Laurel, Delaware.
Typical home $314,627 (+1.1% in a year). Salisbury, MD-DE metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$852 (+107%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $3,275 +1%
- $311,352$314,627 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $42,101 +15%
- $272,526$314,627 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.
- Laurel$1,651
- Delaware$2,126
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 24 years.
Typical home values in Laurel, DE rose 1.1% over the past year — in step with the nation.
Living in Laurel, Sussex County, Delaware
Laurel is a town of 3,865 people in Sussex County. Half its households earn more than $48,644 a year and half less, against $81,497 across Sussex County. Unemployment in Sussex County was 4.5% in August 2026, and the county had 2.2% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Sussex 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Laurel is a small town in Sussex County, Delaware, with a younger population than many places that draw retirees to the area. Household incomes here run well below the county's, and few adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month and freezing nights common, while summers turn hot by July, and a good deal of rain and melted snow falls over the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, in professional and business services, and in the building trades. The Laurel School District and Food Lion are among the largest workplaces in town. Commutes are long, and very few people work from home, so most get in the car to reach their jobs.
Things to do. Trap Pond State Park, a protected area, is a short drive away and is the best known outdoor spot nearby. Horseys Pond, a reservoir, lies in or beside town, as does Little Creek, so there is water close at hand without leaving Laurel. For a longer outing, Salisbury Zoo is a longer drive away.
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- 1,609households
- 5%of adults have a degree
- 34 mintypical commute
- 3%work from home
What people in Sussex County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Sussex County had 96,307 jobs in 2025, 2.2% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 47° and lows near 29°; warmest in July, with highs near 88° and lows near 69°. About 50 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Salisbury 2N weather station, 11 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Laurel
- Laurel School DistrictSchool district313FTE
- Food LionGrocery stores90
- LaurelMail and parcel delivery42
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 2 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 132 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24); 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
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- HurricanesRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Laurel’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 Sussex County and the Salisbury, MD-DE metro.
Laurel home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Laurel$314,627
- Delaware$405,061
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Laurel listings — the market is cooling.
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
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Laurel30.03%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Laurel47
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Laurel13
Zip codes with a Laurel address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Laurel — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.