Three miles of West Chester Pike separate Dunwoody Village and White Horse Village, and almost every Newtown Square-area family tours both. This is the comparison the brochures will not print: contract structures, published numbers, refund arithmetic, and financial signals, side by side, from the seller’s perspective, because either move is funded by the same house. It is independent research; Samantha is a real estate agent affiliated with neither community. The full profiles: Dunwoody Village and White Horse Village.
Why these two share every shortlist
Both are not-for-profit CCRCs in central Delaware County with full continuums, both structure the entrance fee as declining-versus-refundable, both file with the Pennsylvania Insurance Department, and both draw from the same ten-mile radius of longtime houses. The real differences live one level down: how many decisions each contract makes you take, what each publishes, and what each campus is optimizing for.
The side-by-side table
| Dimension | Dunwoody Village | White Horse Village |
|---|---|---|
| Setting | 83 acres at the center of Newtown Square; operating since 1974 | 109 acres in Edgmont Township beside Ridley Creek State Park; established 1993 |
| Scale | 159 apartments, 65 country houses, 40 carriage homes; ~448 residents | 331 residences, studios to carriage homes |
| Care on campus | 81 personal care rooms (20 memory) and 81 skilled nursing rooms; monthly fee continues to cover routine care | Bridlewood (48 personal care), Four Seasons (20 memory), Canterbury (55-bed skilled nursing) |
| Care contract | One promise: monthly fee covers routine Care Center care (adjusted for meals) | Two plans: Traditional (unlimited LTC) or Modified (60 days after insurance exhausts) |
| Fee options | Non-refundable (2%/mo, 50 months) or 50% refundable at +46% | Standard declining (2%/mo, 50 months) or 80% refundable |
| Published 2BR benchmark | $320,700 / $481,100; monthly $5,528 (2025 samples) | $333,500 / $566,500; monthly $5,930 (2024 schedule) |
| Full published range | Samples by residence type in its own annual report | $131,500 (studio, standard) to $1,331,000 (carriage home, 80% refundable); monthly $3,937 to $7,866 |
| Financial signals | S&P investment grade rating, stated publicly; disclosure posted on its own site | State-filed disclosure; ~$100M Secretariat Plan campus reinvestment underway |
One-axis versus two-axis: the contract structures
- Dunwoody asks one question: what should the estate recover? The care promise is fixed and generous (the monthly fee follows you into the Care Center), so the only lever is the refund plan, priced at 46% over the non-refundable fee for a permanent 50% floor.
- White Horse asks two: how much care risk do you prepay (Traditional versus Modified), and what should the estate recover (declining versus 80%)? The Modified plan exists precisely for households whose long-term care insurance already covers the tail, an option Dunwoody does not offer.
- The insurance question therefore sorts families first: LTC policyholders get real value at White Horse; households without coverage comparing always-covered promises are comparing Dunwoody’s single plan against White Horse’s Traditional plan, a cleaner fight. The CCRC funding guide frames the Type A/B/C grammar.
Reading the published numbers honestly
- 01Match vintages: Dunwoody’s samples are 2025, White Horse’s schedule is effective 2024; both reprice annually, so get both current rate sheets before concluding anything from a $13,000 two-bedroom gap.
- 02Price refunds per percentage point preserved: 50% at +46% (Dunwoody) versus 80% at roughly +70% (White Horse’s schedule) are closer per point than the headlines suggest; the right comparison is what your estate keeps per dollar paid today, an adviser’s twenty minutes.
- 03Remember the couples lines and the extras: second-person fees, processing charges, and meal adjustments differ; the disclosure statements carry them, and the master fee table holds both against the whole region.
The three filters that decide it
- 01Insurance filter: LTC coverage favors White Horse’s Modified plan; no coverage puts Dunwoody’s simpler promise level with White Horse Traditional.
- 02Estate filter: decide the percentage first, then price it at both communities for the residence you actually want.
- 03House filter: both moves run on the same house sale and the same calendar: valuation, net proceeds, reserve, list, close at move-in, with Newtown Square’s and Edgmont’s paperwork started the week you reserve.
Samantha, SRES®, sells the Delco and Main Line houses that fund both of these moves. If your shortlist is exactly these two, ask her for the house number first; it is the one figure that appears in both communities’ math. Start with the free valuation, tour both campuses in one week, and let the contracts argue while you watch.