Victorians on the grid, estates past it
Media Borough is a walkable grid of Victorian and early-20th-century singles and twins, with condos and apartments tucked off State Street. Step outside the borough and the lots grow: larger singles in Upper Providence and Middletown, Arts and Crafts houses in Rose Valley, and a handful of 55-plus communities on the edges. The trolley runs down the middle of State Street, which is either charming or a parking obstacle depending on the day.
For the loan, a borough Victorian is a conventional purchase most of the time. It’s a single-family house on its own lot, and at Media’s price band the conforming limit is the number to watch. An 1890s house also earns the appraiser’s full attention: knob-and-tube wiring, slate roofs, and porches that have opinions. A condo off State Street adds an HOA and a project review.
What it costs
A listing portal put Media’s July 2026 median at $724,900 across 107 sales with 21 days on market. That figure matches its list median exactly, so treat it as a rough band around $725,000 and expect the real closed number to move with the mix. Media sits well above the $369,806 Delaware County home value index, which tells you what the schools and the downtown are worth to buyers.
Transfer tax inside Media Borough is the standard 2%, so a $725,000 house pays $14,500 at closing, $7,250 of it customarily yours. Cross into Upper Providence Township and the rate is 3%, per the county Recorder of Deeds. Same $725,000 house, $21,750 in transfer tax, and your half becomes $10,875. That’s a $3,625 difference on the buyer’s side alone for a house that may sit a block from the borough line.
Property tax runs through Rose Tree Media School District at 16.4915 mills for 2026-27, with a 3.5% increase proposed. Delaware County reassessed everything to near-market value effective 2021, so that millage applies to something close to a real number. A house assessed at $600,000 pays about $9,895 to the district before the borough and county lines. Bills went out by July 1 and can be paid in installments on August 31, November 2 and December 31.
Programs that apply here
At $725,000, most Media purchases sit above PHFA’s $588,800 price cap for Delaware County, so the state’s Keystone Home Loan and K-FIT won’t apply to a typical borough sale. They do apply to the condos and the smaller twins under the cap, for buyers earning up to $122,700 (one or two people) or $141,100 (three or more).
Delaware County’s Homeownership First program does work here, and Media Fellowship House on the borough’s own grid is one of the agencies that runs the required counseling. The loan is up to $10,000 at 0% depending on the program year, repaid on sale; confirm the current amount with the agency. The assistance guide covers who qualifies.
Above the conforming limit, which at 20% down means a purchase price over about $1.04 million, the loan is a jumbo. Rose Valley and the larger Upper Providence properties get there regularly.
Borough versus township
“Media, PA” on a listing means the post office, and the post office covers Media Borough, Upper Providence Township, Middletown Township and part of Nether Providence. Each has its own municipal tax rate and its own trash arrangement, and Upper Providence has that 3% transfer tax. The school district is Rose Tree Media across the borough, Upper Providence and Middletown, so the schools don’t change at the line. The closing costs do.
Look up the parcel on the county’s site before you write the offer, and put the real transfer tax rate in the cash-to-close estimate. Nobody warns you about the extra percent until the settlement sheet does.
On a $725,000 house, the difference between the borough’s 2% and Upper Providence’s 3% is $7,250 in total transfer tax. Even if the seller splits it with you, that’s $3,625 that could have been a bathroom.
Wednesdays on State Street
Dining Under the Stars closes State Street to cars every Wednesday evening from spring into fall; the 2026 season started May 6. This year the borough stacked its 175th anniversary and a first-ever Porchfest on top of it. Media was also the first Fair Trade Town in America, back in June 2006, a title it has held for twenty years and mentions on the way in. The D trolley, Route 101, has run down State Street to 69th Street for over a century, and it’s still the fastest way to explain to a Philadelphian where you live.
Media is also the county seat, which means the courthouse and county offices are steady employers within walking distance of the bars. That combination doesn’t exist in many places.
Start with one call
Give us the address. We’ll confirm the township and the transfer tax rate, then connect you with a lender who does Media Victorians and Rose Valley jumbos. Call us.
