A suburb that was sold as a product
Wayne’s center started as the Louella estate, 293 acres belonging to a banker named J.H. Askin. In 1880 A.J. Drexel and G.W. Childs bought it and built the Wayne Estate, one of the first suburban developments in the country, advertised on the promise of water, light and drainage, which they called the three great conveniences of a large city. That pitch is still legible in the street layout.
Three districts here are on the National Register: North Wayne, listed July 25, 1985, Downtown Wayne, listed September 5, 2012, and South Wayne. The stone singles and the big Victorian frames in those districts are the houses people picture when they say Wayne, and they come with the maintenance list you would expect from a house that predates the electrical code. Slate and cedar roofs, plaster, old service panels, chimneys, sometimes knob-and-tube tucked in the walls.
None of that stops a loan by itself. It’s fine, it’s fixable. It does mean the appraisal and the insurance quote deserve attention early, and the inspection here is a budgeting exercise. What the appraiser writes up on an old house is the same short list everywhere in the county.
Radnor Township is the fourth-largest municipality in Delaware County, about 31,875 residents in 2019, and takes in Wayne, St. Davids, Villanova, Rosemont, Ithan, Garrett Hill and part of Bryn Mawr. Villanova University is the largest employer at 3,438 staff.
Radnor doesn’t hand you a resale certificate
This is the local surprise, and it runs the other way from most of Delco. Radnor doesn’t issue a resale certificate the way most towns here do. It charges a real-estate transfer fee, requires an interior sewer inspection under Ordinance 2008-11, and wants a notarized smoke and carbon monoxide certification, per the Suburban Realtors Alliance municipal database entry dated February 5, 2026.
Call the township for the current fee and lead time. The sewer inspection is the piece with a contractor’s calendar attached to it, so book that first and the rest follows. How this works elsewhere in the county is worth a read if you’re shopping across the township line.
The price, and the two lines above it
Sixty-nine houses closed in Wayne in July 2026. The middle one went for $975,000, and the typical one took 24 days to get to a contract, eight days slower than the same month in 2025 (Movoto).
Two federal numbers sit under that. The 2026 FHA limit for a one-unit house in Delaware County is $630,200. The 2026 conforming limit is $832,750. A median Wayne house financed with a normal down payment lands above both. That puts the loan in jumbo territory, where the lender sets the down payment, the credit standards and the reserve requirements on its own guidelines. Sometimes a larger down payment pulls the loan back under the conforming line and changes the whole structure. Have that conversation before you write the offer.
Transfer tax, and the rest of the closing statement
This is the number people miss. Radnor Township charges 1.5% realty transfer tax where most of Delaware County charges 1%. With the state’s 1% on top, the total here is 2.5%, confirmed on the county Recorder of Deeds page. On a $975,000 sale that’s $24,375, customarily split, so about $12,187 each side.
Radnor Township School District set 16.3263 mills for 2026-27, up from 15.7965, a 3.36% increase approved in May 2026. Bills go out on or before July 1, with the 2% discount through August 31, face value through October 31, and a 10% penalty running November 1 to February 15, 2027. The homestead exclusion knocks $30,636 off the taxable assessment, and you apply for it through the district during the December 15 to March 1 window.
The county is at 4.6090 mills for 2026. Radnor’s own municipal millage isn’t posted on a primary source you can check today, so ask for that line with the parcel and take nobody’s estimate for it.
One more. Delaware County’s Homeownership First program lists Radnor among its eligible communities, and the county’s 2026 summary caps the sale price at $290,000. On this market that’s closer to a rounding error than a program.
The creeks
Darby, Little Darby, Ithan, Meadowbrook Run and Gulph creeks all run through the township, and Darby Creek in particular has a long flood history downstream. Pull the FEMA map on anything near water before you commit, and get the flood quote while you’ve still got a contingency.
Trains, and what opened in August
The Paoli/Thorndale Line stops at Wayne, St. Davids, Radnor, Villanova and Rosemont. Wayne station was built in 1882 to 1884, went on the National Register in 1999, and has been through a $22.7 million second-phase rebuild covering roof, masonry and accessibility. The Norristown High Speed Line adds seven stops inside the township. Bridgeport Viaduct repairs on that line run in three phases from March 2026 to February 2027, so build a little patience into the schedule.
Locally, Villanova opened its Cabrini Campus on August 24, 2026: 112 acres two miles from the main campus, more than $100 million, six residence halls and about 900 resident students, on ground Cabrini University left in May 2024. The Wayne Art Center at 413 Maplewood Avenue runs its faculty and fall members exhibitions September 8 through October 3, 2026, and CraftForms opens December 6.