Drive past the old Exton Square Mall on Route 30 this month and you will see a nearly empty parking lot outside a building that closed for good on June 30, after 53 years of retail. Boscov's, Round1, and the Main Line Health offices are still open, each with its own entrance carved into the perimeter, but the enclosed mall itself sits dark. Three miles north on Swedesford Road, a different scene is unfolding. A brand new sales center opened its doors in late July, greeting buyers who are putting down deposits on townhomes and single-family homes that have not finished construction yet.
Both of these are "new housing in Exton." Neither one is finished. And if you are comparing Exton against other Chester County towns right now, the difference between them matters more than any median price you will find on a portal.
The Supply That's Already Here
Toll Brothers opened Regency at Valley Creek for sales on July 22, a 317-home, age-restricted community on roughly 100 acres off Swedesford Road, bordered by more than 700 acres of permanently preserved park and open space. The community splits into three collections. Townhomes in the Carriages and Villa lines run roughly 2,200 to 2,500-plus square feet and start in the low $700,000s. Single-family homes in the Estates collection run 2,800 to 3,000-plus square feet and start at $1 million. Every home includes a first-floor primary suite, and residents get a clubhouse with a fitness center, a pool, pickleball and bocce courts, a fire pit, and an event lawn, plus lawn care and snow removal handled for them.
This is real supply, priced at the top of the local range and aimed squarely at one kind of buyer: someone 55 or older who wants to trade a larger house for something lower-maintenance without leaving the area. That matters beyond the 317 units themselves. Every downsizer who moves into Regency instead of listing their existing four-bedroom colonial on the open market is a house that does not become available to a family buyer this year. It is worth watching whether that effect shows up in the resale inventory over the next 12 to 18 months.
The Supply That's Still Just a Plan
The mall tells a different story. Abrams Realty & Development, based in Elkins Park, bought the 75-acre Exton Square Mall site and has spent more than a year trying to turn it into a mixed-use project with townhomes, apartments, a 55-plus component, and retail and green space. West Whiteland Township's planning commission recommended approval last year, but the two-member Board of Supervisors, Brian Dunn and Rajesh Kumbhardare, rejected the plan over concerns about traffic, sewer capacity, and density. Abrams sued the township. A judge in West Chester heard arguments back in April, and as of this writing there is still no ruling.
Company founder Peter Abrams put the calculation plainly when the mall's closure was announced, saying operating the aging interior had become "untenable due to deteriorating conditions and rising utility costs." That is a business decision about a mall that no longer works, not a resolution to what replaces it. Until the litigation resolves, and possibly a rezoning challenge alongside it, nobody, including the developer, can tell you how many homes will eventually get built there, or when.
Two Pipelines, Side by Side
| Regency at Valley Creek | Exton Square Mall site | |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Open for sales, homes under construction | Litigation ongoing, ruling pending |
| Site size | About 100 acres | 75 acres |
| Homes | 317 (townhomes and single-family) | Proposed at several hundred units across revisions, final count undetermined |
| Price point | Townhomes from the low $700,000s; single-family from $1 million | Not yet set |
| Buyer profile | Age 55 and older | Undetermined, mixed-use plan includes multiple housing types |
| Timeline | Delivering now | No confirmed start date |
Why the Price Data Looks So Noisy Right Now
If you start googling Exton home prices this month, you will get numbers that do not agree with each other. Movoto's September 2026 data put the median list price at $749,000. Zillow's tracked average home value sat at $597,041, up 4.1% over the past year. Redfin's three-month window for the 19341 zip code, which covers most of Exton, showed a median sale price of $830,000, up 11.8% year over year.
These figures are not contradicting each other so much as measuring three different things: an active list price, a modeled average value, and a closed-sale median in a zip code that extends beyond Exton's core. None of these sources have had time to absorb what Regency at Valley Creek is adding to the market, and none of them can price in a mall redevelopment that does not have an approved plan yet. The number you find today describes the Exton that existed before this split started, not the one that is forming now.
What This Means If You're Comparing Exton to Other Towns
If part of Exton's appeal to you is "there's a lot of new construction happening," it is worth getting specific about which project you mean. Regency at Valley Creek is age-restricted and priced above $700,000, so it does not compete with a family looking for a move-in-ready detached home in the $400,000s to $600,000s. The mall site, if it eventually gets built, could add exactly that kind of housing along with walkable retail, but betting on a timeline there means betting on a court case, not a construction schedule.
There is a smaller, more immediate sign that the area around both projects is still investing in itself regardless of how the mall litigation shakes out. Nordstrom Rack opened at Main Street at Exton on August 20, joining a tenant lineup that already includes Barnes & Noble, Sephora, Athleta, Old Navy, and Banana Republic at the Route 30 and Route 100 shopping center. That is a modest data point next to a 700-unit court case, but it tells you the retail corridor a short drive from both the mall and Regency is not waiting on anyone's ruling to keep growing.
A Few Direct Questions
Is Regency at Valley Creek open to buyers of any age? No. It is marketed as an age-restricted, active-adult community for residents 55 and older, consistent with how Toll Brothers has positioned its Regency line in other Pennsylvania communities.
When will the mall site actually break ground? There is no confirmed date. The litigation between Abrams Realty and West Whiteland Township's Board of Supervisors was still awaiting a ruling as of this writing, and any approved plan would need to move through construction after that.
Does the mall closing affect nearby home values today? Not in a way anyone can measure yet. The site's future use, whether that is housing, retail, or something scaled back from the original proposal, has not been decided, so its effect on surrounding streets is still an open question rather than a settled fact.
Exton's housing story right now is really two stories running on separate clocks, one already under construction and one still waiting on a judge. If you are trying to figure out what either of these means for your own timeline, whether that's watching what a 55-plus community does to move-up inventory or deciding how much weight to put on a mall redevelopment that hasn't been approved, that is exactly the kind of local detail worth a real conversation rather than another portal search. The Kathy Gagnon Team tracks these shifts as they happen in Chester County, and a free home valuation is a good place to start figuring out where your own plans fit into them.
