What it costs to live in Delaware
Price levels against the national average
Prices overall
-0.75%
below average
Housing
-1.06%
ranks 19 for shelter
A hundred dollars of shopping
$99
costs this here
Price rank
18
1 is the most expensive
What that actually means in Delaware
- Buying things in Delaware costs less than it does in most of the country, ranking 18 nationally. The gap is about 0.75%, which turns a hundred dollars of national-average shopping into $99. It is the quiet half of any decision about where to live.
- In Delaware the parts agree with each other. Housing is about 1.06% from the national average, and prices in general are about 0.75% from it. Most states are not like this — usually rent is off doing something dramatic while everything else stays put. Here the overall number tells you the truth about both.
- What does that do to a salary? Seventy-five thousand dollars, earned and spent in Delaware, goes as far as $75,564 would at average American prices. Tax is a separate subject and comes out on top of this.
- Delaware's overall price level sits about 0.75% beneath the national average, ranking 18 across all jurisdictions, and the national one-hundred-dollar basket costs $99. Since BEA weights the basket to national consumption patterns, this figure is comparable across states in a way that surveys of household spending are not.
- Shelter and general prices move together in Delaware: a housing parity about 1.06% from national against an all-items figure of about 0.75%, differing by about 0.31%, with housing ranking 19. Convergence of this kind is uncommon, since non-tradable shelter usually absorbs local supply conditions that tradeable goods arbitrage away. Its practical effect is that tenure does not materially change how this state's cost of living is experienced.
- Adjusting seventy-five thousand dollars for Delaware's all-items parity yields $75,564 in constant national purchasing power. ⚠️ The figure is pre-tax and price-only; income, sales and local taxes are additional and independent of the parity. Nominal wage levels also correlate with parities in practice, so a full comparison of two states requires the local salary for the same role alongside this adjustment.
What the money buys here
A $75,000 salary
| Take-home, actual dollars | $57,874 |
|---|---|
| Price level, all itemsUS average = 100 | 99.253 |
| HousingUS average = 100 | 98.942 |
| Cheapest place to live | 34th of 51 |
Housing is where places differ most. Everything else moves far less than people expect.
Price parities are an index where the US average is 100 — a comparison between places, not a price.
The same pay, somewhere else
A $75,000 salary
| Take-home in Delaware | $57,874 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $61,593 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$5,074 |
State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.
What is expensive here
A $75,000 salary
- Housing98.942
- Goods98.363
- Services99.682
| Housing | 98.942 |
|---|---|
| Goods | 98.363 |
| Services | 99.682 |
| All items | 99.253 |
An index where 100 is the national average. Housing moves far more than anything else.
Housing, against the country
A $75,000 salary
| Cheapest housing | MS · 55 |
|---|---|
| Dearest housing | DC · 169 |
| This state, cheapest first | 33rd of 51 |
A BEA index where 100 is the national average, not a house price.
Where the ranking flips
A $75,000 salary
| Delaware on take-home | 47th |
|---|---|
| Once prices are leveled | 39th |
| Places moved | 8 |
Left is rank on take-home. Right is rank once local prices are leveled by BEA parities.
Delaware against Texas
A $75,000 salary
| Measure | Delaware | Texas |
|---|---|---|
| Take-home pay | $57,874 | $61,593 |
| Worth after local prices | $58,309 | $63,383 |
| Share of pay taxed | 22.84% | 17.88% |
| State sales tax | 0% | 6.25% |
| Groceries exempt here | Yes | Yes |
| Clothing exempt at $100 | Yes | No |
| Property tax rate | 0.5% | 1.49% |
| Price level | 99.3 | 97.2 |
| Housing prices | 98.9 | 97.4 |
| Fuel tax | 23¢ | 20¢ |
| Tobacco tax | $2.10 | $1.41 |
City income tax excluded. Sales-tax row: state-only. Exemptions: Delaware, No general sales tax; Texas, Harris County (Houston). Clothing: one $100 item; higher prices can change tax.
What you would need there
A $75,000 salary
| To match take-home only | $69,714 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$7,009 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 99 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Where the difference actually sits
Each line compares Delaware with the national average for that kind of spending. The overall figure is the three above it, weighted the way a typical household spends — which is why housing can pull it a long way on its own.
| What you spend on | Against national average | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Housing | -1.06% | Rent and owners’ equivalent rent |
| Goods | -1.64% | Groceries, fuel, clothing |
| Other services | -0.32% | Haircuts, repairs, childcare |
| All items | -0.75% | The three above, weighted |
What a salary is worth here
A salary of seventy-five thousand dollars, spent at Delaware prices, buys what $75,564 would buy at national average prices. That is a price adjustment only. No tax of any kind has been taken off it, and tax is a separate bill on the same money.
What this page cannot tell you
- This is one number for the whole of Delaware, and no state is one place. A big city and a rural county can sit far apart on every figure here.
- These prices were measured in 2023. Rents in particular can move a long way in a couple of years.
- And this is prices only. It says nothing about what Delaware charges you in tax, which is a separate bill and is covered elsewhere on this site.
- These parities are state-level aggregates. BEA also publishes metropolitan-area parities, and within-state dispersion between a large metro and a rural area routinely exceeds the difference between two states — so a state figure should not be read as descriptive of any particular address in Delaware.
- The underlying survey vintage is 2023, which is the most recent BEA publication rather than a current reading. Shelter parities are the component most exposed to drift between vintages, so recent local rent movements in Delaware will not be reflected here.
- Price parity and tax burden are independent quantities and this page models only the first. A low-parity state with high income tax and a high-parity state with none can leave a household in the same real position; comparing Delaware to another jurisdiction requires both figures, not either alone.
Questions people ask
What does a lower cost of living actually get me?
It stretches the same pay further: $99 of national-average goods for every hundred dollars. Comparing salaries between states without this is comparing two different things.
Is it just housing that is different here?
Less than usual. Here the components sit closer together, so what you notice is spread across everyday costs instead of landing almost entirely on housing.
How should I compare a job offer here with one somewhere else?
Two adjustments, not one. Prices bring a reference salary to $75,564 here, and state income tax changes the figure separately.
How does a below-average price level translate into real income?
Delaware's all-items parity is at or below the national average, so nominal income understates purchasing power: one hundred dollars purchases $99 of national-average consumption. ⚠️ Parity measures prices, not availability or quality, and does not capture differences in the composition of what is bought.
How do this state's components decompose?
Delaware's components are less dispersed than the national pattern, in which housing typically dominates. Goods and other-services parities sit nearer the housing parity, so the all-items figure reflects broad-based rather than shelter-concentrated divergence.
How should nominal offers be adjusted across states?
Nominal offers should be deflated by the destination parity before comparison; the reference salary is equivalent to $75,564 in national-average terms here. ⚠️ Price adjustment and tax adjustment are independent and must both be applied — a state may be simultaneously cheap and heavily taxed, or the reverse.