Detached, and mostly post-1940
Wallingford is the best-known name inside Nether Providence Township, 4.72 square miles that also carry Garden City, built for veterans after the Second World War, plus Moylan and South Media. Of 4,572 units in ZIP 19086, 71.1% are detached and 16.5% attached; 33.7% went up between 1940 and 1959, 28.8% between 1960 and 1979, and 18.2% between 1980 and 1999, with only 14.4% predating 1940. The township went from farming to fourteen mill complexes on Crum and Ridley creeks starting in 1763, then to a resort, then to houses.
So the loan file here looks different from the boroughs down the hill. Fewer party walls, fewer 1920s systems, more mid-century colonials and split-levels on their own lots. What the appraiser looks at is the roof, the paint on trim and outbuildings if the house is pre-1978, and the mechanicals, which the appraiser has to run and watch.
The lateral is the whole ball game
Nether Providence has required a camera video of the private sewer lateral plus a smoke or dye test since January 1, 2016, under Ordinance 782, performed by a certified plumber. The township code requires that lateral inspected and repaired before it will issue a use-and-occupancy certificate. That’s the sentence to read twice. A cracked or root-filled lateral lands in front of your settlement date.
The rest of the inspection is $100, with $50 for a reinspection and 30 days’ notice requested. Handrails wherever a stair has four or more risers. Ground-fault outlets. No open breaker positions. The water heater’s relief discharge ending within six inches of the floor.
Order the lateral scope the same week the inspection contingency starts. A backhoe scheduled in October is cheaper than a backhoe scheduled the day before closing.
What it sells for
Fifty-five closings in July 2026, fourteen more than the July before, with the middle one at $609,945 and a typical 20 days to contract. American Community Survey figures for 2020-24 put the median owner-estimated value at $446,400, which is an owner’s opinion from an earlier window, a different number from a closing price.
At that median, financing splits. The 2026 FHA limit for Delaware County is $630,200 on a one-unit house, so about half the market clears it and half doesn’t. Conventional runs to $832,750 before jumbo pricing begins. Where the number lands relative to those two lines changes the down payment, the mortgage insurance and the underwriting, so run both before you write an offer.
The bill
Township millage for 2026 is 3.7206, up 3.5% from 3.5950. Sewer is $688 per unit and rides on the tax bill; recycling is $116 per unit, down from $119. The county adds 4.609. Wallingford-Swarthmore School District set 2026-27 at 31.9076 mills for Nether Providence and Rose Valley, up 3.2% from 30.9182; Swarthmore and Rutledge pay 32.1605, and the difference is the community college contribution.
Stack it and you get about 40.24 mills, roughly $4,024 a year per $100,000 of assessment. On post-2021 Delco assessments, that per-$100,000 number tracks something close to a real price, so a house near the median carries a serious annual bill. Get the actual figure from the parcel before anyone types an escrow line.
Transfer tax is the standard 2%: on a $609,945 house that’s $12,199 total, about $6,099 as the customary buyer’s half.
Two creeks and a tanker
The township sits between Crum Creek on the east along I-476 and Ridley Creek. Both ran hard during Ida: Ridley Creek at Media crested at 11.61 feet at 12:45 a.m. on September 2, 2021, and Crum Creek at Newtown Square hit 12.25 feet at 8:15 p.m. the night before, both at major flood stage.
More recently, in September 2025 a tanker crash on the Route 1 Bypass put an estimated 1,000 to 2,000 gallons of oil into Ridley Creek; contaminated soil was removed and Ridley Creek Road closed during the cleanup. If you’re buying near either creek, order the flood determination early and read the seller’s disclosure closely, because Pennsylvania law requires known material defects, flooding included, to be disclosed before the agreement of sale is signed.
Around the township
Hedgerow Theatre sits over in Rose Valley at 64 Rose Valley Rd, 108 seats in an 1840 gristmill rebuilt by William L. Price, founded in 1923 by Jasper Deeter, and its 2026-27 season is on sale. The township posted a construction notice at its entrance on June 30, 2026 and lane closures on July 9. A proposed joint emergency services authority for Media, Rose Valley, Rutledge, Swarthmore, Nether Providence and Upper Providence goes to a public hearing at 7 p.m. on September 2, 2026 at Strath Haven Middle School, 200 S. Providence Rd.