Mortgage lender in Chester County, PA

Buying in Chester County

Chester County, with its county seat in West Chester, takes in West Chester, Exton, Kennett Square, Phoenixville, Downingtown, Malvern and Coatesville. Stellar lends across all of Pennsylvania, and Chester County files are handled from our Southampton, PA office by a licensed officer you can reach directly.

2026 conforming limit

$832,750

2026 FHA limit

$630,200 (one-unit, set by HUD)

Above that

Jumbo pricing

Closing handled by

title company

State housing agency

PHFA (participating lender)

Your office

Southampton, PA

2026 limits for a one-unit property. Chester County is not designated a high-cost area for conforming loans. Sources: FHFA conforming loan limit values and HUD FHA mortgage limits.

The 2026 baseline conforming limit is $832,750 nationally, and that is the figure that applies in Chester County. Loans above it are jumbo, which means tighter reserves and different pricing.

Chester County: Main Line prices in the east, farmland in the south

Chester County has two housing markets that happen to share a courthouse in West Chester. The eastern and northern townships along Route 30 and Route 202, including Malvern, Paoli, Berwyn, Exton, Downingtown, Phoenixville and West Chester borough, carry some of the highest household incomes in Pennsylvania, and loan amounts there regularly reach or exceed the conforming baseline. Our officers check the number against the limit on the first call so a purchase that needs jumbo financing is structured that way from the start.

South and west of that corridor the county becomes Brandywine Valley farmland: Kennett Square, Unionville, Oxford, Cochranville and Honey Brook, with Coatesville and Parkesburg along the Route 30 rail line as the county's most affordable towns. Many of those properties are on private wells and septic systems, some carry acreage or agricultural use that an appraiser has to treat carefully, and a meaningful number of addresses in the southern and western townships are inside USDA's eligible area, which opens USDA financing with little or no money down for buyers who qualify.

Chester County files are handled from our Southampton office in Bucks County, a licensed Pennsylvania officer on every one, with PHFA assistance available for buyers inside the agency's limits. Closings run through title companies, and property taxes vary by school district from Tredyffrin-Easttown to Octorara, so we build the payment from the actual tax record on the house.

Chester County by the numbers

Median home value

$485,600 (Census Bureau, ACS 2020–2024, table B25077)

Typical property tax

About 1.30% of home value a year: median tax bill $6,308 on a median value of $485,600 (Census Bureau, ACS 2020–2024, table B25103)

Transfer tax

State realty transfer tax of 1% of the value, plus a local tax that varies by municipality (Pennsylvania Department of Revenue)

Largest communities

Tredyffrin Township, West Goshen Township, West Chester, West Whiteland Township (Census Bureau, ACS 2020–2024, table B01003)

The county median home value is $485,600. The 2026 one-unit conforming loan limit here is $832,750 and the FHA limit is $630,200.

Census figures are survey estimates for owner-occupied homes, not appraisals or tax quotes. We use the actual tax bill for the property when we quote.

Closing and programs in Pennsylvania

Closings in Pennsylvania are typically handled by a title company. The closing process, state transfer and recording taxes and first-time buyer programs are covered on the Pennsylvania page. Property taxes are set locally; we take the figure from the tax record for the address.

Questions Chester County buyers ask

Conforming limit shown is the 2026 FHFA figure for Chester County. FHA limits and state agency caps are set by HUD and PHFA and change periodically. Verify on the official source. Not a commitment to lend.