Riddle Village is Delaware County’s LifeCare flagship: a Type A continuing care community on Baltimore Pike in Middletown Township, beside Riddle Hospital, where the contract prepays unlimited long-term care and the entrance decision is really a choice among three refund schedules. This guide is written from the seller’s side of that move, because the entrance fee and the Delco house are, for most families, the same money. It is independent research; Samantha is a real estate agent, not affiliated with Riddle Village, built from the community’s published contract materials and the disclosure rules Pennsylvania applies to every CCRC.
What Riddle Village is, in verified numbers
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Type | Continuing care retirement community with a LifeCare (Type A) contract |
| Contract promise | Unlimited long-term personal care and skilled nursing without a monthly fee increase tied to the level of care (standard inflation adjustments and ancillary charges still apply) |
| Levels of care | Five on one campus: independent living, personal care, respite care, skilled nursing, short and long term rehabilitation |
| Location | Baltimore Pike, Middletown Township (Media address), directly beside Main Line Health’s Riddle Hospital; Medicare-certified since November 1995 |
| Entrance plans | Three: Plan A declining balance, Plan B 50% refundable, Plan C 90% refundable |
| Regulation | Pennsylvania CCRCs file annual financial disclosure statements with the PA Insurance Department, available to every prospective resident |
The community’s own FAQ lays out the contract and plan mechanics plainly, and the Pennsylvania Insurance Department explains the disclosure statement every prospective resident is entitled to read. With a LifeCare contract, that document, the financials behind a decades-long care promise, is not optional homework.
Three refund plans, one apartment: the real decision
Riddle Village publishes its depreciation schedules, which makes the three plans unusually easy to compare honestly. Plan A depreciates 4% at occupancy, then 2% per month for 48 months. Plan B preserves 50%: the non-refundable half depreciates on the same schedule over 23 months. Plan C preserves 90%: only 10% depreciates, over three months. Here is what those schedules mean on an illustrative $400,000 entrance fee (our arithmetic applied to the published schedules; actual fees vary by apartment and plan):
| Exit point | Plan A (declining) | Plan B (50%) | Plan C (90%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| After 3 months | $360,000 | $360,000 | $360,000 (floor reached) |
| After 1 year | $288,000 | $288,000 | $360,000 |
| After 2 years | $192,000 | $200,000 (floor reached) | $360,000 |
| After 4 years | $0 | $200,000 | $360,000 |
| After 10 years | $0 | $200,000 | $360,000 |
- Plan A is the residency bet: the lowest entrance fee for the same apartment, fully earned by the community after four years. It optimizes lifetime cost for a long stay and leaves nothing behind.
- Plan C is the estate bet: the highest fee, but 90 cents of every dollar returns whenever you leave. Families preserving an inheritance, or hedging an uncertain health picture, pay for that certainty.
- The refund is an estate asset. Under Plans B and C, the eventual refund belongs in the Pennsylvania inheritance tax and estate planning picture, and refunds are typically paid on re-occupancy of the unit rather than instantly; ask for the provisions in writing and read them with counsel, alongside our executor’s guide if you are planning for the family.
The LifeCare tax angle sellers overlook
Because the LifeCare contract genuinely prepays medical care, the tax treatment is more generous than most families expect, and it lands in the same year as the house sale:
- First-year deduction. A portion of the non-refundable entrance fee is deductible as a prepaid medical expense in the first year of residency under IRS Publication 502; the community publishes the allocation percentage annually.
- Every-year deduction. A portion of the monthly fee is deductible annually on the same medical expense logic, subject to the 7.5% of adjusted gross income threshold.
- Same-year coordination. The house sale’s $250,000/$500,000 exclusion (covered in our PA and NJ tax guide) and a large first-year medical deduction belong on one accountant’s desk as one picture. Where a gain exceeds the exclusion, the deduction can matter more than people assume; our CCRC funding guide walks the mechanics.
Sequencing the house sale against the move
- 01House number first. The valuation plus the net proceeds calculator produces the after-cost figure that decides which apartments, and which of the three plans, are actually affordable. The plan choice moves six figures; it comes before the deposit.
- 02Read the disclosure statement with the adviser. A LifeCare promise is a decades-long financial commitment by the community; the annual disclosure statement is where you underwrite it.
- 03Reserve, then list, on one calendar. Target the closing at or just before move-in so proceeds wire straight to the entrance fee. Middletown Township’s resale requirements, and those of every surrounding municipality, are in our fee index; they start at listing, not at agreement of sale.
- 04Choose the bridge deliberately. Sell first and move once, or move first and carry both briefly; the sell-first-or-buy-first guide walks the tradeoffs.
The Delco house this move usually involves
The house behind a Riddle Village move is usually a central Delco house: Media, Wallingford, Springfield, Havertown, Glen Mills, Newtown Square, a colonial or split owned thirty to fifty years in a school district that keeps buyer demand deep. Three field notes for exactly that sale:
- Prepare in passes, not renovations. Buyers for these houses are paying for the district and the bones; clear, clean, brighten, and repair the broken rather than remodeling. The room-by-room checklist keeps the clear-out from stalling the calendar.
- Township paperwork varies street by street here. Central Delaware County is a patchwork of borough and township resale rules; start with the Media guide or the Middletown Township guide for the campus’s own municipality, and the Delaware County guide for the wider picture.
- The proceeds pay the fee at closing. Tell the community’s finance office and the title company early; title-to-entrance-fee wiring is routine when everyone knows the date.
Samantha, SRES®, sells the houses on both ends of this exact move across Delaware County. If Riddle Village, or the LifeCare model generally, is on your shortlist, start with the free valuation that turns the house into a number you can hold against all three plans, or ask her how your municipality’s timeline fits the community’s. The three plans are just three answers to one question: how much of the house should come back. Decide that first, and the rest is calendar work.