The water question comes third, and here is why
- Settle the price range and get pre-approved. At a $500,000 median the county’s $10,000 rarely reaches, and PHFA usually does.
- Ask about Keystone Flex and K-FIT on the same call. K-FIT is 5% of the price, which is $25,000 on a $500,000 house.
- Then the water. Public water or a private well decides whether sampling belongs inside the inspection contingency.
- Get the township’s current millage from the tax collector; 24.06 mills is the 2024 figure and it has moved since.
- Ask about the roof, the panel and the plumbing on a 1960s rancher before the appraiser gets there.
What it costs, and the half you bring
A round $500,000 was the middle price in Warminster in July 2026. Sales came to 114 where July 2025 managed 72, and the wait had lengthened from eleven days to nineteen. That figure covers the Warminster postal area, so ask your agent for closed comps on the block itself.
At that median the 2% transfer tax comes to $10,000, roughly $5,000 of it customarily yours at settlement. Centennial School District adopted a $157.3 million budget for 2026-27 with a 3.5% increase, which the district put at about $225 more on a home assessed near $40,000 that was already paying $6,407. The township’s own rate was 24.06 mills in 2024, its third year without an increase, and the current year’s number is worth asking the tax collector for directly. Trash is a separate township charge on top of the tax bill, twice-weekly pickup under contract, with a $55 discount for residents 62 and over. Water and sewer arrive on one bill from the Warminster Municipal Authority.
Picked up day and night, calls recorded. No credit pull, no application.
Street, price, and whether the house is on public water or a well. A licensed Pennsylvania lender who does this kind of loan calls you back with the Centennial bill already in the number. Ring any hour.
The form takes about a minute and lands in the same place as the call.
Where the county’s money stops and PHFA starts
At a $500,000 median, the county’s $10,000 first-time program mostly does not reach: its price cap is $392,000. PHFA does. The Keystone Home Loan caps a Bucks purchase at $588,800 with income limits of $122,700 for one or two people and $141,100 for three or more, and K-FIT adds 5% of the price as a second that forgives a tenth a year, which is $25,000 on a $500,000 house. VA works cleanly on this stock. The conforming limit is $832,750, so nothing here is a jumbo problem.
Ranchers, splits and bi-levels
The township’s population curve is the housing stock. Warminster had 1,452 people in 1930, 35,463 by 1980, and 33,603 in 2020. Nearly every house here went up in that middle stretch: compact post-war ranchers, then split-levels and bi-levels through the 1960s and early 1970s, laid out on old farm ground along Route 611 and the County Line and Bristol Road corridors.
That era carries a few standing items for a purchase loan. A house from before 1978 brings the lead-paint disclosure. An FHA or VA appraiser walks the exterior and will write up peeling paint, a soft porch rail or a handrail that is missing. Insurers price off the roof, the panel and the plumbing, which on an original 1961 rancher may all be original. None of that stops a loan. It just belongs on the inspection list before the appraisal, not after.
The water history, in order
This is the question every Warminster buyer asks, so here is the sequence. The former Naval Air Warfare Center went on the Superfund list in October 1989. Firefighting foam at that base and at the old Willow Grove station put PFAS into the groundwater. Public water here peaked at 350 ppt PFOA and 1,100 ppt PFOS, among the highest PFOS readings recorded in the country at the time.
The authority pulled its wells in 2016 and bought about 3 million gallons a day from North Wales Water Authority; rates went from $2.89 to $4.65 per thousand gallons that October. Four wells were refitted with granular activated carbon and ion exchange by 2019, roughly $12 million of work, and the authority says more wells are being treated now. The EPA’s 2024 limit is 4 ppt for each compound. If the house is on a private well, sampling belongs in the inspection contingency, not in a phone call after closing.
The train, and the bus to the train
Warminster station on Jacksonville Road is the end of the Warminster Line, Zone 3, with a daily lot and permit parking. The 7:26 a.m. reaches Suburban Station at 8:25, so call it 59 minutes, roughly half-hourly at peak and hourly otherwise. Starting from the terminus is the local advantage, and everyone boarding at Hatboro knows it.
A DART route through Warminster Heights to the station, with $1 fares and free rides at 65 and over, was set for a soft launch in fall 2026. If you are buying here on the strength of the commute, drive it once at 7 a.m. before you write the offer.
Where the astronauts got dizzy
The 840-acre Navy base closed in September 1996. The runway is Warminster Community Park now, and the centrifuge that spun the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo crews is still standing in building 70. Warminster Day and Touch a Truck lands September 26, 2026, and the library on Emma Lane turns 50 with a celebration on October 10.