Wells, septic and the creek
Off the public systems, two reports join the appraisal: a water test on the well and a septic inspection. Pennsbury requires on-lot systems to be pumped and inspected every three years with notice to the township, so the records should exist; ask for them during the inspection period. The Chester County Health Department permits on-lot systems and private wells and enforces Act 537.
Then there is the Brandywine. The gauge at Chadds Ford set its record on September 2, 2021 at 21.12 feet during Ida, and the Brandywine River Museum’s lower level flooded. The lender orders a flood determination on every loan, and if the parcel falls in a special flood hazard area, flood insurance is required for the life of a federally backed mortgage. Pull the FEMA panel before you fall for the house.
Stone farmhouses, hedgerows and a county line
Pennsbury Township covers roughly ten square miles of Chester County with 3,876 residents and a long-standing open-space and low-density policy, which is why the drive along Kennett Pike still looks the way it does. Its National Register properties include the Barns-Brinton House from 1714, the Pennsbury Inn, Parkersville Friends Meetinghouse and the Brinton-King Farmstead, and the Fairville Historic District runs along the pike with stone houses, Victorians and farmsteads. Across the line, Chadds Ford Township in Delaware County holds 3,972 residents on 8.72 square miles, the Brandywine River Museum, the battlefield, and the junction of U.S. 1, 202 and 322.
Route 1, and the weekend in September
There is no rail service here. SEPTA’s Media/Wawa terminus is about eight miles and twelve minutes away, and Wilmington is about eleven. U.S. 1 is the commute, and it has been under work: a safety project on U.S. 1 and Creek Road ran weekday lane closures from 9 to 3, July 20 through September 4, 2026.
Chadds Ford Days and the Battle at Chadds Ford take over 1736 Creek Road on September 19, 2026, from 10 to 5, with Tavern Night from 6 to 10. The Brandywine River Museum and the battlefield sit within a couple of miles of each other, which is pleasant on a Sunday and a genuine traffic factor on a holiday weekend. Deer at dusk on the back roads count as a scheduling constraint.
Above the conforming line, usually
The 2026 conforming limit is $832,750 on a one-unit home. At a $975,000 median, a purchase with 20% down sits right about at the line and anything larger clears it, so jumbo underwriting is a live question on most files here. Above the line the lender sets its own down payment, credit and reserve standards, and those vary more than conforming programs do.
The arithmetic is worth doing early. Twenty percent down on a $975,000 house leaves a $780,000 loan, inside the limit; 10% down leaves $877,500 and crosses it. On this side of the county the down payment often decides which rulebook the file lands in.
Appraisals take longer here too. A stone farmhouse on four acres with an addition from 1974 has few true comparables, and the ones that exist are usually a few miles away. Build that into the timeline at the start.
Two counties, two assessment systems
Sixty-three closings in the Chadds Ford area in July 2026, twelve more than the previous July, and a sold median of $975,000. They took about two months to get there: 63 days on market, per Movoto. That number blends both counties, and the two counties do not work alike.
Unionville-Chadds Ford School District set 34.95 mills for 2026-27 on the Chester County side and 20.21 on the Delaware County side. The schools and the budget are shared; the arithmetic underneath them is two different systems. Chester County still assesses from 1996-era values, and Delaware County reassessed to market values effective 2021. A Delaware County assessment is therefore a far bigger number, and it takes a far smaller rate to raise the same dollars.
The practical version: never compare millage across the line, and never treat either rate as a percentage of the sale price. Ask for the seller’s actual bill on the actual parcel, and have your lender build the escrow from that. Transfer tax is 2% in both townships, which is $19,500 on a $975,000 sale, customarily split.