Why are Levittown homes cheaper? (Massapequa, Wantagh: foreclosures, co-ops, how much)

[pdcnret]

The easiest way to understand this is that all of these entities -- hamlets, school districts, postal zones, etc., have no direct relation to each other. They are all separate entities and may overlap. As far as taxes, everyone will pay county taxes and town taxes and school district taxes to respective jurisdictions, while those in villages and cities will pay additional taxes to those governments (there are also a whole bunch of additional taxing entities, including fire departments, garbage districts, sewer districts, etc.) All of the hamlets mentioned in the previous post are within either the Town of Hempstead or the Town of Oyster Bay and residents of those hamlets are subject to the laws and regulations of their respective towns. School districts generally have no relation to governmental boundaries and may, in fact, overlap several jurisdictions.

Clear as mud?

[Walter Greenspan]

Thank you AlexisT for answering llama8.

llama8, I realize that it's a shock to learn that you or an acquaintance may not be living in the community that you thought you/they were living in based on the community named in a place's mailing address.

Unfortunately, the MSM (New York TIMES, NEWSDAY, LI12 NEWS, WCBS-AM, WINS-AM, etc., etc., etc.), as well as the majority of realtors and real estate brokers, keep misreporting/mislocating places as being in the community that's in that place's mailing address (they also misidentify a hamlet, and sometimes even a village, as a 'town'), rather than in the city, village or hamlet where that place is actually located.


For a good set of town-by-town maps showing all the villages and hamlets in each of LI's 13 towns (3 in Nassau County and 10 in Suffolk County): Excellent Long Island Geographic Resource

[llama8]

Thank you everyone for clearing that up. It is interesting to learn something new. I never realized exactly how town boundaries and school districts worked in conjunction with each other in certain areas. I definately feel more informed.

[daveyjones978]

Walter, I am curious as to where these maps that you use for your excellent (and I mean that sincerely, not faceiously) descriptions come from? Two maps that you have posted in this thread show my block as being in the "hamlet" of Levittown. While my neighborhood is served by the Levittown School district, I am 110% positive that my development is considered (for intents and purposes) North Wantagh. Just north of me is the "R" section of Levittown, and the Briar Park section of Wantagh; and south of the parkway is the "T" section, although Wantagh. Although obviously North Wantagh does not really exist (as it is under the same zip code as Wantagh), I know there is a distinction there somewhere. I have never once in my life heard of my neighborhood ever referred to as Levittown.

I could probably dig up papers, since the home I live in has been in my family since the 1950s, but again, just curious.....

And FWIW, I have nothing against Levittown. I grew up there the first 20 years of my life, in the "S" section (directly behind Salk and MacArthur).

[Walter Greenspan]

Originally Posted by daveyjones978

Walter, I am curious as to where these maps that you use for your excellent (and I mean that sincerely, not faceiously) descriptions come from?

They come from the Census Bureau via Wikipedia (I'm still trying to figure out how to access them directly from the Census Bureau).

The Census Bureau gets the basic geographical information from the Long Island Regional Planning Board, which gets its information from the Nassau County Planning Commission and the Suffolk County Planning Department.

While not as detailed (does not show individual streets) as the maps I show in my postings, for a good set of town-by-town maps showing all the villages and hamlets in each of LI's 13 towns (3 in Nassau County and 10 in Suffolk County): Excellent Long Island Geographic Resource

Originally Posted by daveyjones978

Two maps that you have posted in this thread show my block as being in the "hamlet" of Levittown. While my neighborhood is served by the Levittown School district, I am 110% positive that my development is considered (for intents and purposes) North Wantagh. Just north of me is the "R" section of Levittown, and the Briar Park section of Wantagh; and south of the parkway is the "T" section, although Wantagh. Although obviously North Wantagh does not really exist (as it is under the same zip code as Wantagh), I know there is a distinction there somewhere. I have never once in my life heard of my neighborhood ever referred to as Levittown.

Any paperwork will show the community named in a place's mailing address, which, as in your case, is not necessarily the name of the hamlet in which the place is actually located.

Welcome to the Hamlet of Levittown ("Wantagh, NY 11793" mailing address).

