What salary do you need to live in Dover, DE?

The cost side of living in Dover

Renters in Dover pay a median $1,295 a month for two bedrooms. Size matters: one bedroom is $1,033, three bedrooms $1,616, so going from the smallest to the largest of the three adds $6,996 a year.

Homeowners in Dover report a median home value of $316,600. That works out to 4.3× the local median household income of $74,477, a mid-range ratio.

The Regional Price Parity, BEA's index of local prices with the US at 100, is 97.5 here. Below 100 means a paycheck stretches further: $100,000 in Dover has the buying power of roughly $102,557 at national average prices.

How much you need to earn in Dover

With a two-bedroom at the median rent, the score enters Tight at $42,000, Okay at $84,000 and Comfortable at $169,000 a year before tax. At the Comfortable line, a year of rent takes 9% of income and the median home is 1.9× income.

Royal, the top band, starts at $507,000. At that income rent is 3% of pay and the median home 0.6× income.

Each figure is the lowest income, to the next $1,000, at which the calculator itself would show that grade for a two-bedroom in Dover.

Four salaries, three home sizes in Dover

Home size shifts the grade at $75,000: Okay for one bedroom, Tight for two and Tight for three, as the rent share climbs from 17% to 26%.

None of the four salaries reaches Comfortable for two bedrooms; even $150,000 scores 62, Okay, which fits the $169,000 line above.

Where Dover falls nationally

Ranked against all 387 metros, Dover sits 121st on overall price level and 123rd on the two-bedroom rent median, counting from the most expensive. Its median home value ranks 135th.

For a sense of scale, the metros just above and below it on two-bedroom rent are Coeur d'Alene, ID ($1,296) and Asheville, NC ($1,288).

Dover vs. the rest of Delaware

How Dover stacks up against its state: $1,295 for a two-bedroom against Delaware's $1,397, $316,600 for the median home against $352,000, and a price level of 97.5 against 99.8.

The Delaware figure for the Comfortable line, using state medians, is $195,000 against $169,000 for Dover.

Delaware has only one other metro in the data, Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD, so the closest matches elsewhere, Coeur d'Alene, ID and Provo-Orem-Lehi, UT, are included too.

Does the typical Dover income clear the bar?

A household at the Dover median income of $74,477 would see a two-bedroom score of 42 — Tight — with rent at 21% of income. Reaching Comfortable would take $94,523 more than the median household earns. For Delaware as a whole, the median household income of $84,954 scores 41 against statewide rents. Keep in mind a household median often combines two incomes.

These are pre-tax estimates from public statistics, not financial advice.