Sandra Sells the Shore, Edition 5

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With summer over, here are some fall-friendly events and activities located around Delaware and Maryland...

Coastal Happenings

Frankford:
Fri., October 30: 2nd Annual Trunk or Treat (Drive-Thru Edition)
Rehoboth Beach:
Thurs., October 16: A Virtual Ghost Tour of Sussex County
Sun., October 25: This Is Halloween: Benefitting the Beebee Medical Center
Lewes:

Fri., October 30: "The Last Vampire" and "The Vampyre": A Celebration of Halloween
Dover:
Tues., October 20: Virtual Ghost Stories at the Biggs Museum of American Art

Ocean City:

Fri., October 23 - Sun., October 25: OCtoberfest Beer Weekend
All Month Long: Assorted Ghost Walks Throughout MD
Chesapeake City:
Fri., October 23 - Sat., October 24: "The Revisionists" A Haunted Victorian Walk

Housing Market on Track to Beat Last Year's Success

In March, people speculated that the real estate market would face a major collapse. Some sources even called for a 15-20% decline in transactions. Surprisingly, the housing market seems to have fully recovered just six months later. Mark Fleming, Chief Economist at First American announced: “Since hitting a low point during the initial stages of the pandemic, the only major industry to display immunity to the economic impacts of the coronavirus is the housing market. Housing has experienced a strong V-shaped recovery and is now exceeding pre-pandemic levels.” After all of the choas of this year, it's nice to have one positive thing to come back to.

Average U.S. Mortgage Rate Drops to 2.87%
by Kathleen Howley

Image via Pixabay

The average U.S. mortgage rate for a 30-year fixed loan is 2.87% this week, dropping one basis point from last week’s 2.88%, Freddie Mac said in a report on Thursday. The rate is now one basis point from an all-time low set in mid-September. The average fixed rate for a 15-year mortgage was 2.37%, rising one basis point from last week’s 2.36%, the mortgage securitizer said.

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Featured Delaware Photography
from Talented Local Photographers

The state of Delaware's beauty remains underappreciated, even by its own residents. Below are just a handful of photographs that capture some of the most beautiful locations throughout the state.

Top Row: White Clay Creek State Park (Thomas/flickr), Bethany Beach (Lee Cannon/flickr).
Bottom Row: Brandywine Park (TC Davis/flickr), Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge (pontla/flickr).

Furry Friend Needing a Forever Home

Mark is a 7-year-old Domestic Shorthair Mix with beautiful gray and white coloring. According to the Brandywine SPCA website, he is "an easy-going guy who enjoys sitting on the window sill watching the birds go by." He is spayed and neutered and it is unknown if he is housetrained. For more information about Mark and other adoptable furry friends, check out the Brandywine Valley SPCA website as well as their Facebook page.

Rockwood Manor: One of Delaware's Most Haunted Spots
Only in Delaware

Image via Wikipedia

In the early 1950s, Joseph Shipley hired a world famous architect to build a home for his entire family and moved them to Wilmington from Liverpool, England. The property, namely Rockwood Manor, was taken over by Shipley's nephew after his death and was gifted to New Castle County in 1973 after moving through several generations of Shipley's family. Rockwood is said to be haunted by former residents including a man in a red smoking jacket, a woman who wanders the grounds, and a young boy named Eddie, the son of Shipley's nephew. Rockwood Manor's ghostly activity has been featured on shows like "My Ghost Story", "Ghost Hunters", and other local paranormal programs. Ghost tours are offered monthly, but are currently suspended due to health precautions, and are more of an introduction to paranormal investigation than anything. For more information, check out their website.

Fall Foliage Shines in Maryland
Only in Maryland

With the fall season underway, now is the time to capture that beautiful scenery that makes its way around the state this time of year. If you haven't embarked on a fall foliage roadtrip or an autumn hike yet, you're in luck! The Smoky Mountains website posted their 2020 Fall Foliage interactive map a couple weeks ago. The slider at the bottom allows you to watch the predictions across the country for when foliage will hit its peak. For Maryland, be sure to head out into nature in the next couple weeks to watch the leaves develop their signature fall colors. Peak for Delaware and Maryland should fall around the week of October 26th. Break out those hiking shoes and get ready to capture the fall beauty!

What My Clients Are Saying...

Patsy's
Featured Restaurant

Patsy's has been a favorite spot in Bethany Beach for almost 21 years since it opened in July 2000. A full service restaurant with a small bar, they proudly serve Key West/southern inspired cuisine as well as original recipes. Patsy's signature dish is a whole flash fred red snapper, but you can't go wrong with their award-winning crabcakes made with jumbo lump crab. If they can't get their fish fresh, they don't serve it. In Patsy's own words, "No frozen fish at Patsy's!"