[sean sean sean sean]

Originally Posted by daveyjones978

Walter, I am curious as to where these maps that you use for your excellent (and I mean that sincerely, not faceiously) descriptions come from? Two maps that you have posted in this thread show my block as being in the "hamlet" of Levittown. While my neighborhood is served by the Levittown School district, I am 110% positive that my development is considered (for intents and purposes) North Wantagh. Just north of me is the "R" section of Levittown, and the Briar Park section of Wantagh; and south of the parkway is the "T" section, although Wantagh. Although obviously North Wantagh does not really exist (as it is under the same zip code as Wantagh), I know there is a distinction there somewhere. I have never once in my life heard of my neighborhood ever referred to as Levittown.

I could probably dig up papers, since the home I live in has been in my family since the 1950s, but again, just curious.....

And FWIW, I have nothing against Levittown. I grew up there the first 20 years of my life, in the "S" section (directly behind Salk and MacArthur).

In the early days of what is now North Wantagh, it was part of a much larger area called Jerusalem (that's why we have 3 main streets named "Jerusalem") that also included parts of Wantagh and Levittown or pretty much the entirety of the eastern part of the Town of Hempstead. The current day borders I believe came to be sometime in the 1950s or slightly earlier, pre-WWII there just really wasn't much in the area at all and it's borders were much more vague, or at least not documented well. It is very likely, however, that pre-Levitt developments, your neighborhood would have been considered to be in Jerusalem/North Wantagh, but nowadays it's definitely Levittown....even though nobody says that. Heck, even if you were to say "North Wantagh" people would look at you funny....

Let me know if you can't see the picture below, should work though...it's a map from 1939. Wicks Road = current day Hunt Road.

[Walter Greenspan]

Originally Posted by daveyjones978

Walter, I am curious as to where these maps that you use for your excellent (and I mean that sincerely, not faceiously) descriptions come from?

I finally located how to directly access the online Census community maps (these are maps that show the borders of cities, villages and hamlets, referred to as census designated places or CDPs, and not the borders of the same-named, but non-conforming, ZIP Code postal zone):

1. First go to: American FactFinder

2. At the top of the page, where it says, "Get a Fact Sheet for your community...", enter the name of the city, village or hamlet in the box labeled "town" and select New York for "state", and then click "GO".

3. Finally, at the top of the tabular listing of maps, to the right of "Census 2000 Demographic Profile Highlights:" click on "Reference Map"


Using "Roslyn Heights", for example, you get:
http://factfinder.census.gov/leg1/22/97876322.gif (broken link)

And, for "North New Hyde Park", you get:
http://factfinder.census.gov/leg1/29/97876329.gif (broken link)

[longilander]

Levittown homes have no basements that maybe 1 reason

Originally Posted by helen8899

My wife and I aIsland with two kids (5 & 8) and have been house hunting for the past 2 months. We have noticed that houses in Levittown are much cheaper tsurrounding towns ( Bethpage, Farmingdale, Wantagh,...). Why??? Can someone shed some light on this? Much appreciated.

[LI2South]

Being a Levitt Homeowner I can tell you my experience. Levittown homes are cheaper because of a few reasons.

Most homes do not have a basement - People have sheds in their yards that serve as their storage. Many homes have $5K sheds (the nice ones)

Boilers are in the kitchen - My home and many homes of people I know have the heating units in the garage. Not all have them in the kitchen.

Termites - While many of these homes have termite problems if you have an inspection yearly and/or treat the problem before it happens you will not have a problem. I don't.

No garage or converted carports - Many homes do have garages. I have a garage with the boiler and laundry room in the back. Many homes do not have a garage while many do have garages. In most cases the homeowner has turned the garage into another room.

Buried oil tanks - houses purchased after a certain year (I know 2003/2004 for sure) had to have proof that the tank was filled in by a professional. If there was no proof then you had to have a company come out and fill it in properly.

When we purchased the home we made sure that the heating was already moved to the garage and the electric was updated. Also, I am part of MacArthur High - which is a very good school! There are also a HUGE amount of town pools & parks in the area!!

I LOVE my Levitt home. I am married with 2 kids and 5 cars (we are classic car people) and the home suits us just fine!! The only reason we are thinking of moving (*sheds tear) is because I would like to be home to raise my children until they are in school - there is more to "molding children" than just reading some books or playing with toys... These people are hard to find or big bucks. I prefer to be the one to teach them these things and I cannot expect my husband to work 2 jobs to do this. But this is another thread .....

[Rachael84]

My fiance and I are looking into Levittown. We don't plan on buying above 300k, which i'm a little concerned about since the homes may be in worse condition. That worries me, since they seem to be built not as well as most areas in Nassau. What do you think?