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How much house can I afford in Delaware? →Delaware State Housing Authority's primary 30-year fixed-rate first mortgage for first-time homebuyers, offered at a below-market interest rate through DSHA-approved lenders; can be paired with one of several 0%-interest down payment assistance second mortgages (Smart Start, First State Home Loan, Keys4You, Take5). Subject to county-based income and purchase-price limits.
0%-interest, deferred-payment second mortgage equal to 3% of the first mortgage loan amount, used toward down payment and/or closing costs; no monthly payments required until the home is refinanced, sold, or otherwise transferred. Must be paired with a DSHA Welcome Home or Home Again first mortgage.
Reduces the realty transfer tax rate paid by a qualifying first-time homebuyer by 0.5 percentage points (typically from 1.25% to 0.75% of the buyer's customary half-share), capped at $2,000 in savings and applied only to the first $400,000 of the property's value. Administered by the Delaware Division of Revenue, not a mortgage product.
Fewer listings, fewer buyers, and sellers who have a reason to be on the market in December. Here is what a winter discount is actually worth on a $400,000 house — in monthly payment, in lifetime interest, and in the seller concessions a quiet market makes possible — and the three ways a winter purchase goes wrong.
Delaware's 4% realty transfer tax is the highest in the country: $15,943 on the state's $398,585 median home. Here's what closing in Delaware actually costs.
The operational guide to buying property with a partner, friend, sibling, or parent — credit and DTI mechanics, title vesting, a clause-by-clause co-ownership agreement, and how the exit actually works.
A month-by-month plan for the year before you buy: what to do in each phase, what never to touch, how to document every dollar, and how to survive closing day.
Delaware guide
Most states measure their transfer tax in fractions of a percent. Delaware measures it in whole ones. The combined realty transfer tax here reaches 4%, the highest rate in the country. On a $400,000 sale, that is $16,000 handed over at the settlement table for the privilege of recording a deed.
Delaware's own statewide median sale price is $398,585, so the math barely softens: 4% of that is $15,943.
Hold that next to everything else. Ordinary closing costs here run about 2% to 4% of the price, or $7,972 to $15,943 at the median, and that range excludes the transfer tax. At the top of it, Delaware's transfer tax roughly equals every other closing cost combined: lender fees, title insurance, appraisal, attorney, prepaids, all of it.
Two details soften the picture. The 4% is two taxes stacked, and it is customarily split with the seller. For how the underlying fees work anywhere in the country, start with our line-by-line breakdown of what closing costs actually are.
A note before you start: this is general education, not financial, legal, or tax advice. Every figure below is a statewide number from CalculatorByState's sourced dataset, and your county, lender, attorney, and contract will all move the total. The local portion of Delaware's transfer tax is set county by county, so the only rate that truly matters is the one for the address you are buying. Your Loan Estimate and Closing Disclosure are authoritative; use this to sanity-check them, not to replace them.
Set the transfer tax aside. A 2% to 4% range against Delaware's $398,585 median gives you roughly $7,972 to $15,943, midpoint near $11,958. At a rounder $350,000 price, the same range is $7,000 to $14,000.
The narrower sourced figure is that Delaware buyers typically pay about 2.99%, or roughly $11,918 on $398,585 — almost exactly the midpoint. Neither number includes agent commissions or the realty transfer tax.
Read the full Delaware guide →10 min read · Updated 2026-08-24