Your Guide to Buying a Home in Hockessin, DE

Buying a Home in Hockessin, Delaware

(Henretty's Country Store)

Hockessin is located in New Castle County

Except for Lake's Country Store (now Henretty's) on Old Lancaster Pike, a landmark dating back to 1886, rural Hockessin is now largely only a memory -- virtually everything else is new. Since the mid - 1980's it has become one of the most coveted addresses in northern New Castle County and among one of the most expensive places to live.

The average selling price of homes in the Hockessin area this year is nearly $270,000 (for homes with four or more bedrooms, the average jumps to a lofty $313,000). For new upscale executive homes, you can probably add at least $50,000. In fact, other than the Centreville/Greenville area, home prices in the Hockessin area are probably the highest of any community in New Castle County.

In addition to the many new upscale neighborhoods that have sprouted, the community itself has acquired a new face over the past decade and a half. From office complexes and retail establishments along Yorklyn Road & Route 141 (Lancaster Pike) to stores at their intersection, or down Valley Road to the sprawling Lantana Square Shopping Center.

The character of the retail businesses has changed, with the introduction of chic boutiques and gourmet restaurants, many in the vicinity of the venerable Hockessin Corner, a rustic vest-pocket shopping complex behind Memorial Hall (a meeting-place/fire house). Adjacent is the much honored $3.4 million public library, opened in 1994. A sparkling new Police Athletic League facility on Lancaster Pike offers extensive recreation and educational opportunities for both youth & seniors.

Because Hockessin has no official boundaries- its population is a question mark. But about 40,000 people live within three miles of the town center.