LivingCostFacts / county

Kent County, DE: cost of living

Compare HUD rent benchmarks with household income in Kent County, Delaware. These figures describe area-wide conditions rather than a personal budget.

Dover, DE metro RPP: 97.5 (BEA 2024; U.S. = 100). Regional context, not a county-specific price estimate.

BEA 2024 · HUD FY2027 · ACS 2020–2024 · CPI through 2026-10

$1,629
2BR monthly rent

HUD FY2027

26.2%
Rent / household income

Annual 2BR FMR ÷ ACS median income

$74,477
Median household income

ACS 2020–2024

$316,600
Median home value

Owner-occupied homes, ACS 2020–2024

Read the local picture

Fair Market Rent (FMR) is HUD’s estimate of the 40th percentile gross rent for standard-quality rental homes occupied by recent movers. It includes rent and most tenant-paid utilities. A household’s actual rent can differ substantially by neighborhood, lease and property.

2BR rent: county vs state vs US

HUD FY2027 monthly gross FMR. State and U.S. values are population-weighted county means. Dollars per month.

  1. Kent County$1,629
  2. Delaware$1,727
  3. United States$1,761
0$1,761

Put the benchmark in context

The rent-to-income comparison uses 12 months of the 2BR FMR divided by median household income. It compares different vintages and all household types; it is not the share of renter households that are cost burdened.

Annual income vs annual 2BR rent

ACS 2020–2024 median household income and 12 × HUD FY2027 2BR FMR. Dollars per year; separate vintages and household groups.

  1. Median household income$74,477
  2. Annual 2BR rent$19,548
0$74,477

Income remaining after this rent benchmark is $54,929 per year, before taxes, food, transport, health care and other expenses.

This county or equivalent belongs to the Dover, DE metro area. Its 2024 metro-wide all-items RPP is 97.5. A metro RPP is not a county-specific price estimate.

A matching metro wage page is unavailable on JobPayFacts; the wage link provides state context instead.

The data in view

Monthly rent by bedroom

HUD FY2027 gross monthly FMR; includes most tenant-paid utilities. Dollars per month.

  1. Studio$1,286
  2. 1 bedroom$1,294
  3. 2 bedrooms$1,629
  4. 3 bedrooms$2,244
  5. 4 bedrooms$2,590
0$2,590

Dover, DE: RPP components

BEA 2024 regional context; each category is compared with its own U.S. = 100 benchmark. These are not county price estimates or spending shares.

  1. All items97.5
  2. Goods96.4
  3. Housing rents95.9
  4. Utilities97.2
  5. Other services98.8
0100.0

Black marker: U.S. benchmark = 100 in each row.

Monthly Fair Market Rent by bedroom

HUD 40th percentile gross rent for standard-quality units; includes tenant-paid utilities except telephone, cable and internet. These are benchmarks, not asking-rent medians.

Home sizeFY2027 monthly gross rent
Studio$1,286
1 bedroom$1,294
2 bedrooms$1,629
3 bedrooms$2,244
4 bedrooms$2,590

Homeownership and population

Property taxes are for owner-occupied homes, not a renter charge. A + marks a Census top-coded estimate.

MeasureValue
Median annual real estate taxes paid$1,363
Population used for weighting (HUD pop2024)187,604

Compare rent and income

State and U.S. rents are population-weighted means of available county benchmarks; income is the published ACS median.

Area2BR rent / monthMedian household income
Kent County$1,629$74,477
Delaware$1,727$84,954
United States$1,761$80,734