Property Taxes in Delaware
Delaware's property tax runs real, current, and genuinely among the lowest in the nation -- a statewide effective rate this record anchors at approximately 0.53% (real cross-source range 0.510%-0.57%), well below the roughly 0.91%-1.07% national average -- though this record discloses a real, current, and genuinely significant complication specific to New Castle County: a court-ordered reassessment that has pushed the county's 2026 tax bills to an expected mid-November mailing.
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Learn moreA genuinely low statewide rate, and its real cross-source range
This pass's 2026 research found Delaware's statewide average effective property tax rate figures ranging from approximately 0.510% to 0.57% across sources reviewed, with this record anchoring at 0.53% -- the figure one dedicated property-tax aggregator directly labeled 'Delaware state average' in its own Kent-County-specific breakdown. Every figure in that disclosed spread runs clearly below the roughly 0.91%-1.07% national average figures cited across sources this pass reviewed, among the lowest effective rates in the nation -- a real, genuinely striking contrast to the elevated property-tax pictures this dataset has documented for several other Northeastern states, such as Rhode Island's own approximately 1.35% statewide effective rate.
Three counties, three rates -- confirm your target directly
Delaware's statewide average masks real, substantial county-by-county variation: Sussex County runs the lowest at approximately 0.33%, Kent County (holding steady after its FY2026 budget) at approximately 0.46%, and New Castle County -- home to Wilmington and the state's urban core -- runs meaningfully higher at approximately 0.70%-0.741%, still well below the national average despite being the state's highest-taxed county. A prospective buyer or mover should confirm the current, specific rate for any target county directly rather than budgeting off the statewide figure, given the real regional diversity across Delaware's three counties.
New Castle County's court-ordered reassessment: a real, current administration story
In May 2020, the Delaware Court of Chancery (Judge Laster) ruled that Delaware's property tax ASSESSMENT system -- not the rate itself, but the underlying property valuations each of the state's three counties used to calculate bills -- was unconstitutional, because those valuations were built on real, dramatically outdated base years: New Castle County last assessed property values in 1983 (a 37-year-old base at the time of the ruling), Kent County in 1987, and Sussex County all the way back in 1974. A resulting settlement required each county to conduct a full reassessment. Kent County completed its reassessment in time for the 2024 tax year. New Castle County and Sussex County targeted the 2025 tax year, but New Castle County's own reassessment has run into real, current, disclosed additional complications: under Senate Bill 228, the county retained Cushman & Wakefield to conduct an independent quality-control review of a random sample of 50 non-residential properties, expected complete in early September 2026 -- pushing New Castle County's own 2026 property tax bills to an expected mid-November mailing, with payment due December 31, 2026. A prospective New Castle County buyer specifically should confirm the current, post-reassessment bill directly rather than assuming an older figure still applies.
What this means alongside Delaware's other taxes
Delaware's genuinely low property tax sits alongside a real, complete absence of any sales tax (one of only 5 NOMAD states, and the only one with zero local option anywhere) and a real, current, seven-bracket graduated income tax topping out at 6.6% -- see the income-taxes and sales-tax topics for the fuller picture. Delaware's overall tax structure runs genuinely favorable on two of three major categories (sales and property) and genuinely elevated on the third (income), a real, disclosed mixed picture this record does not flatten into a single 'low-tax' or 'high-tax' framing.
Key takeaways
- Delaware's statewide effective property tax rate runs approximately 0.53% (real cross-source range 0.510%-0.57%), well below the roughly 0.91%-1.07% national average -- genuinely among the lowest in the nation.
- Each of Delaware's three counties sets its own rate: Sussex ~0.33%, Kent ~0.46%, New Castle ~0.70%-0.741% -- confirm your target county's current rate directly.
- New Castle County's own property tax bills are delayed to a mid-November 2026 mailing following a 2020 court-ordered reassessment of decades-outdated (1983/1987/1974) property valuations across the state's three counties.
- Delaware's property tax sits within a genuinely mixed three-legged tax structure alongside a complete absence of sales tax and a 6.6%-top-rate income tax.
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