Delaware

February home sales in Delaware: Sussex leads the way in sales and highest median price

Published

10 months ago

March 21, 2025

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February home sales in Delaware: Sussex leads the way in sales and highest median price

Delaware existing home sales – not new construction – totaled 830 in February, down from January and from February 2024.
The median sales price in Delaware in February was $377,000, lower than January but higher than a year ago.
Sussex County led the state in both home sales and the median sales price.

Delaware home sales fell in February on a monthly and yearly basis, while the median price declined from January but rose from a year ago.

Sales of existing homes – not new construction – in February totaled 830, down 7.88% from 901 in January and slightly lower than 838 in February 2024, a decline of 0.95%, the Delaware Association of Realtors reported.

The median sales price of $377,000 fell less than 1%, down 0.62% from $379,333 in January, but higher than a year ago by 2.70% when it was $367,083.

Prices have pulled back since October’s all-time high median price of $397,650.

The inventory of homes for sale was 3,506, up from 3,289 in January and from 2,883 one year ago.

The pace of sales slowed, with homes staying on the market an average of 50.7 days, longer than 47 days in January and 45.7 days in February 2024.

“While inventory gains are a step in the right direction, affordability remains a pressing issue,” said Scott Farnan, president of the Delaware Association of Realtors, in a press release.

The association is advocating solutions like the “One Percent for Housing” campaign, which calls for the state to dedicate 1% of its budget to affordable housing solutions, Farnan said.

Sussex County leads state in sales and prices

Sussex County topped the other counties in home sales with 354, holding steady from 353 in January and higher than 330 in February 2024.

The median sold price was the highest in the state at $434,500, down from $465,000 in January, but up from $421,250 a year ago.

Inventory of homes for sale climbed to 2,109 from 1,888 in January and from 1,692 in February 2024.

But the average time a home was on the market dragged out to 70 days compared with 62 in January and 56 days a year ago.

New Castle County sales and prices

In New Castle County, sales totaled 324 in February, down from 403 in January and from 353 a year ago.

The median sold price was $364,000, rising from $350,000 in January and from $330,000 in February 2024.

Inventory of homes for sale was 838, climbing from 831 in January and from 713 a year ago.

The average time a home was on the market was 36 days, slightly longer than 34 days in January and longer than 28 days in February 2024.

Kent County real estate figures for February

Kent County sales totaled 152, up from 145 in January, but lower than 155 a year ago.

The median sales price of $332,500 rose from $323,000 in January but fell from $350,000 in February 2024.

Active inventory was 559, falling from 570 in January but higher than 478 a year ago.

The average time a home was on the market was 46 days, up from 45 days in January, but sales were faster than a year ago, when the average was 53 days.

National sales and prices climb

In the U.S. as a whole, existing home sales were better than Delaware on a monthly basis, increasing by 4.2% in February from January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.26 million, reported by the National Association of Realtors.

However, compared with last year, national sales slipped 1.2%, while in Delaware the decline was less than 1%.

The national median sales price rose to $398,400 in February, compared with $396,900 in January and $383,800 a year ago. That’s a 3.8% year-over-year increase vs. the 2.7% rise in Delaware.

The inventory of unsold existing homes climbed 5.1% from the prior month to 1.24 million at the end of February.

Properties remained on the market for an average of 42 days in February, up from 41 days in January and 38 days in February 2024.

“Home buyers are slowly entering the market,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors. “Mortgage rates have not changed much, but more inventory and choices are releasing pent-up housing demand.”

Reporter Ben Mace covers real estate, development and business news. Reach him at rmace@gannett.com.

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Delaware

Wilmington’s first homicide of 2026 claims life of 19-year-old

Published

18 minutes ago

January 9, 2026

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Wilmington’s first homicide of 2026 claims life of 19-year-old

A 19-year-old man was shot dead in Wilmington’s Southbridge neighborhood in the early hours of Jan. 9, police said.

Wilmington officers arriving to the 200 block of S. Claymont St. about 3:30 a.m. found the teen there.

The teen, whom police have not named, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Anyone with information about this shooting should contact Wilmington Police Detective Derek Haines at (302) 576-3656. People can also provide information to Delaware Crime Stoppers at (800) TIP-3333 or delawarecrimestoppers.com.

Violence by the numbers

This is the first homicide reported this year in Delaware, which last year saw a slight drop in all violent killings.

