What’s standing here
Upper Darby has 33,506 housing units, and 14,568 of them are attached: rows and twins, 43% of the township. Another 27% are detached. Thirty-five percent went up in 1939 or earlier and another 19% in the 1940s, which puts the median build year at 1948. The population went from 8,956 in 1920 to 47,145 in 1930 after the El reached 69th Street in 1907. Those ten years are most of what you see on Bywood, Stonehurst, Kirklyn and Highland Park. Brick rows with porches, stone twins with slate.
For a loan, an attached house is a single-family house. FHA at 3.5% down, conventional at 3% to 5%, both fine. What the age changes is the appraisal: everything here predates 1978, so the paint on the porch and the trim gets called, and the roof needs two years of life left in it. The rest of that list is the same on every old Delco block. Knob-and-tube is its own conversation, because HUD’s handbook has no rule with its name on it and the insurer usually has an opinion. Ask the lender early. It’s fine, it’s fixable.
The inspection that runs the settlement date
Every sale, transfer or change of occupancy needs a use-and-occupancy certificate. Since July 1, 2024 the inspection is interior as well as exterior, under the 2015 IPMC. The 2026 fee is $110 for a single family, $135 for a duplex, with one reinspection included; a reinspection after that is $75, and a no-show or a cancellation inside 24 hours is $100. Apply at least 14 business days out, and take the township’s advice about four weeks.
Three outcomes. A final certificate. A temporary certificate for minor violations, with a year to fix them. A temporary access certificate when the violations are substantial, meaning nobody new moves in until they’re cured. Selling as-is means a Conditional Resale with a notarized Buyer Acceptance Form.
Then the lateral. A township-approved contractor certifies the sewer line, the certificate is valid 90 days, and the township decides pass or fail. Miss it and the township treats it as a substantial violation. Plan the scope before the appraisal, so one repair conversation covers both.
What it sells for
Twenty-four houses closed in the 19082 postal area in July 2026. The middle one went for $214,950, and the typical listing took 58 days to get there, which is three weeks slower than the same month in 2025 (Movoto). That’s one slice of the township: 19082 leaves out Drexel Hill, which is a third of the population and sells much higher. If you’re shopping both halves, read Drexel Hill alongside this page.
At $214,950, the 2026 FHA limit of $630,200 has room to spare. Cash to close is the tight part, and that’s the township’s doing.
The tax bill and the closing sheet
Township millage for 2026 is 14.02, plus $280 per unit for sewer and $325 for trash. The county adds 4.609. Upper Darby School District was at 26.5230 mills for 2025-26; ask the district for the current year’s rate before you trust an escrow estimate. A tax-data firm put the township’s median property tax bill at $3,810 in April 2026. Real estate tax carries a 2% discount before April 1, face value through May 31, and a 10% penalty from June 1; sewer and trash are due May 31.
New for 2026: a 1% earned income tax on residents and on people who work here, effective January 1 and enacted October 16, 2025.
Transfer tax is 2.5% here, above the county’s usual 2%: 0.75% township, 0.75% school district, 1% state, on settlements from January 1, 2022. On a $215,000 house that’s $5,375 total, and your customary half is $2,687.50. Cross into Lansdowne and it drops.
Money the township hands out
The county’s $10,000 doesn’t reach Upper Darby. The township runs its own instead. Up to $20,000 as a 0% loan, forgiven 20% a year and gone after five. You contribute at least $1,000. Single dwelling unit, owner-occupied. Eight hours of HUD-approved counseling inside the year before you buy. The price is capped at HUD’s homeownership value limit. Call Community and Economic Development at 610-734-7716, 100 Garrett Rd. Be early: the township’s own report for the 2024 program year lists two households assisted.
The terminal, and what runs through it
69th Street Transit Center opened March 4, 1907 and moves about 35,000 people on a weekday across the L, the Norristown High Speed Line, the D1 and D2 trolleys and 18 bus routes. SEPTA has a 431-space garage plus 89 surface spaces planned at Chatham and Market.
Up at the terminal, Fusion Gyms took about 29,000 square feet of the 1928 Art Deco McClatchy Building at 2 S. 69th St with a cinema alongside it, roughly 70,000 square feet combined, reported April 22, 2026; the Shops at 69th Street run about 280,000 square feet at 87% leased. And on August 24, 2026 Aqua started replacing water main on North Lynn Boulevard, so the detour is somebody’s new commute for a while.