One borough, two counties, all manner of homes

One in a continuing series spotlighting real estate markets in the region's communities.

Here's something you can't do in most Pennsylvania communities: walk back and forth between two counties without leaving town.

But you can on North Main Street in Telford, part of which lies in Bucks County and part of which is in Montgomery County. All of it is about 40 miles north of Philadelphia, not far from Route 309.

It's been that way since Jan. 11, 1935, when the Boroughs of Telford and West Telford became one with a stroke of Gov. Gifford Pinchot's pen.

Telford was incorporated in 1886, West Telford in 1887. Until Pinchot's signature, state law had prohibited a municipality in one county from extending into another.

There are "five or six now in the rest of the state," says Mark Fournier, who has been manager of the one-square-mile municipality of 4,872 residents for 18 years. Four hundred more people live in Telford's Montgomery County territory than in its Bucks County section.

As you might have guessed, this isn't a simple arrangement.

For example, Montgomery County residents vote at the Telford Fire House. Bucks voters use Grundy Manor, a retirement home on East Lincoln Avenue.

"We deal with two county grant programs, two county open-space programs, two county planning commissions, and even the maintenance of state roads is handled by PennDot offices in each one," Fournier says.

Taxes are simpler.

"All of the real estate taxes are based on assessments by Montgomery County for all residents whose children attend Souderton Area schools," Fournier says.

The school district splits a 1 percent earned-income tax with the borough, and each resident over 18 pays a $10 per-capita tax to the district. as well.

Residents pay county taxes to the one in which they reside.

Telford is not an active real estate market: There were just eight sales in the first quarter, three in Bucks, five in Montgomery (involving different recorders of deeds).

The median prices here: $232,000 in Telford-Bucks, $239,000 in Telford-Montgomery. Average time on the market was 27 days in Montgomery, 78 in Bucks.

Souderton, just next door in Montgomery County with 2,000 more people, had 17 sales in the first quarter but a median price of $202,000, according to Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Fox & Roach Realtors HomExpert Market Report, based on Trend Multiple Listing Service data.

Currently, seven houses are for sale in Telford, including multifamily/commercial property.

"It is a good sign that people want to stay," Fournier says.

Although Telford and most boroughs around it are built out, "every five or 10 years, someone comes in and builds on what little vacant land there is," he says.

That time is now: W.B. Homes has proposed a 42-lot subdivision at Penn Avenue and Third Street.

Almost every architectural era is represented here, from the large post-Civil War brick houses along Main Street, to the Arts and Crafts bungalows along West Lincoln and South Hamilton Avenues, to Colonials, Cape Cods, and a variety of others.

One venerable home at Broad and North Main Streets, owned by John and Jackie Fenstermacher, has mannequins of children in Victorian garb in the front window.

Twice a year just before Easter and Christmas, for the last 25 years, the Fenstermachers move to the basement and turn their home's first and second floors into a Victorian boutique that attracts hundreds of shoppers from all over the region, Fournier says.

The borough has been working on improvements for more than 10 years, starting with using nine sources of funding to turn the former Reading Railroad train station and freight office into the Market Place at Telford Station with parking.

A farmers' market is held there from July to October, a project of Souderton Telford Main Streets. A Christmas tree lighting is held, too.

All of the parks here have been redone, the latest being Telford Municipal Park near Indian Valley Public Library and the senior-living Lutheran Community at Telford - a $740,000 project paid for entirely by grants, Fournier says.

Seniors "use the walking trails in the park and watch the kids playing sports," he says.

All of this barely scratches the surface of what is going on in Telford.

"We have a lot going on," Fournier says. "We like it that way."

Telford Borough By the Numbers

Population: 4,872 (2013)

Median household income: $61,681

Area: 1 square mile

Settlements in the last three months: 8 (5 in Montgomery, 3 in Bucks).

Homes for sale: 7

Average days on market: 78 in Bucks; 27 in Montgomery

Median sale price: $232,000, Bucks; $239,000, Montgomery

Housing stock: 1,977 units, from the 1860s to new construction

School district: Souderton Area

SOURCES: U.S. Census Bureau; Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Fox & Roach Realtors HomExpert Market Report

aheavens@phillynews.com

215-854-2472 @alheavens