Best Places To Buy A House In Delaware For 2020


Using science and data, we can tell you which places in Delaware have seen home prices rising and people flocking over the past year.

Chris Kolmar, About HomeSnacks
December 27, 2019 - 1,640 views
Editor’s note: This is not investment advice and we are not financial advisers. Article updated for 2020.

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There's a the age old question everyone thinks about when they decide to move to a city in Delaware:

Should I buy a place or rent? Well, we aren't here today to solve that problem for you exactly. We are just assuming you'll do the right thing and a buy a place. And while we are happy to tell you the best place to live in Delaware, this analysis is going to tackle the question of the best place to buy a house as an investor. That is we are going to try and determine the up and coming cities in the First State.

To do that we are going to look at places in Delaware that are growing faster than average, but where home prices are below average. In every day terms, the "deals". The best deal in Delaware at the moment? That would be Ocean View according to our analysis.

Here's a look at the top ten places to buy a home in delaware for 2020:

  1. Ocean View (Photos | Homes For Sale)
  2. Selbyville (Photos | Homes For Sale)
  3. Townsend (Photos | Homes For Sale)
  4. Greenville (Homes For Sale)
  5. Kent Acres (Homes For Sale)
  6. Long Neck (Photos | Homes For Sale)
  7. Riverview (Homes For Sale)
  8. Bridgeville (Photos | Homes For Sale)
  9. Milton (Photos | Homes For Sale)
  10. Lewes (Photos | Homes For Sale)

What's the best place to buy a home in Delaware for 2020? According to our analysis, would the the ideal place to buy a home looking into the future.

The methodology that wen't into this can be a bit complicated, so we'll break it down for you in as much detail as we can below. If you're not worried about finding a deal on good places to live, check out the most expensive places to live in delaware and, for those of you on a budget, the cheapest places to live in delaware.

For more Delaware reading, check out:

The 10 Best Cities To Buy A House In Delaware For 2020

1. Ocean View

Ocean View, DE

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

9
/10

Population: 2,198
Median Home Price: $336,100
Population Change: 2.2%
Home Price Change: -0.4%
More on Ocean View: Photos | Homes For Sale | Data

2. Selbyville

Selbyville, DE

Source: Wikipedia User Don Woods | CC BY-SA 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

7
/10

Population: 2,252
Median Home Price: $267,800
Population Change: 0.3%
Home Price Change: 3.5%
More on Selbyville: Photos | Homes For Sale | Data

3. Townsend

Townsend, DE

Source: Wikipedia User Smallbones | CC BY-SA 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

7
/10

Population: 2,332
Median Home Price: $324,700
Population Change: 6.2%
Home Price Change: 3.4%
More on Townsend: Photos | Homes For Sale | Data

4. Greenville

Overall SnackAbility

7.5
/10

Population: 2,333
Median Home Price: $682,000
Population Change: 1.2%
Home Price Change: 2.2%
More on Greenville: Homes For Sale | Data

5. Kent Acres

Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 2,429
Median Home Price: $210,900
Population Change: 2.5%
Home Price Change: 11.4%
More on Kent Acres: Homes For Sale | Data

6. Long Neck

Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 2,556
Median Home Price: $73,800
Population Change: -5.9%
Home Price Change: -1.5%
More on Long Neck: Photos | Homes For Sale | Data

7. Riverview

Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 2,684
Median Home Price: $261,300
Population Change: -1.6%
Home Price Change: 1.0%
More on Riverview: Homes For Sale | Data

8. Bridgeville

Bridgeville, DE

Source: Wikipedia User Bwave at Englis | GFDL
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 2,696
Median Home Price: $268,600
Population Change: 8.7%
Home Price Change: 3.7%
More on Bridgeville: Photos | Homes For Sale | Data

9. Milton

Milton, DE

Source: Wikipedia User Tim Kiser (w:Us | CC BY-SA 2.5
Overall SnackAbility

7
/10

Population: 2,840
Median Home Price: $277,800
Population Change: 1.7%
Home Price Change: 9.8%
More on Milton: Photos | Homes For Sale | Data

10. Lewes

Lewes, DE

Source: Wikipedia User Tim Kiser (w:Us | CC BY-SA 2.5
Overall SnackAbility

9
/10

Population: 3,118
Median Home Price: $540,200
Population Change: 5.3%
Home Price Change: 5.5%
More on Lewes: Photos | Homes For Sale | Data

How do you determine the best places to buy a home in delaware for 2020?

