Getting a Mortgage in Delaware: 2026 Guide

New Castle County (Wilmington, Newark, Middletown) sits in the Philadelphia commuter shadow and anchors most of Delaware's mortgage volume. The corporate-headquarters base around Wilmington keeps a steady move-up and first-time buyer pipeline active.

Kent County (Dover and surrounding) anchors central Delaware with the most affordable price points and steady FHA and VA activity around Dover AFB. Sussex County beach towns (Lewes, Rehoboth, Bethany, Fenwick Island) drive a meaningful vacation-home and retirement market with materially higher coastal pricing.

Delaware has one of the higher combined real estate transfer tax loads in the country, which materially raises buyer-side closing costs and is the single biggest variable on a Delaware purchase budget.

For 2026, the conforming one-unit loan limit in every Delaware county is $806,500, and the FHA one-unit floor is $524,225. There are no high-cost designations anywhere in Delaware.

Even on higher-end Sussex County beach contracts, most purchases stay inside agency limits. Jumbo financing is available for the small slice of contracts above the conforming cap.

Delaware has a relatively low effective property tax rate, around 0.61% of market value statewide. School-district taxes vary by district, and the actual tax line depends on the assessment ratio used by each county (some Delaware counties have not reassessed for decades, which produces a wide spread between assessed and market value).

Always pull the actual county tax line for the specific parcel rather than running a percentage of purchase price. Recent court-ordered countywide reassessments are reshaping the long-stale assessment ratios in some counties.

The Delaware State Housing Authority (DSHA) runs the dominant first-time buyer first mortgage program in the state. The DSHA Welcome Home program pairs a discounted rate first mortgage with optional layered down-payment assistance for income-eligible buyers.

DSHA also issues a Mortgage Credit Certificate (MCC) which provides a federal tax credit for a portion of mortgage interest, available with DSHA first mortgages. Funding and parameters are reviewed periodically.

Delaware has steady eligible-veteran demand, with concentration around Dover AFB in Kent County. The 2026 VA county loan limit in every Delaware county matches the conforming baseline of $806,500.

VA funding fee on a no-down-payment first-time use is 2.15% of the loan amount; subsequent use without a down payment is 3.3%. Borrowers receiving VA disability compensation are exempt. The VA funding fee can be financed into the loan or paid at closing.

Delaware imposes a 4% real estate transfer tax (2% state plus up to 1.5% county or municipal, with a 0.5% reduction for first-time homebuyers under specific conditions), customarily split 50/50 between buyer and seller. That makes Delaware one of the higher closing-cost states in the country on a percentage basis.

Plan for total buyer-side closing costs of roughly 4 to 5% of the purchase price in Delaware, plus prepaid escrows. Standard purchase closings run 35 to 45 days under the judicial-foreclosure framework.