Best Places to Buy Rental Property in Delaware (2026)

There is no honest way to rank Delaware cities by rental return without rent data, and this page does not have it. What it does have is transaction evidence: the median price homes actually closed at inside each city's limits, and how many closings happened. That answers the two questions that come before any cash flow analysis, what it costs to get in and whether you can get back out.

What this page measures, and what it does not

Every city below cleared at least 50 closings in its reporting window, which filters out markets too thin to read. They are ranked cheapest first by median closed price, from $224,900 to $1,800,000. Note the bar: Delaware does not have 5 municipalities with 100 or more tracked closings, so this page uses a 50-closing floor and says so rather than padding the list. You will not find rent estimates, rent-to-price ratios, cap rates, cash-on-cash projections or gross yield rankings here. Resideline does not have verified rent data for these cities, so publishing those numbers would be invention rather than analysis. Entry price and transaction volume are what the data supports. Every figure describes closings inside the city limits, not the wider postal area that shares the city's name. The two can differ a lot: a postal area usually reaches into surrounding townships, which pulls the median toward whatever those townships are worth. Delaware's statewide median closed price is $390,000 across 8,602 tracked closings.

The rankings

1. Wilmington, $224,900, 580 closings

At $224,900 the entry price is about 58 percent of the Delaware median. Resideline tracked 580 closings there over the last last six months, roughly 97 a month. Full detail is on the Wilmington market page.

2. Dover, $296,250, 296 closings

At $296,250 the entry price is about 76 percent of the Delaware median. Resideline tracked 296 closings there over the last last six months, roughly 49 a month. Full detail is on the Dover market page.

3. Millsboro, $334,770, 292 closings

At $334,770 the entry price is about 86 percent of the Delaware median. Resideline tracked 292 closings there over the last last 12 months, roughly 24 a month. Full detail is on the Millsboro market page.

4. Selbyville, $421,665, 94 closings

At $421,665 the entry price is about 108 percent of the Delaware median. Resideline tracked 94 closings there over the last last 12 months, roughly 8 a month. That is a thin market: both your comparable set and your eventual exit depend on a small buyer pool. About 92 percent of those closings are houses, so the figure describes that segment rather than every property type. This is a low-volume market, so treat the median as directional. Full detail is on the Selbyville market page.

5. Ocean View, $516,000, 154 closings

At $516,000 the entry price is about 132 percent of the Delaware median. Resideline tracked 154 closings there over the last last 12 months, roughly 13 a month. Full detail is on the Ocean View market page.

6. Rehoboth Beach, $1,800,000, 88 closings

At $1,800,000 the entry price is about 462 percent of the Delaware median. Resideline tracked 88 closings there over the last last 12 months, roughly 7 a month. That is a thin market: both your comparable set and your eventual exit depend on a small buyer pool. This is a low-volume market, so treat the median as directional. Full detail is on the Rehoboth Beach market page.

How to use this list

Treat it as a shortlist, not an answer. A citywide median cannot price a specific address: property type, size, condition and location move a number far more than the city line does. Run any address on this list through Resideline for the comparable set behind its value.

Figures last updated August 23, 2026 from closings Resideline tracked.