We were in real estate for almost five years and have been working on this site for another three. Suffice is to say, we've put a lot of thought into what goes into finding a good place to buy a home.

So all that thinking has come to this moment where we get to spell out how we'd approach finding an up-and-coming place to live in Delaware. Put differently, the analysis will try to find places in Delaware with undervalued homes relative to pent up demand.

10 Safest Places In Delaware

To do that we looked at the most recent American Community Survey Census data for 2014-2018 and compared it to the previous vintage (2012-2016). Specifically, we used the following criteria:

  • Y-o-Y Change In Population (People want to live here)
  • Y-o-Y Change In Median Home Prices (People are willing to pay for it)
  • Home Prices Relative To The State Average (It's still kinda cheap)

We want places that are growing, have seen home prices increase in recent years, and are still "cheap" for Delaware with the following caveats:

So of the 0 cities and towns in Delaware, only 36 places made it through our initial filters to even be considered.

We then ranked each place from 1 to 36 for the criteria mentioned above with 1 being the best for that criteria. We averaged the rankings to create a "best place to buy" index with the place having the lowest index being the best. You can download the data here.

Turns out that Ocean View is the best potential gem in the not-so-rough in the First State.

Read on for more on these places.

There You Have It - The Best Places To Purchase A House In delaware for 2020

There's our analysis of the best places to buy a house in Delaware. And, to be clear, we aren't necessarily saying these places are the best places to live, just that it looks like they might be in a couple of years based on the data.

In fact, every place in the following table meets our criteria, so even though it may not look super long, remember we started off with all 0 places in the state.

So if we'd could rent or buy in these cities, we'd definitely buy.

For more delaware reading, check out:

Detailed List Of The Best Places To Buy A Home In Delaware

City Rank Median Home Price Population Change Home Price Increase
Ocean View 1 $336,100 2.2% -0.4%
Selbyville 2 $267,800 0.3% 3.5%
Townsend 3 $324,700 6.2% 3.4%
Greenville 4 $682,000 1.2% 2.2%
Kent Acres 5 $210,900 2.5% 11.4%
Long Neck 6 $73,800 -5.9% -1.5%
Riverview 7 $261,300 -1.6% 1.0%
Bridgeville 8 $268,600 8.7% 3.7%
Milton 9 $277,800 1.7% 9.8%
Lewes 10 $540,200 5.3% 5.5%
Clayton 11 $220,400 3.3% 11.1%
Camden 12 $211,800 -0.5% 6.2%
Highland Acres 13 $243,500 -3.4% 2.0%
Harrington 14 $158,300 0.1% -4.5%
Laurel 15 $145,500 1.5% 1.7%
Millsboro 16 $206,200 1.4% -0.9%
New Castle 17 $195,400 -0.1% -2.1%
Elsmere 18 $173,000 -0.8% 2.7%
Edgemoor 19 $168,100 4.7% -14.5%
Georg 20 $218,900 1.7% 8.5%
North Star 21 $444,400 0.7% 2.1%
Seaford 22 $160,500 1.7% 0.7%
Wilmington Manor 23 $171,900 3.9% 1.2%
Pike Creek 24 $338,200 -4.9% 5.3%
Claymont 25 $209,200 -0.4% 4.3%
Pike Creek Valley 26 $255,700 -1.5% 0.4%
Milford 27 $184,600 1.8% 2.8%
Smyrna 28 $187,800 0.5% 1.7%
Brookside 29 $196,400 -2.7% 2.8%
Hockessin 30 $446,000 -1.5% 2.9%
Glasgow 31 $277,700 -6.1% 3.1%
Middl 32 $288,400 2.4% 2.2%
Bear 33 $208,600 4.7% 4.0%
Newark 34 $274,900 0.3% 0.3%
Dover 35 $175,900 0.6% 0.6%
Wilmington 36 $169,400 -0.5% 2.5%
Download The Entire Delaware Ranking Data

How Is The Area In ?

About Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar has been in the real estate business for almost ten years now. He originally worked for Movoto Real Estate as the director of marketing before founding HomeSnacks.

He believes the key to finding the right place to live comes down to looking at the data, reading about things to do, and, most importantly, checking it out yourself before you move.

If you've been looking for a place to live in the past several years, you've probably stumbled upon his writing already.

You can find out more about him on LinkedIn or his website.

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