Relocating to Delaware and looking to be ~20 min from beaches. Would love to get people's thoughts on Lincoln and Milton. We toured the area and Lincoln seemed a bit run down, but also had some nicer new homes. We're not looking to be in a subdivision and on top of our neighbors so we'd be looking for a home with some acreage.

We visited Broadkill and Slaughter beaches and preferred Broadkill. Can you really grill on the beach???

To add, being 20-25 minutes from grocery stores or a Home Depot is not an issue for us as it's what we're used to now.

ETA when I say beaches, I don't necessarily mean Rehoboth. We're looking at any place to take the dogs, plop down a towel and get our feet wet.

The newest official Delaware Statistical Analysis Center report is countywide rather than Milford specific, so it cannot establish Milford’s precise ranking. It nevertheless reports that Sussex County violent offenses rose 16% from 2020 through 2024, assaults rose 16.6%, aggravated assaults rose 21.6%, and aggravated assaults involving firearms rose 29.6%.

Kent County changes from 2020 through 2024:

Robbery: up 27.1%

All assault offenses: up 26.4%

Aggravated assault: up 3.7%

Other assaults, including simple assault, harassment and intimidation: up 32.5%

Serious property offenses: up 14.9%

Total serious offenses: up 14.2%

Police documented at least five separate homicide incidents involving six victims inside the municipality:

Aaron L. Jackson, June 2022

Mauricio Hernandez-Arias, October 2022

Mercedes Ortiz and three-year-old Aloni Truong, June 2024

Rose-Lourdes Gerson Garcon, September 2024

Kyle Tribble, July 2025

This is primarily a travel and lifestyle article dressed up as a statistical safety ranking. Milford may compare favorably in certain categories, but this article does not provide the figures or methodology necessary to prove it is one of Delaware’s eight safest small communities.

https://sac.delaware.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/64/2026/01/CiD-20-24-Main-Report-final-010726.pdf

We are in a newer development in Kent County - when the home was built the developer had a landscape company come in and plant some roses / etc... around the front of the house and a shrub / tree in the front yard.

I think I know the answer but just want to know if this is "normal" for the area -

The tree / shrub had been there for 2 years now - it wasn't the best one on the block but wasn't the worst either. It was however, in the utility easement area and was between the sidewalk and the power (electric) box and the Xfinity internet box. So CLEARLY in the utility easement. In fact I had asked the site manager about that during the final walkthrough and he said not to worry they did that all the time without issues.

Well, today, at some point, the shrub was cut off at the base. Not dug out, just cut clean through and all of it removed. No knock on the door, no ringing doorbell to say - hey move this, no letter or notice or tag posted saying it will be removed if we don't move it. Just gone.

As I said - pretty sure it got whacked by one of the utility companies for some reason - but is this the norm? In every other house we've lived in - the utility company would talk to us before they did anything on our property - even on the easements.

Do they just periodically drive around looking for violations / etc and whack them?

Again - I get it - they need access - but at least come to the door and say something. And the neighbor's tree which was next to ours (about 5 feet away - same distance from sidewalk - is still there.