Wilmington DE STR Market Report 2026: $13,195 on 273 Listings

AirROI's current extract for Wilmington, Delaware, covering August 2025 through July 2026, towns the typical short-term rental listing at about $13,195 a year across 273 active rentals. The average nightly rate was $162. Occupancy came in at 36.8 percent, and revenue per available night was $57. Year over year, that's a change of minus 13.0 percent, while active supply moved plus 13.3 percent over the same period, more listings entering the market against softer per-listing revenue.

Those five figures, annual revenue, ADR, occupancy, RevPAR, and the year-over-year and supply trend lines, are the core of what a Wilmington host or buyer needs before making a pricing, purchase, or licensing decision in this city. This report is built specifically around Wilmington, not a blended Delaware figure that folds in Newark or Dover, and specifically around the current AirROI extract, not an older brief or a different data vendor's pass that happens to cover a similar time window.

That last distinction matters enough to spell out up front. Two other data points exist for this market and shouldn't be averaged into the current figure. An older brief for Wilmington printed 278 listings, 37.8 percent occupancy, $162 ADR, $13,336 a year, minus 14.9 percent year over year, plus 14.9 percent supply, and an 8.2-night average stay. A separate AirDNA pass showed roughly 485 listings, about $14,800 a year, 62 percent occupancy, and $138 ADR. Those three passes use different methodologies and different sample sizes. File each on its own line, and when citing a single figure for this market, use the current AirROI extract: $13,195 across 273 listings.

The sections below walk through the full current-year picture: the listing pool itself, seasonality, licensing, tax, how Newark compares, how visitor attractions relate to actual occupancy, and finally how a buyer or existing host should put all of it together into one coherent read of the market rather than a set of disconnected statistics. This is not legal advice.

273 Active Listings and the Shape of the Market

The current 273 active listings function as the full gallery for this report: every percentage and dollar figure below describes that same pool. Superhost status sits at 49.5 percent of the market, a genuinely high share that suggests a competitive, review-conscious host base. Professionally managed listings make up 12.8 percent, with one host, Luke, independently holding 13 listings, the largest single operation identified in the current data. That leaves the clear majority of Wilmington's active rentals in the hands of individual, self-managed hosts.

Entire homes account for 70.7 percent of the active listing pool, and houses specifically make up 60.1 percent of that total, meaning the balance runs toward private rooms, apartments, and other unit types in a meaningfully smaller share. For a host or buyer evaluating a specific property type against this market, those two figures give a rough sense of how crowded a given category already is: an entire-home house competes in the largest single segment of the Wilmington market, while a private-room listing or a non-house entire unit sits in a comparatively less saturated lane.

The high superhost share, just under half the market, also says something about the level of competition a new listing walks into. A market where roughly one in two active listings already carries superhost status is a market where review count, response time, and cancellation history all matter for visibility in search results, not just price and photos. A new host entering this market should expect to compete against an unusually seasoned host base rather than a mostly first-time-host market, and should budget the first several months for building review history rather than expecting immediate top-of-search placement.

273 Listings in Context: What the Number Alone Doesn't Tell You

273 active listings is a useful headline figure, but it describes a snapshot, not a guaranteed constant. AirROI's figure reflects the listings active during the current extract window; a market this size can shift meaningfully within a single year as hosts enter and exit, especially given the 13.3 percent supply growth already showing in the year-over-year comparison. Treating 273 as a fixed ceiling on competition, rather than a point-in-time count in a market that's actively growing, risks underestimating how crowded the field may look by the time a new listing is actually live and accepting bookings.

It's also worth remembering that 273 listings spread across downtown, Trolley Square, and the Riverfront, plus whatever pockets outside those named submarkets carry the remainder, isn't 273 listings competing head-to-head for the same guest search. A guest looking specifically for a Trolley Square stay isn't meaningfully comparing that listing against a downtown high-rise unit; the practical competitive set for any given Wilmington listing is closer to the other properties in its specific neighborhood and price tier than to the full 273-listing citywide pool.

June, May, and October Carry the Year; January Is the Floor

June is the strongest revenue month on the current extract, with May and October trailing close behind as the other genuinely strong months. January is the weakest month for revenue. Occupancy, measured separately from revenue, runs weakest in July, a distinction worth holding onto since a high average rate in July doesn't automatically mean the month is filling up the way June does.

