A buyer comparing a $900,000 colonial in Lower Merion to a similarly priced stone twin in Radnor is usually running one comparison: price per square foot, lot size, distance to the train. What that buyer isn't comparing, because nothing on the listing sheet tells them to, is which county each house sits in. In 2026, that omission matters more than usual. Montgomery, Delaware, and Chester counties just moved their property tax rates in three completely different directions, and the gap between them is wide enough to change what a house actually costs to hold, even when the sale price is identical.
This isn't a story about which Main Line town is "better." It's a story about a number that sits below the list price, changes independently of it, and is currently diverging by county in a way it hasn't in years.
The Number That Doesn't Show Up in the Listing
Every home sale on the Main Line involves two separate valuations that rarely match. There's the market value, which is what a buyer actually pays, and there's the assessed value, which is the number the county uses to calculate the tax bill. In Montgomery County, which covers Lower Merion, Bala Cynwyd, Gladwyne, and Penn Valley, assessed values are still based on a countywide reassessment completed in 1998. A home that has appreciated substantially since then can carry an assessed value that looks almost frozen in time relative to its market price, which means the tax bill a buyer inherits often bears only a loose relationship to what they just paid.
That gap alone is a reason to look past the list price. What makes 2026 unusual is that the millage rates applied to those assessments are not holding steady while everyone waits for a fresh reassessment. They're moving, and moving differently, county by county.
Three Counties, Three Very Different 2026s
Here's what actually happened to the tax rate stack across the three counties that carve up the Main Line corridor this year.
| County (Main Line towns) | 2026 county-level move | What's layered on top |
|---|---|---|
| Montgomery (Lower Merion, Bala Cynwyd, Gladwyne) | County taxes up 4%; Lower Merion Township taxes up 8%, the second increase in two years after 13 straight years with no township tax hike | Roughly 78% of a Lower Merion property tax bill funds the school district, not the township itself |
| Delaware (Radnor, Villanova, Wayne) | County taxes up 19%, the second consecutive year of a double-digit increase after a 23% jump in 2025 and 5% in 2024 | Radnor Township School District raised its own millage 3.36% for 2026-2027, on top of the county increase |
| Chester (Tredyffrin, Devon, Berwyn, Paoli) | County rate held flat at 5.164 mills for 2026, no increase | Tredyffrin/Easttown School District had already raised its millage 4.66% the prior school year |
The Lower Merion increase, approved by the township's board of commissioners in December 2025, brought the local millage rate from 4.462 to 4.819 mills for 2026. Commissioners had debated a steeper 9.5% hike before settling on 8%, and the discussion made clear why the number had been sitting untouched for so long. As Commissioner Ray Courtney put it during the vote:
"By holding out on increases as long as we did, we have painted ourselves into a corner."
That's a fair description of what happens when a township avoids a politically unpopular vote for over a decade. Montgomery County itself added another 4% on top of that, which means a Lower Merion buyer closing in 2026 is absorbing two separate increases at once, layered onto assessed values that haven't been recalculated since the late 1990s.
Delaware County took a different path entirely. Its council approved a 19% property tax increase for 2026 on a 4-1 vote in December 2025, bringing the county rate to 4.609 mills. That followed a 23% increase in 2025 and a 5% increase in 2024, meaning Radnor Township homeowners have now absorbed three consecutive years of county-level tax growth, two of them double-digit. County officials were candid about why. As Council Chair Monica Taylor said when the budget passed:
"For the first time in more than a decade, this budget puts Delaware County on track to have a truly balanced budget."
Councilmember Elaine Paul Schaefer cast the lone dissenting vote, arguing the increase was simply too much, too fast, given what residents had already absorbed the year before. Either way, the county rate is moving in a direction Montgomery County's isn't, and it's stacking on top of Radnor Township School District's own 3.36% increase, approved in June 2026 for the 2026-2027 school year.
Chester County is the outlier. Its commissioners held the county rate flat at 5.164 mills for 2026, a decision that stands in sharp contrast to what Bucks, Delaware, and Montgomery counties all did with their own rates this cycle. That doesn't mean Tredyffrin-area homeowners saw no movement at all. The Tredyffrin/Easttown School District had already pushed its own millage from 28.3373 to 29.6567 mills the previous school year, adding roughly $350 to the average bill, though homeowners with the homestead exclusion received a partial offset of about $344 through the state's gaming-fund rebate program.
Where the Money Actually Goes
The instinct, when a township or county announces a tax increase, is to assume the township or county is the one spending the money. In Lower Merion's case, that instinct is mostly wrong. Only about 10% of a typical Lower Merion tax bill goes to the township itself. Roughly 12% goes to Montgomery County. The remaining 78% funds the school district. So when residents see an 8% township increase, they're actually looking at the smallest slice of a much larger bill, and the slice that moved the least.
That structure matters for a buyer trying to estimate total carrying cost. The headline number in a news story, whether it's Lower Merion's 8%, Delaware County's 19%, or Chester County's flat rate, only describes one layer of a three-layer stack. The county rate, the township rate, and the school district rate are each set independently, on different calendars, by different elected bodies, and none of them moves in lockstep with the others.
What to Actually Check Before You Compare Two Towns
If you're comparing a house in Lower Merion to one in Radnor or Devon, the list price gets you nowhere close to an apples-to-apples answer on carrying cost. A few things are worth pulling before you get attached to either property.
Ask for the current, actual tax bill on the specific property, not an estimate based on the sale price. Because assessed values lag market values, especially in Montgomery County where the last reassessment dates to 1998, two homes that sold for the same price last month can carry very different assessed values and, therefore, very different bills.
Check whether the property carries a homestead exclusion. In Chester County, that exclusion knocked roughly $344 off the average Tredyffrin-Easttown school tax increase this past cycle. It's not automatic, and it needs to be filed for.
Look at which taxing bodies have moved recently, and which haven't. A county that just finished a multi-year run of double-digit increases, as Delaware County has, may be closer to leveling off than one that went over a decade without any movement at all, as Montgomery County did before 2025. Neither pattern is predictive on its own, but both are worth knowing before you sign anything.
A Few Questions Worth Asking Before You Sign
Does a higher assessed value automatically mean a higher purchase price? Not necessarily. Assessed values are set by the county, often years out of step with current market conditions, while purchase price reflects what a buyer and seller agreed to today. The two numbers answer different questions.
Can a buyer appeal an assessment after closing? Generally yes, through the relevant county's board of assessment appeals, though deadlines and windows vary by county and by year. This is worth raising with your agent or a tax professional early in the process rather than after the first bill arrives.
Does a flat county rate, like Chester County's in 2026, mean the total tax bill stayed flat too? No. County, township, and school district rates are set independently. A flat county rate can still sit alongside a school district increase from the prior cycle, as it did in the Tredyffrin/Easttown district.
The list price will always be the number that gets a house into a search filter. It was never the number that determines what a house actually costs to own. On the Main Line in 2026, with three counties pulling in three different directions, that gap is wider than it's been in years, and it's a conversation worth having before an offer goes in, not after the first tax bill lands.
If you're weighing towns across Lower Merion, Radnor, or the Tredyffrin corridor and want a clear-eyed read on what a specific property will actually cost to hold, not just to buy, Sean Elstone can walk through the current tax picture town by town and help you compare the properties on terms that actually matter.
