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