Betterton, Maryland.
Typical home $322,408 (+0.9% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$895 (+112%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $2,764 +1%
- $319,644$322,408 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $49,680 +18%
- $272,728$322,408 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Betterton$1,692
- Maryland$2,230
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 21 years.
Typical home values in Betterton, MD rose 0.9% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Betterton, Kent County, Maryland
Betterton is a town of 286 people in Kent County. Unemployment in Kent County was 3.7% in August 2026, and the county had 1.2% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Kent County work in schools and health care, then shops.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Betterton is a very small town on Maryland's Eastern Shore, with the Sassafras River running in or beside town. Typical home values are well above what the county's household incomes might suggest, so buying here takes some means. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month, and summers turn properly warm by July, with a good deal of rain and melted snow across the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with shops, professional and business services, and manufacturing following. Across Kent County, the largest workplaces include Washington College, Kent County Public Schools and Chester River Hospital Center. Commutes run a little longer than a short hop across town, and some residents work from home. The county has recently seen slightly fewer jobs than the year before, though unemployment there is lower than it was a year ago.
Things to do. The Sassafras River is in or beside town, and the Elk River is a short drive away, so the water is the natural place to start. For a day out, the National Aquarium and the Walters Art Museum, both in Baltimore, are a longer drive away. Fort McHenry, a historic fort, is also a longer drive.
Report a mistake
- 29 mintypical commute
- 10%work from home
What people in Kent County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Kent County had 7,553 jobs in 2025, 1.2% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 42° and lows near 25°; warmest in July, with highs near 86° and lows near 68°. About 47 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Aberdeen Phillips Field weather station, 9 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Kent County
- Washington CollegeUniversity or college491
- Kent County Public SchoolsSchool district322FTE
- Acts Communities of Maryland, Inc. - Heron PointContinuing care retirement communities187
- Chester River Hospital CenterGeneral hospital139FTE
- LaMotte ChestertownPharmaceutical preparations manufacturing137
- Dixon Valve and Coupling CompanyCouplings, hose, metal, manufacturing111
- Gillespie Precast - Plant 2Concrete products, precast, manufacturing109
- Redner's Warehouse Market ChestertownGrocery stores92
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 17 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,393 people in all across the county; Betterton has none of its own. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24), school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- LightningVery high
- DroughtRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- HurricanesRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Coastal floodingRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Betterton’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively moderate. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Kent County.
Betterton home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Betterton$322,408
- Maryland$424,890
- United States$366,157
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Betterton6
Zip codes with a Betterton address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Betterton — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.