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Delaware new construction report — Q1 2026

The bottom line

Delaware's residential permit volume is roughly flat (-4%) quarter-on-quarter — a stable market with steady underlying demand. Operators should focus on builder-relationship depth rather than market-expansion bets in this state for the next quarter.

Top movers this quarter

The Delaware counties with the biggest quarter-on-quarter permit-volume change. Click any county for the full local market dashboard.

1. New Castle County: 257 permits this quarter (-97 vs 354 prior quarter).
2. Sussex County: 746 permits this quarter (+35 vs 711 prior quarter).
3. Kent County: 238 permits this quarter (+7 vs 231 prior quarter).

Most-active builders

Licensed home builders in Delaware ranked by Q1 2026 permit count. Click any name for the builder's full profile, permit history, and county footprint.

Per-permit builder attribution for Delaware is limited this quarter. Per-permit feeds outside Florida are added quarterly — Delaware will deepen as we add county portals.

What this means for trade operators

If you're an LBM operator, roofing contractor, HVAC company, plumber, concrete crew, or any trade serving Delaware's new single-family construction market, this quarter's data points to a few practical actions:

• If you're not actively quoting the top 6 builders listed above, that's the call list for this week.
• If your service area covers any of the top-mover counties, you have leverage right now — builders there are scaling and looking for capacity.
• If you're considering expansion into Delaware, the Delaware dashboard has all counties scored against the trade you select. Drive-time analysis from your existing yard tells you which counties are reachable today.

This report is automatically refreshed every quarter from Census Bureau Building Permits Survey data plus county public records. The methodology is documented in our Census BPS data explainer.