What you are actually buying, and what it takes down
Delaware County’s median home value sat at $369,806 on July 31, 2026, up 2.7% over the year. That single number hides the whole county. July 2026 sold medians ran from $135,000 in the City of Chester and $214,950 on the 19082 side of Upper Darby up to $525,000 in Springfield and $877,000 in Newtown Square.
The eastern half is the old stuff. Upper Darby’s housing is 43% single-family attached, 35% of it built in 1939 or earlier, with a median year built of 1948. The township went from 8,956 people in 1920 to 47,145 in 1930 after the El reached 69th Street. Ten years, forty thousand people, and every one of them needed a porch.
FHA takes 3.5% down at a 580 score, 10% down from 500 to 579, and plenty of lenders set their own floor somewhere between 600 and 640. The 2026 FHA limit for a one-unit house here is $630,200.
Conventional starts at a 620 score and reaches 3% down on the income-limited programs, with a 2026 conforming limit of $832,750. VA is zero down with full entitlement and no loan limit at all. Anything over $832,750 is a jumbo loan.
On a $341,450 Drexel Hill twin, 3.5% down is $11,951. That is the easy part of the math.
The transfer tax, and the rest of the table
Realty transfer tax is 2% of the price in most of Delaware County: 1% to the state, 1% split between the municipality and the school district. Four places charge more. Radnor Township, Upper Darby Township and the City of Chester total 2.5%. Upper Providence Township totals 3%.
Custom is a 50/50 split, but both parties are jointly liable, so it is a term of the agreement of sale, not a law of nature. On a $300,000 house in Upper Darby the full tax is $7,500 and the customary buyer’s half is $3,750. Run your own number in the transfer tax calculator.
Title insurance rates are set statewide by the TIRBOP manual dated August 1, 2024, and a search is included in the premium. An owner’s policy runs $2,165 on a $300,000 purchase and $2,450 on $350,000, plus $125 for the closing protection letter. Pennsylvania requires no attorney at settlement.
Bankrate put average Pennsylvania buyer closing costs at $8,259, roughly 2.36% including taxes, in August 2025. Treat any of this as an estimate until the Loan Estimate shows up with your actual numbers on it.
Your township wants a look first
Act 133 of 2016 is the frame. A municipality that inspects at resale issues one of three things. A use and occupancy certificate if the house passes. A temporary certificate if the violations are ordinary and you can fix them after you move in. Or a temporary access certificate, which keeps everybody out until something substantial gets corrected.
Upper Darby wants the application at least 14 business days before settlement and advises four weeks, and it wants a sewer lateral certification from a township-licensed contractor, good for 90 days. The City of Chester repealed its point-of-sale inspection in July 2025. Every other town has its own list and its own lead time, which is the one part of a Delco closing that moves slower than the Blue Route at five o’clock.
What the seller has to tell you
Pennsylvania’s seller disclosure law, 68 Pa.C.S. Sections 7301 to 7315, makes the seller put known material defects on a disclosure statement and hand it over before the agreement of sale is signed. The form covers the roof, basement water, termites and wood-destroying insects, structural items, additions and remodeling, water and sewer, plumbing, electrical and heating, and hazardous substances including lead paint, asbestos and radon.
The seller has no duty to go looking, but may not make a statement known to be false or leave out a known defect. Sales by executors, trustees and guardians are exempt. On any house built before 1978, the federal lead rule still applies. The “Protect Your Family From Lead in Your Home” pamphlet. Disclosure of known lead paint and any reports. The contract carries a lead-paint warning statement. And a 10-day window to have the house checked, unless both sides agree in writing to change it.
After you close
Delaware County reassessed every parcel effective tax year 2021, using values as of July 1, 2019, replacing a 1998 base year. Assessments sit near market value, so a millage rate here is not comparable to a county still working off an old base. County millage for 2026 is 4.609 mills, up from 3.873, which the county put at about $185 a year for the average homeowner. Municipal and school millage stack on top and vary by district.
The homestead exclusion lowers the assessed value used for school tax only. You file it with your school district during open enrollment, December 15 to March 1, and it costs nothing.