The decade that built it
Marple Township went from 4,779 people in 1950 to 19,722 in 1960. That’s a 312.7% increase in ten years, and it’s the reason Broomall looks the way it does. The township peaked at 25,040 in 1970 and was 23,428 in 2010. The Broomall census district itself counted 11,718 people and 4,606 housing units in 2020.
So this is brick and post-war: ranchers, split-levels and twins on modest lots, filling the ground between West Chester Pike along the north edge and Sproul Road running north to south through the middle. The Thomas Massey House, on the National Register, is the old survivor in the middle of all of it.
Houses from that stretch break in a familiar order. Roof. Panel, and the old fuse-box holdouts. Original cast-iron waste stack. Windows. None of it’s a reason to walk. All of it’s a reason to read the inspection report with a calculator open. It’s fine, it’s fixable.
If you finance with FHA, the appraiser runs the plumbing, heat and electric, wants two years of remaining roof life, and calls defective paint on any house built on or before December 31, 1978. That last one catches nearly every house in Broomall. The full list is short.
Trash, sewer and the settlement paperwork
The township runs its own collection. Recycling is every Wednesday. Bulk pickup is $20 an item, $40 for televisions and electronics, and $140 for a cleanout, which is worth knowing if you’re buying a house that comes with fifty years of somebody’s basement. There is no collection on Labor Day, September 7, 2026.
Sanitary sewer is public here, through the Central Delaware County Sewer Authority, which scheduled routine cleaning and maintenance starting August 31, 2026. No septic angle to worry about in Broomall.
Here’s the one that moves settlement dates. Marple runs a point-of-sale inspection and wants the application about two weeks ahead, per the Suburban Realtors Alliance entry dated May 20, 2026, and the township updated its fee schedule in 2026. Call the township for the current number. That slot books out faster than anyone expects in the spring, so get on the calendar the week your contingency starts. How the U&O works across the county covers the rest.
The price, and the ceiling right above it
Thirty-five closings in July 2026, half the count of a year earlier, the middle one at $650,000, and a typical 28 days to contract, six days slower than 2025 (Movoto).
Set that against the 2026 FHA limit for a one-unit house in Delaware County, which is $630,200. The ceiling sits just under the middle of the market. That’s genuinely useful, because it means FHA is live on plenty of Broomall houses and off the table on the ones above the line. The conforming limit for 2026 is $832,750, which covers essentially all of it.
For scale, Zillow put the county’s home value index at $369,806 on July 31, 2026. Broomall runs well above the county, which is worth saying plainly when you compare a bill here to one in the boroughs.
At 3.5% down, the $630,200 FHA limit works out to $22,057. That’s arithmetic off the limit, an estimate; the lender sets the real number.
What the bills look like
Marple Township set 2.7830 mills for 2026, a 5.49% increase, on a $32.1 million budget adopted in December 2025. The county is at 4.6090. Marple Newtown School District passed a proposed final rate of 12.91 mills on April 28, 2026, up about 3.5% from 12.4741, and that figure stays proposed until the bill lands.
If the school number holds, the stack is about 20.30 mills. Delaware County reassessed effective January 1, 2021, so those mills apply to an assessment that sits near market value. Comparing mills across county lines is a good way to reach a wrong conclusion. Compare the dollars on the parcel.
Township bills come out by February 1, with a 2% discount through March 31, face value April and May, and a 10% penalty from June 1. School bills come out by July 1, discount through August 31, face value September and October, penalty from November 1.
Transfer tax is the standard 2%, half state and half local, split by custom. On a $650,000 sale that’s $13,000 in total.
Around here
Marple Newtown’s first day of school is September 1, 2026, which is also the week the Sproul Road backup returns to full strength. Aronimink, one township over, hosted the PGA Championship May 14 to 17, 2026. Ellis Preserve, also next door, keeps adding restaurants.