Swanendael (Valley of the Swans) and Hoerekill or Hoerenkill (Harlot’s Creek) under the Dutch and briefly as Whorekill and Deale under the English. Contrary to popular belief, the town was never known as Hoornkill, a “Victorianization” of Whorekill/Hoerenkill. In 1680, the magistrates of the town requested of Governor Edmond Andros to consider “summe other name for the Whoorekill.” Lewes received its present name by William Penn, proprietor of Pennsylvania, sometime immediately after his acquisition of the land from the Duke of York in 1682. According to research, records do not exist to explain why the name Lewes was chosen, although it is believed that members of Penn’s family were from the prominent town in the southeast of England of that name. Read More

Wow, it has been a tough few months converting from my old blog site to this new one. I hope you will find the information we post here useful and fun and informative about Lewes, Delaware. Please feel free to comment or to contact us for more information!

Happy Holidays!

This Saturday, August 1, 2009, is the 46th Annual Lewes Historical Society Antiques Show and I can’t wait. I remember the first time I went to this show and discovered that there were several pieces I just had to have. What did surprise me was that the prices were reasonable and there was such a good variety of antiques at all price levels. I needed my husband’s panel van to get all of my purchases home that first day!

So this Saturday, I will start my day hunting for some great finds. I’ll bring my camera and post photos later!

Comprised of many quality antique dealers from the Mid-Atlantic region, each show attracts nearly 2,000 visitors. Hours of the show are 9 AM to 4 PM; admission to each show is $3.00, children under 12 free. For more information, visit The Lewes Historical Society.