Moving to Delaware
Moving to Delaware in 2026 means weighing a real, genuinely mixed tax picture -- a complete, flat ZERO sales tax at every level of government, a genuinely low statewide property tax rate (anchored at 0.53%), but a graduated income tax topping out at a comparatively high 6.6% -- against real, disclosed strengths: homeowners insurance running among the cheapest in the nation, strong U.S. News healthcare rankings, and a compact, genuinely three-part geography running from Wilmington's corporate core to Dover's military anchor to Sussex County's Atlantic beach towns.
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Learn moreA real, complete absence of sales tax, offset by a comparatively high income tax
Delaware is one of only 5 US states with NO state or local general sales tax -- the 'NOMAD' states (New Hampshire, Oregon, Montana, Alaska, Delaware) -- and Delaware's version of that distinction is genuinely the purest of the five: a flat ZERO rate at every level of government, everywhere in the state, with no local option anywhere, unlike Alaska, which allows local municipalities to levy their own sales taxes reaching as high as 7.85% in some communities. Delaware's individual income tax runs a real, current seven-bracket graduated structure for 2026: 0% on the first $2,000 of taxable income, 2.2% from $2,000-$5,000, 3.9% from $5,000-$10,000, 4.8% from $10,000-$20,000, 5.2% from $20,000-$25,000, 5.55% from $25,000-$60,000, and a 6.6% top marginal rate above $60,000 -- applying uniformly to every filing status. That 6.6% top rate runs genuinely above several other graduated-income-tax states this dataset has documented, including Rhode Island's own 5.99% top rate.
A genuinely low property tax, with a real administrative wrinkle in New Castle County
Delaware's statewide average effective property tax rate runs approximately 0.53% (a real cross-source range of 0.510%-0.57%), well below the roughly 0.91%-1.07% national average figures cited across sources this pass reviewed -- among the lowest effective rates in the nation. Real county-level variation exists: Sussex County runs lowest at approximately 0.33%, Kent County at approximately 0.46%, and New Castle County (Wilmington's urban core) runs meaningfully higher at approximately 0.70%-0.741%, still well below the national average. A prospective New Castle County buyer specifically should know that a 2020 Delaware Court of Chancery ruling found the county's decades-old property-value assessments unconstitutional, triggering a court-ordered reassessment that has pushed the county's 2026 tax bills to an expected mid-November mailing. See the property-taxes topic for the full disclosure.
Housing runs modestly above the national range, but homeowners insurance runs genuinely cheap
Delaware's statewide average home value ran $410,192 as of this pass's research (Zillow, up 1.3% year-over-year, as of July 31, 2026) -- genuinely close to, though modestly above, the roughly $355,000-$380,000 range commonly cited nationally in 2026. Set against that, homeowners insurance runs genuinely, substantially cheaper than the national picture: a statewide average of $1,150-$1,669/year, with one source citing $1,374/year ($115/month), clearly below every national-average figure this dataset has cited anywhere -- even as a real, disclosed 25.4% inflation-adjusted statewide premium increase occurred between December 2021 and June 2025. See the housing-market and homeowners-insurance topics for the full picture.
Know which Delaware you're moving to
Delaware is genuinely not one place, despite being the second-smallest state by area. New Castle County (the north) is Delaware's most populous county, genuinely urban/suburban, anchored by Wilmington's corporate/legal/financial-services identity and the University of Delaware's flagship main campus in Newark. Kent County (the middle) is genuinely more agricultural and carries the state capital, Dover, plus Dover Air Force Base -- the Department of Defense's largest and busiest aerial port. Sussex County (the south) is genuinely defined by both its Atlantic beach-resort identity (Rehoboth Beach, Bethany Beach, Lewes, Fenwick Island) and a real, substantial agricultural economy, and is genuinely Delaware's fastest-growing county by a wide margin, driven by beach spillover, retirement demand, and healthcare expansion.
Key takeaways
- Delaware's tax structure runs genuinely mixed: a complete, flat ZERO sales tax at every level (the purest of the 5 NOMAD states) and a genuinely low 0.53% statewide property tax rate, alongside a comparatively high 6.6% top income tax bracket.
- Housing runs modestly above the national range ($410,192 statewide average), but homeowners insurance runs genuinely cheap ($1,150-$1,669/year), among the lowest in the nation despite a real 25.4% premium increase since December 2021.
- New Castle County buyers specifically should confirm the current, post-reassessment property tax bill directly, given a 2020 court ruling and a resulting delay pushing 2026 bills to a mid-November mailing.
- Delaware is genuinely not one place -- New Castle County's corporate/urban core, Kent County's capital-and-military identity, and Sussex County's beach-resort-and-retiree-growth identity each carry a distinct character inside a genuinely compact, three-county state.
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