Best PlacesDewey Beach, DE Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Dewey Beach, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Dewey Beach ranks 5,099th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on health care access by a wide margin, and crime is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Dewey Beach
BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.
Dewey Beach's strengths and weaknesses
Where Dewey Beach ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 99% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 99% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 99% of towns
- BikingBetter than 99% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 98% of towns
Where Dewey Beach ranks low
- Crime safetyBetter than only 3% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 5% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 61 pleasant days a year, better than only 10% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 13% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Dewey Beach
A household needs to earn about $249,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Dewey Beach home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $131,740, so buying stretches a typical household.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Dewey Beach's effective rate of 0.22%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Dewey Beach
Dewey Beach runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Dewey Beach.
Who works in Dewey Beach, and how
Work in Dewey Beach centers on professional & technical and hospitality & food. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 47%
- Work from home 42%
- Transit, walk, or bike 11%
Life in Dewey Beach
Dewey Beach has more restaurants and bars per resident than 99% of towns. The coast is about 0 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Dewey Beach and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Dewey Beach, month by month
Dewey Beach sees roughly 61 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 49, with lows near 28. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 49° | 38° | 28° |
| April | 70° | 57° | 45° |
| July | 91° | 80° | 70° |
| October | 74° | 61° | 50° |
Flying in and out of Dewey Beach
The nearest airport, Salisbury-Ocean City Wicomico Regional, is about 34 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Philadelphia International, about 82 miles away.
The best schools in and around Dewey Beach
Schools across Dewey Beach average a B, better than 65% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Rehoboth Elementary SchoolB · 47% proficient
Top middle schools
- Beacon Middle SchoolB · 45% proficient
Top high schools
- Cape Henlopen High SchoolB− · 43% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Dewey Beach school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Dewey Beach measure by measure
Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Dewey Beach against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Dewey Beach
Is Dewey Beach a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Dewey Beach ranks 5,099th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, an educated workforce, and walkability, and lowest on crime and summer heat. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Dewey Beach expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,036,857. The overall cost of living runs about 11% above the national average. Set against a $131,740 median income, cost of living beats 95% of towns.
Is Dewey Beach safe?
Dewey Beach is safer than 3% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $716 per resident a year.
Compare Dewey Beach with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Dewey Beach. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Dewey Beach represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.
Dewey Beach detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Dewey Beach: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Dewey Beach: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Dewey Beach: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Dewey Beach: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Dewey Beach detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.