A borough built around a train stop
Lansdowne was incorporated in 1893 and grew off the railroad stop at Lansdowne Avenue and Baltimore Pike, which is why the Victorians sit where they sit. Of 5,048 housing units, 40% are attached, 23% detached, and 26% are in buildings of five units or more. Forty-eight percent were built in 1939 or earlier; the median build year is 1943. The Henry Albertson Subdivision Historic District, built out between 1890 and 1940, is on the National Register, and there’s a sycamore in town pushing 350 years old, which is among the largest in Pennsylvania.
For a mortgage, that mix means two different files. A Victorian single or a twin is a straightforward FHA or conventional loan. A two-unit or three-unit is a multi-unit loan, where the FHA limit runs $806,750 for two units and $975,200 for three, and rental income may count. Either way the house predates 1978, so the paint and the roof are the two things the FHA appraiser writes up first. It’s fine, it’s fixable.
The permit that sets your settlement date
Nothing transfers here without a Property Transfer Permit, and the application goes in 30 days before the deed. Inspection inside and out, then a reinspection, at $100 per dwelling unit. The checklist is specific, and it’s worth reading before the inspector rings the bell, because most of it is a Saturday’s work. Detectors dated and mounted. Deadbolts that open from the inside without a key. A sump discharging onto grass. Sidewalk and curb in one piece.
Peeling paint is on that list, which is convenient. Fix it once and you’ve satisfied the borough and the FHA appraiser in the same afternoon.
What it sells for
Eighty-six closings in July 2026, with the middle one at $250,000 and a typical 35 days to contract (Movoto). Read that number carefully: 86 sales a month is more than an 11,000-person borough produces, so the area being measured is ZIP 19050, which takes in East Lansdowne and slices of Upper Darby and Yeadon. RealtyTrac put 19050 at a $257,500 sold median in July 2026, down 9.85% year over year. The borough’s own Victorian singles trade above the ZIP figure, so price the block itself.
The bill
Borough millage for 2026 is 7.3039, fixed by resolution in December 2025. Trash is $417 per unit. Sewer runs $164 as a base plus $7.52 per 1,000 gallons over 21,174 gallons, which the borough puts at a typical $400 to $500 a year. There’s a 1% earned income tax. Real estate tax carries a 2% discount within two months of the notice and a 10% penalty after four.
The county adds 4.609 mills. William Penn School District was at 32.86 mills for 2025-26, the steepest school rate in this corner of Delco; the district mailed 2026-27 bills in early July 2026, so get the current rate from the district in writing. The county’s combined 2026 table, using the 2025-26 school figure, puts Lansdowne at 44.7729 mills, roughly $4,477 a year per $100,000 of assessment before trash and sewer. A tax-data firm put the borough’s median property tax bill at $5,417 in April 2026.
Transfer tax is the standard 2%. On a $250,000 house that’s $5,000 total and $2,500 as the customary buyer’s half.
The county’s $10,000, forgiven
Delaware County lists Lansdowne as a Revitalization community, so Homeownership First’s assistance is forgiven after five years of living in the house instead of repaid at sale. Up to $10,000 toward down payment and closing costs, at 0%.
The rest of the terms come off the county’s 2026 program summary (delcopa.gov), effective June 1, 2026:
- Sale price capped at $290,000.
- No home owned in three years.
- At least $1,000 of your own funds in the deal.
- Liquid assets of $15,000 or less.
- Eight hours of group counseling, plus an individual session.
- Income limits from $68,750 for one person to $129,600 for eight.
The county resets that sheet each program year. Read the current one before you plan around it. At a $250,000 price the cap is real headroom, which is rare in this county.
What’s on the avenue
The Lansdowne Theater, a 1,280-seat house from 1927 that had been dark since a 1987 fire, reopened August 22, 2025 after a $21 million restoration and now books a fall calendar: Randy Travis on September 24, 2026, Kansas on November 14. Arts on the Avenue ran its 21st year on May 17, 2026 with more than 70 artists. The farmers market runs Saturdays 9 to 1, May through October, at 30 N. Lansdowne Ave, and was named the top farmers market in Pennsylvania by the American Farmland Trust in 2025.