Average stay length across the extract is about 9.6 nights, with a 28-day average booking lead time. Most guests arrive from New York, with local Wilmington-area bookings close behind, a mix that points toward business travel, medical and legal visits, and short relocations more than a leisure-tourism-driven calendar. Downtown, Trolley Square, and the Riverfront each function as distinct occasions within that guest mix rather than interchangeable neighborhoods, and a listing description that names the specific pocket it sits in tends to convert better than generic city language.

The Rental License Is an Ordinance Requirement, Not an Occupancy Figure

Any Wilmington short-term rental needs a Residential Property Rental License under City Code section 5-92 and Chapter 34-45, which requires annual renewal, property registration, and both interior and exterior inspection. The official application still lists $75 per unit; confirm that figure is current for 2026 directly with Finance before budgeting around it. If the property owner doesn't live in New Castle County, a property manager holding both a City of Wilmington business license and a State of Delaware business license is required.

Ordinance 0509, which would add further rules including a discussed 150-permit cap, received only its first reading on November 21, 2024. Don't file a 150-permit cap, a homestay split, or a dedicated STR fee as settled law in any pricing model, buyer packet, or marketing copy until Wilmington's Licenses and Inspections office confirms the current status; call L&I directly at 302-576-3030 rather than assuming. Wilmington, North Carolina happens to have used the same Ordinance 0509 number in an entirely separate city council process; the two are unrelated, and confirming which Wilmington a given rule applies to matters before citing it anywhere.

Delaware's Short-Term Rental Tax Is Separate From the Hotel Rate

Delaware's short-term rental lodging tax runs 4.5 percent of rent on stays of 31 consecutive nights or fewer, under Title 30, Chapter 62. That's a distinct, lower rate than the state's 8 percent hotel lodging tax, which falls under a different chapter and generally applies to traditional hotel and motel operators rather than short-term rental hosts. Confirm any remaining 2026 tax questions directly with Delaware's Division of Revenue, since rate structures and filing requirements can shift.

For a host modeling annual revenue against the current $13,195 typical figure, applying the correct 4.5 percent rate rather than the higher hotel rate is a meaningful difference in a pro forma. Getting this distinction right also matters for guest-facing pricing transparency, since a listing that quotes the wrong tax rate to guests at checkout risks both a booking dispute and a compliance issue with the state.

Newark Is Another Year, Not a Wilmington Satellite

Newark listings earned about $10,906 last year on average, across 118 active rentals on the current AirROI extract, a genuinely different market from Wilmington's $13,195 across 273 listings at a $162 ADR. Newark runs its own municipal licensing desk, its own seasonal pattern, and its own guest base, driven heavily by University of Delaware activity rather than the downtown, legal, and financial-sector guest mix that shapes Wilmington. Keep that stay on its own line in any comparison, buyer packet, or portfolio review.

This distinction isn't academic for anyone managing properties in both cities or evaluating a purchase across the two markets. A Wilmington-specific occupancy or revenue figure applied to a Newark parcel, or the reverse, will misrepresent that property's realistic performance. The two cities happen to sit close together geographically, but the data, the licensing process, and the guest demand each run on entirely separate files.

The Christina River, the Riverwalk, and Chancery Court Are Demand, Not Occupancy

The Christina River, the Riverwalk, and the Court of Chancery generate real visitor traffic and are worth featuring specifically in listing photos and copy for a property near them. But that traffic is a demand indicator, not a substitute for the market's actual 36.8 percent occupancy figure or its $13,195 typical annual revenue. Confirm current 2026 hours for any of these attractions on their own official pages before citing them in marketing, and don't guess a festival date or a hotel-occupancy figure as if it applied to this year's short-term rental data.

Downtown Wilmington, Trolley Square, and the Riverfront are the leading submarkets named in AirROI's neighborhood breakdown, and each pulls a distinct kind of guest. Writing toward the specific submarket a property actually sits in, rather than generic 'downtown Wilmington' language, gives a prospective guest a clearer, more accurate picture of the stay, and tends to perform better than copy that could describe any listing in the city.

Reading RevPAR Alongside ADR and Occupancy

Revenue per available night, $57 on the current extract, is the figure that ties ADR and occupancy together into a single comparable number, and it's often more useful than either figure alone when comparing Wilmington to a different market or comparing one Wilmington listing's performance to the market average. A property with a high ADR but low occupancy can post a similar RevPAR to a property with a lower ADR and strong occupancy; the $57 figure is what actually reflects blended performance across a full calendar rather than a single strong night.