Patsy's is a chef-owned restaurant with the mother and daughter duo of Patsy and Robin Rankin, both graduates of culinary school. They set themselves apart from other eateries in the area by making everything in-house and from scratch — from dressings and stocks to ice cream and bread. Each entree they serve has different sides to compliment the dishes and their food is always cooked to order.

Currently, Patsy's is open for dinner service starting at 5:30 PM every day. Their hours change with the seasons. For now, they are open Thursday-Monday, closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Presently, they are serving a 14oz Prime Pork Chop with mashed sweet potatoes, Lamb Sirloin with Moroccan Chick Pea Stew, Soft Shell Crab with grilled corn/black bean salad and red cabbage slaw with a cilantro aioli. (Specials can change daily.) Patsy's also features a wide range of mouth-watering appetizers including a roasted beet salad with baby kale, miso dressing, and toasted sunflower seeds. And be sure to leave room for their homemade desserts. Patsy's, with its appealing fresh menu, charming space and friendly staff, fits perfectly with the Southern Delaware resort scene...and locals love it too.

For more information, head over to Patsy's website and text or call their reservations line at 302.858.1203.

Furry Friend Needing a Forever Home

Alexis is a 7-year-old Shepherd mix with the cutest ears. She is one of the many dogs from the Delaware Humane Association who is at their Wilmington location. Alexis is a large pup who came to DHA when her owner could no longer care for her. She is a little timid and still adjusting to the shelter life, but she's gotten along well with other mellow dogs. She has not yet been introduced to cats and would do well with older kids. Profiles on the website are updated regularly, so visit their site for more information! Be sure to check out their Facebook page for daily updates on the availability of all dogs and cats as well as adorable photoshoots with other adoptable furry friends.

Body Double Swimwear
Featured Retail

Liz Welsh began working at Body Double Swimwear as a teenager when when her family would spend their summers in town. She fell in love with the shop and enjoyed working with customers and helping women find the perfect swimsuit. The idea of owning Body Double was always in her mind, but that wouldn't become a reality until several years later. Welsh went through four different jobs in three different cities until she realized that she would rather be doing something she loved than sitting behind a desk all day. It wasn't until the summer of 2016 when Welsh contacted Nancy Ruppert, the previous owner of Body Double, and asked if she was ready to transition. Two weeks later, Welsh moved to the beach and began shadowing Nancy through every aspect of the business. In December of 2017, she took over ownership of the shop and loves what she does almost three years later.

When it comes to owning a swimwear shop in a resort town, Welsh says there's nowhere she'd rather be. Her main goal is to help everyone look their best at the beach, at the pool, or on their boat. She says, "Most visitors spend the majority of their time in the sun or in the water in the summer and I think most of us who live here try to escape to the beach as much as we can." Body Double could not be in a more perfect location.

Body Double's 2020 spring season was less than satisfactory since they were closed for two full months due to the pandemic. However, they were able to open up back up in the middle of May and have a great summer season thanks to the crowded beach towns. Welsh says she is happy to have downtime right now to regroup and edit for next year and she is hopeful that next spring and summer will be even better.

Currently, all swimwear and clothing from the 2020 season is 50% off! They are closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, but are open all year, something that most do not know. For more information about hours and new items, check out Body Double's website as well as their Instagram!

Read Aloud Delaware
Featured Volunteer Opportunity

One of the best ways to connect with people of all ages, especially children, is through the power of literature. Read Aloud Delaware is a program founded on the importance of children's literacy success. Children who are read to by Read Aloud volunteers begin to hear new words, gather information about the alphabet, numbers, colors, or shapes, and slowly learn how to piece together sentences in grammatically-correct English. As stated on their website, research shows that children who are read to from an early age have bigger brains, larger vocabularies, and greater knowledge of the world around them.

By becoming a Read Aloud volunteer, you will read for around five to fifteen minutes to build literacy skills in children. All volunteers 18 years of age or older must undergo a fingerprinted criminal background check and student volunteers must be at least 16 years old to read. Last year, 600 Read Alound volunteers read to around 6,000 children over 76,000 times from more than 100 childcare, Head Start, and kindergarten centers throughout Delaware.

For more information, visit Read Aloud's website's volunteering section and contact page to see information specific to each county.

Keller Williams Continues to Outperform the Market in Every Category!

Copyright © 2020 Sandra Erbe, Keller Williams Realty, All rights reserved.

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37458 Lion's Drive, #7 Selbyville, DE 19975
(302) 360-0300 (Office)
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Check out our previous editions here!

Martina Rexrode, Editor