Dianne Deming

The 20th Annual Autumn Jazz Festival in Rehoboth Beach got off to a great start Wednesday night with a fabulous performance by The Spinners. There are plenty more opportunities to enjoy some tunes as the Festival runs through Sunday. Log onto www.rehobothjazz.com for tickets, and to see a complete list of official venues and performers.

• Several other events this weekend include:
  *A special Jazz Festival Reception with all new original works by Dane Tilghman at Philip Morton Gallery, 5-8pm Friday, October 16 (www.philipmortongallery.com),
  *the Rehoboth Beach Light the Night Walk to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society on Saturday, October 17 (www.lightthenight.org/de), and
  *RACE: The Seashore Strider Running Club's 4th Bayfront at Rehoboth 5K, beginning at 9am on Saturday, October 17 (www.seashorestriders.com).

Also, mark your calendar for these upcoming events:

Annual REALTOR(R) Auction and Gala, Thursday, October 22nd, 5:30-10pm at the Independence clubhouse. Bid on silent auction items, enjoy a delicious meal and cash bar, followed by the Main Event of the evening--the live auction of baskets provided by area real estate offices. Last year's high bid basket was a cruise to Alaska, donated by RE/MAX Realty Group in Rehoboth Beach. The Sussex County Association of REALTORS(r) Community Service Committee sponsors the event. All proceeds go to help needy families in Sussex County. Tickets ($40 each) may be purchased at http://store.communicateplus.com/scaor/default.htm?departid=2000.

Also, please note the 20th Annual SEAWITCH HALLOWEEN & FIDDLER'S FESTIVAL will be held NEXT WEEKEND, OCTOBER 23-25, 2009, not the weekend of Halloween. Check it out at www.beach-fun.com.

There is plenty happening in Rehoboth and Dewey Beaches this weekend! Besides the beach fun, here are some other ideas:

The 28th Annual Skimboarding Championships, part of the Zap East Coast Pro/Am Tour, takes place this Saturday and Sunday in Dewey Beach! Come to the beach at Swedes St. to see some of the best competitors in the world show their stuff for prizes, glory, and the sheer joy of mastering the wave. Need more details? Log onto www.skimusa.org.

Then in the afternoon, the Rehoboth Beach Museum is sponsoring the First Annual Watermelon Festival this Saturday, August 15, from 4-7pm at the museum and Grove Park (Rehoboth Ave. and the Canal). There will be a Seed Spitting Contest (of course), prizes, food and crafts for sale! Admission is a mere $2/adults; $1 kids 6 and older. Children under 5 are free. Go to http://www.rehobothbeachmuseum.org/j/ for further info.

If you missed it last week, you're not too late! The Rehoboth Art League is holding its annual Outdoor Art Show this Saturday and Sunday, August 15 & 16, from 10am-5pm each day, at the Art League campus in Henlopen Acres (12 Dodd's Lane). Stroll the beautiful grounds and visit 120 artists and artisans featuring painting, glass, pottery, jewelry, drawing, sculpture and more. (http://www.rehobothartleague.org/outdoor.html) There is no admission charge. Free offsite parking with a convenient shuttle bus is available from the Little League Field on Holland Glade Rd. (adjacent to the Seaside Outlet Mall).

Several exciting offerings will be heard at the Rehoboth Bandstand this weekend as well. All performances begin at 8pm, although I would suggest you come early or bring a lawn chair if you want a seat. The shows August 13-16 are:

• Thursday - The Delaware Comedy Theatre providing entertaining improv suitable for the whole family
• Friday - Julian Fleischer, Singer who describes himself as "jazz dominant, pop submissive and rock-and-roll curious."
• Saturday - US Army Field Band and Soldiers' Chorus, premiere touring musical representative for the U.S. Army
• Sunday - Hindsight 20-20, Classic Rock, the Cape Henlopen School District's "House Band," made of hard-working teachers and administrators

So, come to the beach this weekend and have a ball!

Downtown Rehoboth Beach packs a lot of options into a few streets. Here old-time charm and modern amenities blend to offer a wonderful beach town experience for visitors and residents alike. Rehoboth Avenue is the bloodline of downtown, running from Rt. 1 to the Boardwalk. Baltimore Ave. to the North, and Wilmington and Delaware Avenues to the South make up the main business district of this quaint seaside resort, long a popular destination spot for people from Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, New Jersey and New York.

Rev. Robert W. Todd purchased 414 acres from local farmers in 1873 to establish the area as a Methodist Camp Meeting area, much like those he had seen in New Jersey. Formal meetings ceased by 1881, although the site continued to be used for services. Ten years later, the Delaware General Assembly established a municipality for the area. What was originally named Henlopen City was soon renamed Rehoboth Beach.

According to the Rehoboth Main Street website (www.rehomain.com), Downtown Rehoboth came of age in the era of Victorian influences and evolved throughout the twentieth century to change with the times. Both the residential and commercial area, despite their growth and maturation, have retained the warm and friendly charm and ambiance that reflect Rehoboth Beach's historic past.(For more on Rehoboth history, go to http://www.rehomain.com/downtown_information/history.htm).

