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Samantha Mallon

Downsizing

Moving to White Horse Village: The Seller’s Guide to the Two-by-Two Contract Decision

White Horse Village is a 331-residence continuing care community on 109 acres in Edgmont Township beside Ridley Creek State Park, where the real decision is a two-by-two grid: Traditional or Modified care plan, declining or 80% refundable entrance fee. This independent seller’s guide decodes the grid from the state-filed disclosure statement, explains the re-occupancy refund mechanics, and covers how central Delaware County homeowners sequence the house sale against the move.

By Samantha Mallon, SRES®, licensed in PA & NJ · Reviewed August 5, 2026 · 10 min read

White Horse Village sits where central Delaware County runs out of suburbs: 109 acres in Edgmont Township beside Ridley Creek State Park, a not-for-profit continuing care community of 331 residences whose real decision is a two-by-two grid, Traditional or Modified care plan, declining or 80% refundable entrance fee. This guide is written from the seller’s side of that move, because the entrance fee and the house are usually the same money. It is independent research; Samantha is a real estate agent, not affiliated with White Horse Village, built from the community’s state-filed disclosure statement and its own published materials.

What White Horse Village is, in verified numbers

White Horse Village at a glance (sources: PA Insurance Department disclosure statement; White Horse Village)
FactDetail
TypeNot-for-profit continuing care retirement community, established 1993; 501(c)(3)
Campus109 acres on Gradyville Road in Edgmont Township, Delaware County, adjacent to Ridley Creek State Park
Residences331 residential living accommodations, from studio apartments to carriage homes
Care on campusBridlewood (48 personal care suites), Four Seasons (20-suite memory care), Canterbury (55-bed skilled nursing)
Contract gridTraditional plan (unlimited long-term care) or Modified plan (60 days after insurance exhausts); declining entrance fee (2% monthly, 50 months) or 80% refundable
ReinvestmentRoughly $100 million Secretariat Plan campus program underway: clubhouse, auditorium, pool and wellness center, new construction homes

The community’s own FAQ states the plan mechanics plainly, the state-filed disclosure statement carries the fee schedules and refund conditions, and the Pennsylvania Insurance Department explains what every prospective resident is entitled to review.

Two care plans, two fee options: the two-by-two decision

Most communities pose one big choice; White Horse Village poses two independent ones, and keeping them separate is the clearest way to decide:

  • Care plan: Traditional versus Modified. Traditional includes unlimited long-term care (personal care or skilled nursing, excluding ancillaries and extra meals), the classic lifecare promise. Modified includes sixty overnight days of care after insurance is exhausted, at lower cost, and is built to sit on top of a long-term care insurance policy. If you hold a good LTC policy, Modified converts it from a redundancy into a design; if you hold none, Traditional is the version that caps the risk. Our CCRC funding guide frames the contract types side by side.
  • Fee option: declining versus 80% refundable. The declining fee depreciates 2% per month for 50 months, fully earned in roughly four years, the same shape as the non-refundable options at Dunwoody and Riddle Village. The 80% refundable option costs more up front and preserves most of the fee for the estate. This is the pay-less-leave-less versus pay-more-preserve-more axis every entrance fee community shares.
  • The two decisions compound. A Traditional plan with an 80% refundable fee is the maximum-certainty, maximum-cost corner; a Modified plan with a declining fee is the minimum-entry corner for the well-insured. Price all four corners for the residence you actually want before deciding which is expensive.

Refund mechanics and the estate

  • Refunds pay on re-occupancy. Under the 80% plan, the refund (minus amounts owed) is paid after the unit is re-occupied and a new entrance fee is received, per the disclosure statement. Estates should plan on eventual, not immediate; families settling an estate will find the mechanics in our executor’s guide.
  • The refund is a Pennsylvania inheritance tax asset. Flag it to the attorney updating the wills as part of the move, alongside the house-sale windows in our PA and NJ tax guide.
  • Part of the fees may be deductible. The portion of entrance and monthly fees allocable to prepaid medical care can be deductible under IRS Publication 502, and under a Traditional plan that allocation tends to run meaningful; the community publishes the percentage annually and your accountant needs it in the house-sale year.

Sequencing the house sale against the move

  1. 01House number first. The valuation plus the net proceeds calculator tells you which corners of the two-by-two grid the proceeds actually reach.
  2. 02Decide both axes with the adviser, then reserve. The LTC insurance question decides the care plan; the estate question decides the fee option. Neither belongs to the tour guide.
  3. 03List on the coordinated calendar. Target the closing at or just before move-in. Edgmont, Newtown, Marple, Middletown, and the surrounding municipalities each carry their own resale rules; the fee index lists them all.
  4. 04Ask about construction phasing. With the Secretariat Plan underway, some residences and amenities are in motion; put the move-in window and any construction caveats in writing with the reservation.