For a host reviewing their own performance against this benchmark, RevPAR is the number to compare, not ADR in isolation. A listing charging well above the $162 average nightly rate but sitting meaningfully below 36.8 percent occupancy may still be underperforming the market on a RevPAR basis, even though the nightly rate looks strong on paper. Pulling your own trailing-twelve-month RevPAR and comparing it directly to the $57 market figure is a more honest gut-check than comparing rate or occupancy alone.

Supply Growth of 13.3 Percent and What It Means for New Listings

Active supply moved up 13.3 percent year over year on the current extract, even as per-listing revenue moved down 13.0 percent over the same period. Read together, those two figures describe a market where more hosts are entering, spreading roughly the same guest demand across a larger pool of listings, which puts downward pressure on the typical listing's annual revenue even if total citywide demand hasn't meaningfully declined.

That combination matters differently depending on where you sit. A host already established in the market, with reviews, ranking history, and a proven listing, is generally better positioned to weather rising supply than a brand-new listing entering the same pool with no track record. A prospective buyer evaluating Wilmington should factor the 13.3 percent supply growth into a realistic revenue projection rather than assuming the current $13,195 figure will hold flat, since more competition for the same guest base tends to compress returns for the average listing over time, even in a market that remains fundamentally healthy.

What a Buyer Packet Should Actually Cite

A buyer packet or investment memo for a Wilmington property should lead with the current AirROI figures: $13,195 typical annual revenue across 273 active listings, a $162 ADR, 36.8 percent occupancy, and $57 RevPAR, dated to the August 2025 through July 2026 extract window. Supply growth of 13.3 percent and the year-over-year revenue change of minus 13.0 percent belong in that same packet as context for how the market is trending, not as figures to omit because they complicate a simpler growth story.

The packet should also state plainly that the Residential Property Rental License under City Code 5-92 and Chapter 34-45 is a real, required cost and compliance step, not an optional add-on, and that Ordinance 0509's proposed changes remain unresolved as of its November 2024 first reading. A packet that cites $13,195 without noting the licensing requirement, or that blends in Newark's or an older brief's numbers to make the market look stronger, is a packet built to mislead rather than inform, and it tends to produce disappointed buyers once the actual numbers surface after closing.

How a Host Should Read This Full Market Picture

Putting the pieces together: Wilmington's current typical listing earns about $13,195 a year across 273 active rentals, at a $162 ADR and 36.8 percent occupancy, with June as the peak revenue month and January as the floor. The rental license is a real, separate requirement under City Code 5-92 and Chapter 34-45, with Ordinance 0509's proposed changes still unresolved as of its November 2024 first reading. Newark and Dover run their own separate figures and shouldn't be blended into this report's numbers, and visitor attractions along the river and downtown are demand color, not occupancy data.

For a buyer or existing host, the practical takeaway is to keep each of these threads, revenue, licensing, seasonality, and neighboring markets, distinct rather than folding them into one impression of 'Wilmington is a good STR market' or 'Wilmington is a slow market.' The current extract shows a market with real, specific numbers attached to real, specific conditions, and pricing, marketing, and compliance decisions built on those specific numbers will outperform decisions built on a general sense of the city.

It's also worth revisiting this report against a fresh extract at least once a year, given how much movement already shows up between the current AirROI pass, the older brief's figures, and the separate AirDNA pass cited earlier in this report. A market moving 13.3 percent on supply and minus 13.0 percent on year-over-year revenue in a single measured period is not a market to price once and leave alone; it's one that rewards a host or investor who checks in on the numbers regularly rather than working off whichever figure they first encountered.

What This Report Deliberately Leaves Out

This report does not cite a citywide visitor-spending dollar figure for Wilmington, because no such figure appears in the current data behind it. Visitor attractions along the Christina River, the Riverwalk, and Chancery Court are real demand drivers worth naming in listing copy, but this report treats them as demand color rather than manufacturing an occupancy or spending number to attach to them. Any host or writer building further content on top of this report should hold the same line rather than guessing a headcount-to-revenue conversion that the underlying data doesn't support.

It also does not project forward beyond the current 2026 extract window. A market moving as much as this one has on supply and year-over-year revenue is genuinely difficult to forecast responsibly with a single data pass, and this report treats the current figures as a snapshot to work from rather than a multi-year trend to extrapolate. Anyone using this report to model a longer holding period should build in room for the market to keep shifting rather than assuming today's $13,195 figure holds flat for years.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How much did a typical Wilmington listing earn last year?

