Here’s the order it happens in
A purchase in Bucks follows a fairly fixed sequence. Knowing it takes most of the worry out.
- Work out what you can carry every month, with taxes and insurance counted in the number from the start.
- Get a pre-approval letter before you tour anything. Listing agents here expect to see one with the offer.
- Look at houses, and look at the tax line on every one of them.
- Write the offer with the financing spelled out, because the loan type changes what a seller can be asked to fix.
- Inspection, appraisal, title search, insurance quotes.
- Settlement, where the transfer tax gets paid and the deed goes on record in Doylestown.
Steps two and four are the ones people skip, and they are the two that decide whether the rest goes smoothly.
What settlement actually costs
Pennsylvania’s realty transfer tax is 1%, and every Bucks municipality adds a local 1% on top. Two percent total, no deviations anywhere in the county. Custom splits it down the middle, so on a $400,000 house the buyer’s half is $4,000, due at recording.
Title insurance is rate-regulated statewide under the industry rate manual in force since August 1, 2024, and the title search is included in the premium. On the owner’s policy that works out to $2,165 at a $300,000 price, $2,450 at $350,000 and $2,735 at $400,000, plus $125 for the closing protection letter. Bankrate put average buyer closing costs in Pennsylvania at $8,259, roughly 2.36% of the price with taxes included, in August 2025. Treat all of it as an estimate until the lender’s disclosure lands.
Picked up day and night, calls recorded. No credit pull, no application.
Where, roughly how much, and roughly when. That is the whole call, and a licensed Pennsylvania lender takes it from there. Ring the number.
The form takes about a minute and lands in the same place as the call.
The tax line on a Bucks listing sheet
This is the part that confuses everyone who moves in from another county. Bucks has not reassessed since 1972. Assessed values sit at roughly 5.6% of market value today, and the state’s common level ratio factor for documents accepted between July 1, 2026 and June 30, 2027 is 17.86 — multiply an assessment by that and you get the implied market value, so a $30,000 assessment points at about $536,000.
Because the base is so old, the millage numbers look enormous. The county takes 29.65 mills in 2026. School districts take the rest, and the spread is wide: Council Rock is at 149.9692 mills for 2026-27, Neshaminy 198.0124, Bristol Township 237.1744, and Morrisville the highest in the county at 279.8613. Comparing any of those to a Montgomery or Delaware County rate is meaningless, since those counties reassessed far more recently. Compare the actual dollar bill instead.
Two dates worth writing down: homestead applications go to the county Board of Assessment by March 1, and assessment appeals are due August 3 for the following tax year, at $75 per parcel.
Which loan the house picks
The property, the price and the address narrow the list before you do.
| Loan | 2026 one-unit limit | Where it fits |
|---|---|---|
| FHA | $630,200 | Most of the county’s stock, with room over the town medians |
| Conventional | $832,750 | Everything up to the high end |
| VA | No cap with full entitlement | Any of it, for eligible veterans |
| Jumbo | Above $832,750 | Solebury acreage, the top of the market |
The FHA row is the published 2026 Philadelphia metro figure, and the lender confirms it against the case number before it means anything on your file.
For scale, Movoto’s July 2026 sold medians ran $500,000 in Warminster, $627,500 in the Chalfont ZIP and $667,500 around Langhorne. USDA has no down payment at all but only reaches certain addresses in the upper end of the county, checked one address at a time.
The county’s $10,000 for a first purchase
Bucks County runs its own first-time buyer program: up to $10,000 toward the down payment and eligible closing costs, at 0% interest, with nothing due until you sell, transfer title, refinance for additional debt, or stop living there. There is a purchase-price cap of $392,000, reset by HUD on its own schedule, six months of county residency or a year working in Bucks, at least 3% of the price from your own funds, and housing counseling through Bucks County Housing Group before you close. The income limits are set from HUD’s regional figures and the county’s published table is out of date, so ask BCHG for the current one before you count on it.
What a lender will ask you for
Two years of W-2s or returns, a month of pay stubs, two months of bank statements, photo ID, and an explanation for any deposit that doesn’t look like payroll. On credit, FHA opens at 580 for 3.5% down and conventional at 620, though individual lenders set their own floors above those. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac began accepting VantageScore 4.0 on April 22, 2026, which helps buyers with thin files.