The Delco house this move usually involves

The house behind a White Horse Village move is usually a central Delco or Route 3 corridor house: Edgmont, Newtown Square, Broomall, Media, Springfield, Wallingford, or over the county line toward West Chester, owned decades in the Rose Tree Media, Marple Newtown, or Springfield districts. Three field notes for exactly that sale:

  • These are strong-demand houses. Prepare in passes (clear, clean, brighten, repair) and let the district and the lot do their work; the room-by-room checklist keeps the clear-out on schedule.
  • Start with the campus’s own township. The Edgmont guide covers the rules where the community sits, the Newtown Square guide covers the neighbor most movers sell in, and the Delaware County guide holds the wider picture.
  • The proceeds pay the fee at closing. Tell the community’s finance office and the title company early so the wire lands the day the money exists.

Samantha, SRES®, sells the houses on both ends of this exact move across Delaware and Chester counties. If White Horse Village is on your shortlist, start with the free valuation that turns the house into a number you can hold against all four corners of the contract grid, or ask her how your township’s timeline fits the community’s. Two decisions, one calendar, and parkland out the window when it is done.

Questions sellers ask about the White Horse Village move

What are the contract choices at White Horse Village?

Two decisions, four combinations. First, the care plan: the Traditional plan includes unlimited access to long-term care (personal care or skilled nursing, excluding ancillary charges and extra meals), while the Modified plan includes sixty overnight days of care after insurance coverage is exhausted, which pairs naturally with a long-term care insurance policy. Second, the entrance fee: a declining option that depreciates 2% per month for 50 months, or an 80% refundable option that preserves most of the fee for you or your estate. Traditional versus Modified is a question about how much care risk you want to prepay; declining versus 80% refundable is a question about what the estate recovers. They deserve two separate conversations with the adviser, because they move independent six-figure numbers.

How big is White Horse Village and what is on the campus?

The state-filed disclosure statement counts 331 residential living accommodations, from studio apartments to carriage homes, plus a healthcare center comprising Bridlewood (48 personal care suites), Four Seasons (a 20-suite personal care neighborhood for residents with cognitive changes), and Canterbury (a 55-bed skilled nursing facility). The campus covers 109 acres in Edgmont Township beside Ridley Creek State Park, with a clubhouse holding the dining venues (Steeplechase Restaurant, White Horse Tavern, Paddock Grille), fitness and wellness facilities, and medical offices. Established in 1993, the community began a roughly $100 million campus reinvestment program (the Secretariat Plan) covering the clubhouse, auditorium, pool, and new residences, which is worth asking about on any tour since construction phasing affects move-in timing.

What happens to the 80% refund when I leave or die?

Under the 80% refundable plan, the refund (minus any amounts owed under the contract) is paid after the living unit has been re-occupied and a new entrance fee received, per the disclosure statement. That re-occupancy condition is standard across the industry and is exactly why estates should not budget on receiving the refund the month after a death; in a well-occupied community it is usually timely, but it is not instantaneous. The refund is an estate asset for Pennsylvania inheritance tax purposes, and the attorney drafting or updating the wills as part of the move should see the refund provisions in writing. Ask the marketing office for the exact contract language; providing it is routine.

How does White Horse Village compare to Dunwoody Village a few minutes away?

They are close neighbors with genuinely different profiles, which makes Newtown Square an efficient touring day. Dunwoody is the smaller, older campus (operating since 1974, 448 residents) in the walkable center of Newtown Square, with two entrance fee options and a monthly fee that continues covering routine nursing and personal care. White Horse Village is larger (331 independent residences), sits in parkland at the Edgmont edge beside Ridley Creek State Park, and structures its choice as Traditional versus Modified care plans crossed with declining versus 80% refundable fees, the Modified plan being the natural fit for households holding long-term care insurance. Neither is generically better; the fit depends on whether you hold LTC insurance, how much campus you want around you, and which contract math suits the estate.

Do I need to sell my house before moving in?

The entrance fee is due at move-in, and for most families the house funds it. The working sequence: get the house valued, choose the care plan and fee option with the adviser, reserve, then list on a coordinated calendar targeting a closing at or just before move-in. One local nuance: the campus sits in Edgmont Township, and the sellers moving in come overwhelmingly from central Delaware County and the Route 3 corridor, where every municipality has its own use and occupancy regime with its own lead time. Our fee index catalogs them, and starting the paperwork at listing rather than at agreement of sale is what keeps the move-in date honest.

About the author

Samantha Mallon, SRES®

Samantha is a real estate agent with Compass, licensed in Pennsylvania (RS365940) and New Jersey (2440598), holding the SRES® (Seniors Real Estate Specialist®) designation. Before real estate she earned a finance degree at Rutgers and a master’s in analytics at Georgia Tech, and worked in management consulting at Deloitte, a background she now applies to pricing, preparation, and honest guidance for sellers navigating downsizing, longtime homes, and family transitions across Greater Philadelphia and South Jersey.

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