AirROI's current extract, running August 2025 through July 2026, towns the typical Wilmington listing at about $13,195 a year across 273 active rentals, with a $162 average nightly rate. Occupancy came in at 36.8 percent, revenue per available night was $57, and year-over-year change was minus 13.0 percent against supply growth of plus 13.3 percent. Keep Newark's and Dover's separate numbers off this figure when citing it, since each municipality runs its own distinct market data.

Should I average the older $13,336 figure with the current extract?

No. An older brief printed 278 listings, 37.8 percent occupancy, $13,336 a year, and an 8.2-night stay, and a separate AirDNA pass showed roughly 485 listings, $14,800, and 62 percent occupancy. Those are three different methodologies with three different sample sizes, and averaging them would produce a number none of them actually support. File each pass on its own line, and cite the current AirROI figure, $13,195, when the extract dates are August 2025 through July 2026.

Which Wilmington neighborhoods show up most in the data?

AirROI names Downtown Wilmington, Trolley Square, and the Riverfront as the leading submarkets on the current extract. Each pulls a different kind of guest and a different occasion, so writing listing copy toward the specific submarket a property sits in, rather than generic city-wide language, tends to convert better. Downtown skews toward proximity to courts and the banking corridor, Trolley Square toward a walkable residential feel, and the Riverfront toward the Christina River and Riverwalk as a daily amenity.

What share of Wilmington listings are entire homes?

Entire homes make up about 70.7 percent of the 273 active rentals, and houses specifically account for 60.1 percent of that total. Superhost status sits at 49.5 percent across the market. Those figures describe the current AirROI extract for Wilmington specifically and shouldn't be assumed to apply to Newark or Dover, which run their own separate host and property-type mixes and aren't covered by this same extract.

When is Wilmington's strongest month?

June is the strongest revenue month on the current extract, with May and October trailing as the other strong months and January sitting as the slowest for revenue. Occupancy itself actually bottoms out in July, even though revenue there can still look elevated on a surface read. A host pricing the calendar should treat June, May, and October as the protected peak-and-shoulder cluster and watch July's booking pace closely rather than assuming it matches June.

Do I need a Wilmington rental license in 2026?

Yes. Wilmington requires a Residential Property Rental License under City Code section 5-92 and Chapter 34-45, which means annual renewal, property registration, and both interior and exterior inspection. The official application still lists $75 per unit, though that should be confirmed as current for 2026 directly with Finance. If the owner lives outside New Castle County, a property manager holding both a city and a state business license is required to operate the listing.

Who books a Wilmington stay?

Most guests booking a Wilmington stay arrive from New York, followed by local Wilmington-area bookings, with an average stay of 9.6 nights and a 28-day lead time. Downtown, Trolley Square, and the river each pull a different kind of guest and occasion within that overall mix, which points toward business travel, medical or legal visits, and short relocations more than pure leisure tourism as the core demand driving this market.

Should I hire a manager in Wilmington?

About 12.8 percent of Wilmington's active rentals are professionally managed, and Luke's 13-listing portfolio is the largest single operation identified in that group, meaning most hosts here are still self-managed. Whether professional management makes sense depends on how much time you have to track the current $13,195 typical revenue, the licensing requirements under 5-92 and Chapter 34-45, and the seasonal pattern of June peaks and a January floor, versus paying someone to handle that work directly.

Can I file Newark's numbers as the Wilmington year?

No. Newark runs its own file. Wilmington's typical listing earned about $13,195 at a $162 average nightly rate across 273 active rentals, while Newark brought in roughly $10,906 across 118 listings on the same current extract. Keep the $13,195 figure specific to Wilmington in any packet, comparison, or portfolio review, since applying either city's numbers to the other will misrepresent actual property performance.

Where do I confirm the city desk?

L and I is your first call at 302-576-3030, based at 800 N. French Street, 3rd Floor, in the Louis L. Redding City/County Building. Zoning runs through 302-576-3040, and Finance handles license-fee questions. Dial 311 from inside city limits or 302-576-2620 from outside. If the parcel turns out to be in Newark or Dover instead, none of these Wilmington-specific desks or figures apply, and you'll need each city's own licensing office.

Work with Crest & Cove Creative

$13,195 across 273 listings is the current Wilmington year, not the older $13,336 brief and not Newark's $10,906. Cite the extract that matches your dates.

Send us your listing and we'll help you build pricing and positioning around Wilmington's actual current extract, not a blended Delaware guess. Reach out at crestcove.co/audit or (256) 998-7502. Send the live listing draft and the facts you can actually cite.

Reach out at crestcove.co or (256) 998-7502.