Rehoboth Beach is the Restaurant Capitol of Delaware, with delicious choices ranging from fine dining to unbeatable beach fries. Specialty shops and boutiques, spas, miniature golf, T-shirt shops, hotels and ice cream venues provide something for everyone downtown.

Summer weekends, stop by the Bandstand to catch free shows. A wide variety of entertainers are scheduled Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, including the Delaware Comedy Theatre troupe, military bands and choruses, civic bands, party bands, big bands and even an Elvis impersonator. For a full schedule of performances, log onto www.rehobothbandstand.com.

There are eleven commercial properties currently for sale in Downtown Rehoboth Beach, ranging in price from $799,000 to $4,700,000. Businesses only are also for sale, running from $59,900 to $289,900. Commercial leases are available in the downtown area as well.

The Debbie Reed Team consistently wins awards for being at the top of the market in commercial sales among all RE/MAX offices in the mid-Atlantic region. If your goal is to own a business at the beach, or if you are looking for a great investment opportunity, call The Debbie Reed Team at 302-227-3818 and one of our buyer's specialists will be happy to assist you. You can also view all commercial and residential listings currently on the market in all of Sussex County by logging onto www.debbiereed.com.

Between Rehoboth Ave. and Silver Lake, Scarborough Ave. and the Atlantic Ocean, is nestled a gem of a neighborhood known as South Rehoboth. Here Old Rehoboth cottages blend with new homes to create a charming place to Be at the Beach. No house in South Rehoboth is further than a 3 block walk to the Boardwalk (www.rehobothboardwalk.com), sand and surf, making it a very popular community for renters and seasonal residents as well as the year-round folks who call South Rehoboth home. Gracious, old trees provide shade appreciated by people trying to get a bit of exercise, whether it be walking, biking, jogging or pedaling a surrey. My friend, Sally, remembers when Laurel Street, where her grandfather owned a home and she spent many happy summer hours, was made of sand. Today the sand is replaced with cement sidewalks and asphalt streets. (Sally, however, still longs for the sand streets of her childhood sometimes.)

Housing prices in South Rehoboth reflect the convenience of its location to the beach and downtown amenities and services. There are currently eighteen condos/townhouses for sale in South Rehoboth, ranging in list price from $259,000 for a small studio in the ocean block to $1,399,000 for a 4 bedroom/4 bath, ~2,400 sq. ft. townhouse. Twenty-seven single family homes range from $795,000 for a 1 bedroom/1 bath log cabin, 980 square feet and built in 1929 (!!), to $4,875,000 for a 5,231 sq. ft. oceanfront home built in 2005. As you can see, there are a wide range of housing styles from which to choose in South Rehoboth.

If you are interested in a highly rentable investment property, or a delightful place of your own at the beach, consider South Rehoboth! To see all of the listings available in this community and all of Coastal Delaware, log onto www.debbiereed.com and click on "Real Estate Search." And if you'd like the help of a real estate professional who knows the Rehoboth market inside and out and is dedicated to Above the Crowd customer service, call The Debbie Reed Team (302-227-3818), and one of our agents will be happy to help you.

Country Club Estates is a triangular-shaped neighborhood nestled between Scarborough St., State St. and Silver Lake in the seaside resort town of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. This clean, well-kept neighborhood has a Tot Lot playground on its south side, as well as a foot bridge leading across Silver Lake to Rehoboth Elementary School. A favorite activity for children and grandparents alike is to stop half-way across the bridge to feed the ducks, geese and water turtles which make the lake their home.

The name, Country Club Estates,derives from the land's previous life as a golf course. In the early 1970's, the country club was subdivided into 328, 50'x100' lots and the parcel where the Scarborough Village townhouses now stand. This newer neighborhood provides some of the best property values this close to the beach. At 3-6 blocks from the ocean, it is still within walking distance of the award-winning Rehoboth boardwalk (http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/beach2003/2003-10-08-best-boardwalks_x.htm), and downtown Rehoboth Beach (http://www.rehoboth.com/). Because of its favorable location East of Rt. 1 and more reasonable prices, Country Club Estates is experiencing a renaissance of its own as people buy the original modular or stick-built homes (often 3 bedroom/2 bath) and renovate or rebuild.

Currently (as of July 27, 2009), there are 7 homes for sale in Country Club Estates, ranging from a 2 bedroom, 1.5 bath townhouse in Scarborough Village priced at $425,000, to a 4 bedroom, 4.5 bath Southern Plantation style home yet to be built, listed at $1,249,000.

So, if you are looking for a great value within walking distance of the beach in the low-tax state of Delaware, Country Club Estates should be on your list of areas to consider. If you are not curently working with an agent, please call The Debbie Reed Team (302-227-3818), and one of our buyers' agents will be happy to assist you, or log onto our website (www.debbiereed.com) to see the great homes available in Country Club Estates or anywhere in Coastal Delaware.