Twins on one side of the tracks, estates on the other
Ardmore’s housing is stone and brick Colonial Revival and Tudor singles on the Lower Merion side, twins in South Ardmore and Ardmore Park, and apartments and condos clustered near the station, One Ardmore Place among them. Head out Montgomery Avenue toward Bryn Mawr and Gladwyne and the lots get bigger, the stone gets older, and the prices leave the conforming limit behind.
That split defines the loan. A South Ardmore twin at $445,000 is a plain conventional loan with 3% to 5% down, or FHA under the $630,200 limit. A Gladwyne single at $1.2 million with 20% down is a $960,000 loan, well over the $832,750 conforming line, and that’s a jumbo. Jumbo means tighter credit standards, more reserves and, usually, a lender who specializes in it. Somebody lends on Main Line stone. They just ask more questions first.
What it costs
A listing portal’s sold median for Ardmore was $445,000 in April 2026, with an August list median of $524,000 and a Zillow home value index of $516,244. The wider Main Line corridor runs roughly $650,000 to $800,000, and Bryn Mawr singles run $600,000 to $900,000. Correctly priced Main Line homes go under contract in nine to fourteen days, so a pre-approval letter in hand before the first showing is the price of admission.
Transfer tax in Lower Merion is the standard 2%. On a $445,000 twin that’s $8,900, with $4,450 customarily on your side. The Main Line runs through three counties, though, and the rate changes with it: Radnor Township in Delaware County charges 2.5%, and Tredyffrin Township in Chester County charges 2.5%. On a $900,000 house, Radnor’s 2.5% costs $4,500 more in transfer tax than Lower Merion’s 2%.
Property tax is the Lower Merion story of the year. The township raised its own tax 8% for 2026, its first increase in 13 years. The school district went to 36.5 mills for 2026-27, a 3.5% increase and roughly $309 more on the median assessment of $250,684. Lower Merion’s school district is the largest line on the bill, and the bill reflects it. Have the lender escrow from the actual tax bill on the listing.
Programs that apply here
PHFA’s Keystone Home Loan caps the price at $588,800 in both Montgomery and Delaware counties, so it fits Ardmore twins and not much else on the Main Line. Income limits are $122,700 for one or two people and $141,100 for three or more. K-FIT adds 5% of the price as a forgivable second. Under $588,800 and under the income limit, the PHFA guide is worth ten minutes.
The county program depends on which side of the line you’re on. Lower Merion addresses can use Montgomery County’s First Time Homebuyers Program, up to $10,000 at 0% for buyers between 80% and 100% of area median income. Haverford Township addresses are excluded from Delaware County’s Homeownership First and get directed to the township’s own program. Above the conforming limit, none of this applies and the conversation is about reserves and rate structure, including ARM options that jumbo lenders offer.
Nobody warns you about the township line
Ardmore is a postal name, and the post office does not care about school districts. The same street can sit in Lower Merion Township (Montgomery County, Lower Merion schools) on one block and Haverford Township (Delaware County, Haverford schools) on the next. Delaware County reassessed everything to near-market value in 2021; Montgomery County assessments run at roughly 30% of market. Two similar twins a few hundred yards apart can carry tax bills that look nothing alike, and the millage numbers can’t be compared across the line at all.
Check the parcel on the county’s site before you write the offer. The Havertown page covers what the Delco side looks like.
The jumbo line applies to the loan amount, and the purchase price on its own doesn’t decide it. A $1 million house with 20% down is an $800,000 loan and stays conforming. The same house with 10% down is a $900,000 jumbo. Sometimes an extra $30,000 down changes the whole loan.
The station saga is over
Trains started serving the rebuilt Ardmore Station on March 23, 2026, with a ribbon-cutting April 10. The $62 million project was approved in 2019 and was supposed to take two and a half years, which is the Main Line’s version of a long-running joke. The Paoli/Thorndale Line and Amtrak’s Keystone both stop there, and SEPTA’s July 2026 schedules run longer trains. Suburban Square, opened in 1928, is one of the country’s first planned shopping centers and still the reason people say they can walk to everything. They can, now that they can also get off a train.
Start with one call
Say the street and the price. We’ll tell you which township you’re in and whether the loan is jumbo, then connect you with a lender who does Main Line loans and checks the township line before the appraisal. Call us.