Which one you’re actually buying
Walk two identical brick townhouses in the same development and you can find two different kinds of ownership. In a fee-simple townhouse you own the land under the unit, and the lender underwrites you and that house — a homeowners association collecting a fee for the lawns changes nothing about the loan. In a condominium your deed conveys a unit plus a share of the common elements, and now the association is part of the file.
That second case is where deals go sideways, and it goes sideways in week four, when the questionnaire comes back. Ask the listing agent which it is on day one. If nobody knows, the deed at the courthouse in Doylestown does.
The conventional project review, and what changed
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac call a project either warrantable or not, and 2026 rewrote parts of the test. The Limited and Streamlined Review shortcuts were retired on August 3, 2026, so projects now go through the full review. The rule capping investor ownership at 50% came off on March 18, 2026, which helps buildings with a lot of rentals. And from July 1, 2026 a master insurance deductible above $50,000 became a warrantability problem.
The rest of the list has been stable. Critical repairs outstanding, reserves under 10% of the annual budget, 15% or more of units 60 days delinquent on dues, a single owner holding more than 20% of the units in a project of 21 or more, commercial space over 35%, structural litigation, condotel or timeshare arrangements, or a new project less than half sold. That reserve floor rises to 15% on January 4, 2027, which is worth knowing if you’re buying into a building with a thin budget this winter.
Picked up day and night, calls recorded. No credit pull, no application.
Send the building or the development name and a licensed Pennsylvania lender calls you back after finding out how the project reviews, well before you are under contract. Worth a call early.
The form takes about a minute and lands in the same place as the call.
FHA runs a separate track
FHA approves the project, not the unit, and approval lasts three years. The project needs at least 50% owner-occupancy, or 35% where conditions are met, and commercial space no higher than 35%. Where a project holds no approval, FHA’s Single-Unit Approval route can work in a building of five or more units.
The practical point for a Bucks buyer: relatively few suburban condo associations bother to maintain FHA approval, because most of their buyers are conventional. Check the specific building against HUD’s approved list before you fall in love with it, and if it isn’t there, ask the lender about Single-Unit Approval in the same breath.
What this stock looks like in Bucks
The county’s condos and townhomes are scattered and each cluster has its own character.
Bristol Borough has the newest and the most interesting: Radcliffe Court, 96 condominiums on a 14-acre former shipyard site on the Delaware, roughly 1,200 square foot two-bedroom units with corner balconies, parking on the ground floor, priced from $350,000 to just under $500,000, following more than 70 townhouses next door. Note the price band — the lower end sits under the $392,000 cap on the county’s first-time buyer program, which is not true of much else in Bucks.
The developer’s position is that the site sits high enough that flood insurance isn’t needed. Treat that as the developer’s position and pull the FEMA map yourself. The Mill Street wharf and the lots behind it flood on a high tide plus a river rise, and Ida sent water over the Bristol waterfront in September 2021.
Elsewhere: Highpoint at New Britain is selling three to five bedroom townhomes and twins on 33 acres from $699,000 in its final phase; Perkasie Woods has three-story townhomes with a detached one-car garage; Holland’s Mill Race Inn site was approved in February 2025 for 33 condominiums with the inn itself converted to offices; and Toll’s Regency at Hilltown is age-restricted with a clubhouse and pool. Middletown Township, out toward Langhorne, holds a long run of condominium and townhouse developments built from the 1950s onward.
The paperwork, and who is slow with it
Ask for these the week you go under contract, because associations are volunteer-run and take their time:
- The lender’s condo questionnaire, completed and signed.
- This year’s budget and the most recent reserve study.
- The master insurance certificate, with the deductible visible.
- Twelve months of meeting minutes.
- The delinquency percentage and any special assessment, voted or merely discussed.
Minutes are the document nobody reads and the one that tells you the most. A roof discussion in March becomes an assessment in November.
The fee is part of your loan
Association dues sit in your debt-to-income ratio, and so does a special assessment being collected monthly. On a $400 monthly fee that is real borrowing power. If you are also using the county’s $10,000, its ratios are tighter than the mortgage’s own, at 33% for housing and 41% for total debt, so run the fee past the lender before you narrow your search.