Delaware police reported 52 people being killed in violent crimes in 2025, a drop of nearly 12% when compared with 59 people killed in 2024, according to a Delaware Online/The News Journal database.

While the number of people killed in homicides statewide is down, the number of people killed by gunfire in Delaware was up in 2025 for the third year in a row.

According to the Delaware Online database, 47 were shot dead in Delaware last year. That was one more victim (46) than in 2024, three more (44) than in 2023 and nine more (38) than in 2022.

Despite the increase in gun-related deaths, there were fewer people shot last year in Delaware for the second year in a row.

Police reported 164 people being shot last year in Delaware. The previous year saw 195 people shot and police reported 210 people being shot in 2023.

This was the fewest people shot in Delaware since 2018, when police reported 146 people being shot statewide.

Send tips or story ideas to Esteban Parra at (302) 324-2299 or eparra@delawareonline.com.

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Delaware

MERR responds to dead humpback whale washed up near Bethany Beach

Published

12 hours ago

January 9, 2026

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MERR responds to dead humpback whale washed up near Bethany Beach

A dead humpback whale washed up near Bethany Beach on Jan. 8, according to the nonprofit Marine Education Research and Rehabilitation Institute.

The juvenile male was first seen Jan. 6, floating at sea about 2 miles off the Indian River Inlet, a MERR Facebook post said. The bloated 30-foot whale ultimately beached near a private community in the early afternoon of Jan. 8, the post said.

MERR is attempting to coordinate with the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control to get equipment to move the whale out of the water and onto the beach to perform a necropsy, the post said. Right now, there isn’t enough information to determine a cause of death.

Delaware saw at least three dead whales last year, in the Indian River Bay, at Delaware Seashore State Park and at Pigeon Point. The first two were humpbacks, while the Pigeon Point whale was a fin whale.

A necropsy on the Delaware Seashore whale found blunt force trauma across its back, indicating it may have been struck by a ship, MERR Director Suzanne Thurman said.

Recently, on Jan. 4, a dead fin whale was found on the bow of a ship at the Gloucester Marine Terminal in New Jersey, which is located in the Port of Philadelphia on the Delaware River.

Shannon Marvel McNaught reports on southern Delaware and beyond. Reach her at smcnaught@gannett.com or on Facebook.

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Delaware

Pa. man accused of stealing more than 100 skeletons from Delco cemetery

Published

1 day ago

January 8, 2026

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Pa. man accused of stealing more than 100 skeletons from Delco cemetery

A Pennsylvania man is accused of stealing more than 100 skeletons from a cemetery in Delaware County.

Jonathan Gerlach, 34, of Ephrata, Pennsylvania, is charged with abuse of corpse, criminal mischief, burglary and other related offenses, Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse revealed on Thursday, Jan. 8.

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Between November 2025 and Jan. 6, 2026, 26 mausoleums and underground burial sites had been burglarized or desecrated at Mount Moriah Cemetery, which stretches from Yeadon Borough, Pennsylvania, to Philadelphia, investigators said.

As police investigated the thefts, they caught Gerlach desecrating a monument at the cemetery on Tuesday, Jan. 6, according to officials. Gerlach was taken into custody and investigators executed a search warrant at his home in Ephrata.

During the search, investigators recovered 100 human skeletons from Gerlach’s home as well as eight more human remains inside a storage locker, according to Rouse.

“Detectives walked into a horror movie come to life the other night guys,” Rouse said. “This is an unbelievable scene that no one involved – from myself to the detectives to the medical examiners that are now trying to piece together what they are looking at, quite literally – none of them have ever seen anything like this before.”

Rouse said some of the stolen skeletons are hundreds of years old.

“We are trying to figure out exactly what we are looking at,” Rouse said. “We quite simply at this juncture are not able to date and identify all of them.”

Rouse also said some of the skeletons are of infants and children.

“It is truly, in the most literal sense of the word, horrific,” Rouse said. “I grieve for those who are upset by this who are going through it who are trying to figure out if it is in fact their loved one or their child because we found remains that we believe to be months old infants among those that he had collected. Our hearts go out to every family that is impacted by this.”

Sources also told NBC10 the thefts are related to a similar case in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. Investigators said they are looking at Gerlach’s online community — including his social media groups and Facebook page — to determine if people were buying, selling, or trading the remains.

Gerlach is currently in custody at the Delaware County Prison after failing to post $1 million bail. Online court records don’t list an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

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