DL Open Thread Friday, Feb. 20, 2026

Spotlight Delaware unveiled a major project yesterday that assesses the statewide reassessment that has gored many an ox. Not surprisingly, it found that poor people and minorities got hit the hardest.

The data, compiled through Freedom of Information Act requests by Spotlight Delaware and mapped in partnership with Tech Impact’s Data Lab, show that in most areas of the state, property wealth and subsequent taxation moved to areas where they would largely be expected.

In Sussex County, the Rehoboth Beach area saw the median property assessment rise more than 5,000% while much of the more agrarian western Sussex land saw median assessments rise just 1,700%.

In Kent County, growing Dover-area suburbs like Magnolia and Cheswold, along with recreational areas like Bowers Beach and Kitts Hummock, saw median assessments increase more than 1,000%, while downtown Dover areas saw increases only about half as large.

In New Castle County, however, the largest increases came in less likely places: some of Wilmington’s poorest neighborhoods. Communities like Hilltop, Eastside, Riverside and Southbridge saw increases between 700% and 1,000%. Meanwhile, chateau country communities like Centreville, Greenville and Hockessin and the booming Middletown-Odessa-Townsend corridor saw increases of 300% to 450%.

Also:

[T]he homes in Hilltop and other impacted communities were assessed against comparable sales that primarily featured renovated homes being sold by flippers. The median assessment in Hilltop now sits north of $180,000, but recent sales of unimproved properties have fallen far under their assessed values.

• A four-bedroom townhome on West Third Street sold three months ago for $125,000 – or about 46% less than its $234,800 assessed value.

• A five-bedroom row home on North Harrison Street, whose bones date back some 136 years to before cars even traveled the city’s streets, was assessed by Tyler Technologies to be worth more than $250,000. It was sold last month to investors for just $140,000, or 44% less than its assessed value.

• Another five-bedroom home on West Third Street sold for $130,000 – or about 46% less than its $214,700 assessment.

Each of those sales seemingly demonstrates that longtime residents of Hilltop who have not invested in significant renovations are likely paying more than their fair share in property taxes.

BTW, this is the kind of work the state’s largest newspaper used to do before it decided to devote its energies to high school sports and restaurant openings and closings.

By the time you read this Trump might have started another attack on Iran. Or maybe not, he hasn’t decided yet, perhaps because he hasn’t come up with a better excuse than We have to dismantle their nuclear program” – you know, the nuclear program he claimed to have destroyed in a bombing raid last year.

I don’t want to say that Trump is the highest-rising Dunning-Kruger bozo in history, but I have to, because he is. The Mango Moron, acting on the class notes someone took for him when he pretended to go to the University of Pennsylvania, keeps insisting his illegally imposed tariffs would alter the U.S. trade deficit. Guess again, Stinky. It reached new highs in 2025.

The rise emerged despite a sharp drop in trade with China, one of the earliest targets of the tariffs. The gap runs counter to one of the White House’s key aims which is to reduce the deficit, arguing that US reliance on overseas goods has hollowed out the country’s production abilities and put national security at risk.

Imports of goods – some of which US firms had rushed at the start of last year to get ahead of Trump’s tariff regime – reached a record $3.4tn, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Business investment in artificial intelligence helped drive demand, as US imports of computer parts and equipment surged. Exports also hit a new high, despite a drop in shipments of US food, cars and car parts, two of the sectors most exposed to the trade changes.

A lot of news outlets sanewashed Trump’s demented babbling at the first meeting of his Board of Peace, but I recommend not reading them unless you’re in need of an emitic.

The floor’s yours.