[3] It is part of the Salisbury, Maryland-Delaware Metropolitan Statistical Area and lies in Baltimore Hundred.

Ocean View is fast becoming a bedroom community for the neighboring summer resort of Bethany Beach.

[5] According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 2.0 square miles (5.2 km2),[6] all of it land.

[7] Until the late 17th century, European settlers bypassed the area where Ocean View now lies because of the poor quality of its sandy, salty soil and the salt air that blew in from the Atlantic Ocean; they preferred to settle a few miles farther inland, where the land was higher and drier and the soil richer.

[8] Would-be settlers also faced a legal complication in obtaining land in what is now Ocean View, because Lord Baltimore claimed the area as part of his Maryland colony, while William Penn asserted that the area belonged to the Delaware Colony; settlers opted to look elsewhere for land to which they could receive clear title from an undisputed authority.

[8] After Scarborough died, the land passed into the hands of the Hazzard family,[10] and by the late 18th century salt-making crews had begun occasional visits to the area on their way to and from salt ponds located closer to the coast.

After the American Civil War (1861–1865) people began to take an interest in visiting the Atlantic beaches to the east of Hall's Store and it was discovered that the Atlantic Ocean was visible from the second story of some buildings in the village; because of this, Hall's Store was renamed Ocean View.

[10] The town was an isolated community for much of the 19th century; the nearest railroad, constructed in 1874, came no closer than Dagsboro, and although the opening of the Assawoman Canal – which ran past what had once been Scarborough's Middlesex Plantation – in the late 19th century improved access to Ocean View, it did little to boost the town's economy.

[8] Not until the rise of the automobile in the early 20th century did visitors begin to come to Ocean View in increasing numbers.

Although Ocean View itself is no longer involved in the raising of chickens, the industry went on to become Delaware's most important agricultural activity.

[8][11] After World War II, interest in land near the Delaware beaches increased exponentially as the Delmarva Peninsula became ever-more accessible to automobile traffic from large Eastern cities.

The real estate boom spread to Ocean View, increasing land prices there substantially during the latter half of the 20th century.

It bisects the town on an east–west alignment, heading eastward toward Bethany Beach and west to U.S. Route 113 in Dagsboro.

A short section of Delaware Route 54 Alternate also passes through the southeast edge of town.

Other council members include Frank Twardzik, Berton Reynolds, Bill Olsen, and Tom Maly.

The town manager is assisted by three department heads: the Administratuve Official/Director of Public Works, the Director of Finance, and the Chief of Police.