Twelve days on market changes the order
- Get the full pre-approval before the first showing. Twelve days is the whole reason.
- Decide your inspection stance in advance, and pick a lender who can hold the date you write into the offer.
- Ring the tax collector at (267) 854-0610 for the township millage, because Upper Southampton does not publish it.
- Have Centennial’s 3.5% increase put into the escrow, roughly $225 more on a $40,000 assessment.
- Get comps from the block, because 18966 covers more ground than this township does.
What it costs, and how fast
Eighty-six houses closed here in July 2026 and the middle one fetched $569,950. The twelve days matters more: that is how long a listing lasted, and it is the quickest turnaround of any town on this site.
Two percent transfer tax on that median is $11,399, about $5,700 on the buyer’s line. The 18966 ZIP is shared with Holland, so ask for closed comps on the street itself.
Picked up day and night, calls recorded. No credit pull, no application.
Twelve days on market is not long, so say the price range and how soon you could be ready, and a licensed Pennsylvania lender calls you back. Ring before you tour.
The form takes about a minute and lands in the same place as the call.
The tax bill, and the number that is not published
Centennial School District adopted a $157.3 million budget for 2026-27 with a 3.5% increase, using roughly $3 million of reserves and a 22-teacher retirement incentive to close a $7 million gap. The district’s own example put the increase at about $225 more on a home assessed near $40,000 that was already paying $6,407. Bills mail by July 1, with a 2% discount through August 31, face value to October 31 and a 10% penalty from November 1.
The township’s own rate is the odd part: Upper Southampton does not publish it. The 2026 budget lists real estate tax funds by purpose, general through debt service, but no millage, so the number comes from the tax collector at (267) 854-0610. Earned income tax is 1%. Trash rides on the Garbage and Refuse fund at $2,761,515 instead of arriving as a separate bill, with J.P. Mascaro collecting Fridays. Water and stormwater come from the Upper Southampton Municipal Authority, which has been at it since 1946.
Post-war singles, a quarter acre at a time
Upper Southampton has 6,359 housing units and a median build year of 1966. Twenty-eight percent of the stock went up in the 1950s and 23% in the 1960s, another 16% in the 1970s and 14% in the 1980s, and 76% of it is single-family detached. The look follows: split-levels, ranches and Cape Cods on lots over a quarter acre, with a thin layer of early-2000s traditionals at the top of the market. The township’s population grew 291.8% in the 1960s alone and finished 2020 at 15,269 on 6.63 square miles.
A 1966 house is a straightforward loan and a specific inspection. Pre-1978 means the lead disclosure. FHA and VA appraisers write up peeling paint, a soft rail or a missing handrail on the exterior. Insurers price off the age of the roof, the electrical panel and the plumbing, and on a house nobody has needed to touch since the split-level was new those can all be original. Fix what shows before the appraisal and you skip the repair escrow.
Two creeks and a 1978 map
Southampton Creek, a Pennypack tributary draining 5.8 square miles, carries about a third of the township. Mill Creek, a Neshaminy tributary draining 17.4 square miles, carries the rest. The township says plainly that some older areas flood because they were built in flood-prone ground before there were local rules, and that its mapping rests on a 1978 FEMA study.
That last detail is worth a minute. A flood determination on your loan comes from the effective FEMA map, and where the effective map is old, the ground can have changed under it. Run the address at FEMA’s Map Service Center, ask the seller about water in the basement, and price the flood quote before you remove a contingency. In Zone A or AE the policy is mandatory with a mortgage.
No train since 1983
Southampton station on the old Fox Chase and Newtown line closed on January 18, 1983, and the tracks came up for a rail trail. The nearest Regional Rail is Warminster, where the 7:01 a.m. reaches Suburban Station at 8:00, or Hatboro at 7:08 to 8:00. Trevose on the West Trenton Line is the other direction. Bus Route 24 runs down toward Frankford Transportation Center.
Two road notes for anyone touring houses this fall: Maple Avenue is closed weekdays from 9 to 3 between Street Road and Second Street Pike from July 27 to October 19, 2026 for municipal authority utility work, and Bristol Road closes between Buck Road and Bustleton Pike September 14 to 18. Leave a few extra minutes, or arrive at the showing explaining the detour like everyone else.
The fair at Tamanend
Southampton Days Country Fair ran June 29 through July 4 this year at Tamanend Park under the banner “Salute to 1776,” with the parade and fireworks on the Fourth. It is the annual anchor of the township calendar and the one week the whole place agrees on parking.