Why are Levittown homes cheaper? (Hempstead, Oyster Bay: neighborhood, schools, contractor)

[katied49]

Originally Posted by helen8899

My wife and I are relocating from Connecticut to Long Island 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 than comparable houses in the surrounding towns ( Bethpage, Farmingdale, Wantagh,...). Why??? Can someone shed some light on this? Much appreciated.

You can do so much with Levitt houses. Most flaws have been updated throughout the years. Levittown is a wonderful town to raise children. The Island Trees school district is a very close community and provides a wonderful atmosphere..
I have lived here for most of my life and it was a great town for me to grow up in as well as my son..
Lower prices frees up more $$$ for updates..
Go for it.

[sportsfan1970]

My parents moved to Levittown in 1977. They are still there. The things that I see being the problem with Levittown are that the school district is average at best and homes were built on slabs so there is no basement. For Long Island living you need additional space for storage or extra living room and Levittown small capes and ranches do not afford that luxury. Many only have 1 bathroom. Now there has been a ton that have been expanded but then the taxes go up and with the district being average can find better deals many times in neighboring towns like Wantagh, Seaford, Plainedge, Bellmore.

The nice thing though about Levittown is parks, pools, quick access to the beach and shopping.

[TheBS19]

Is the general consensus "hierarchy" for Levittown high schools (not Levittown School District, but schools folks with Levittown addresses could attend) 1. MacArthur 2. Island Trees 3. Division Ave?

Also, being that Levittown does not have its own station, where do residents commute from? Is parking just a disaster?

[budsvtec]

Yes those are the 3 schools. I live in the Mac Arthur Zone

Nkerr needs to get their facts straight about the schools - Levittown has excellent schools.

For the LIRR - there is Wantagh - Hicksville or Bethpage

[ave1024]

Originally Posted by budsvtec

Yes those are the 3 schools. I live in the Mac Arthur Zone

Nkerr needs to get their facts straight about the schools - Levittown has excellent schools.

For the LIRR - there is Wantagh - Hicksville or Bethpage

The only place you can park with a Town of Hempstead parking sticker is either Wantagh or Seaford. Hicksville and Bethpage require Town Oyster Bay parking stickers which you can't get if you live in Levittown.

Both stations are good... plenty of parking at both.

[Pequaman]

Originally Posted by llama8

One last question as this is very informative and it is something that I was not aware of until this post. Do the areas of Bethpage, Seaford, and (Plainedge) that are within the hamlet of Levittown pay Levittown taxes and follow Levittown ordinances or do they follow Bethpage, Seaford, and (Plainedge which may not exist) taxes/ordinances?

My friend lives in what I thought was Wantagh in the Levittown (Macarthur) school district. I also thought that she paid Wantagh taxes but Levittown school taxes. I am assuming now, based on what you said, that she technically lives in the hamlet of Levittown?

I guess I what I am asking is this: is my friend's only tie to Wantagh the postal zip code or is she considered for most purposes as Wantagh?

I think a lot of people get confused with this. Most people I know that live in North Wantagh, will say Wantagh. But it's probably more Levittown than Wantagh. Damn nonconforming zip codes, I try to explain it here< WG can help sort the confusion.

Originally Posted by Kbinspections

Most of the houses in Levittown are built by Levitt. Since it is the first "development" in the country, it comes with many construction flaws and general dislikes.

General dislikes:

No basement
Boiler in kitchen
No garage or converted carports

Construction Issues:

Termites!
Buried oil tanks
Limited access to the the water main and sewer clean out
Elec. box in closet
Failed copper heating pipes in the slab
Poor insulation
Poor additions and dormers

With all that said, many have been undergone major improvments with satisfactory results.


Many have been updated well

I wasn't aware of all these issues. A lot of them can be corrected though like you said with enough money and hopefully not triggering a taxable improvement. IMHO, an underground tank is not always a bad thing. You could really save a lot of money filling that sucker up when oil is cheap and even makes going COD easier. But the slight risk of leaking prob neutralizes that benefit.

[actank]

As was stated in many of the answers to your question the houses are cheaper because they were made as part of an assembly line process. This was the first time anyone tried this on home building. Every house was made the same. A very important thing I want to bring to your attention is the underground heating oil tank. We are a testing company and have tested tanks in this Levitt development as well as the Levitt development in Pennsylvania. It seems that Levitt buried heating oil tanks that were not meant to be buried in the ground and the result of that is just about every Levitt home where we tested the buried tank it is leaking fuel. It is important that if this is the original tank that the seller relplace it with an above ground tank or at a minimum have the tank tested by a company like ours. For some strange reason in Long Island people buy houses without testing the tank or soil and this is a risky thing to do. The surrounding areas like Westchester County or New Jersey, buyers would not think of purchasing a home unless the tank or soil was tested. Clean-up cost can run into thousands of dollars.

[sportsfan1970]

I would definitely say Levittown schools are average, at least when I lived there in the mid-late 80's. I lived in the "E" section behind the Levittown Park Bakery on Wantagh Ave. I went to E. Broadway Elementary which was solid but eventually they closed. Middle school was Salk and then I would have gone to Macarthur. My parents put me into Catholic HS to get out of that district. In the early 80's Levittown had 3 high schools. Division, Memorial and Macarthur. They closed Memorial and divided the district to 2 HS. Macarthur was considered a little better, but not by a ton. Now there are areas of Wantagh, Seaford that go to Levittown schools. I had friends that lived I guess in N. Wantagh. They didn't want the Levittown title because many houses were splits and didn't look like Levittown but they still go to Levittown schools. There are areas of Levittown that go to Island Trees which is considered a better district at least when I was there. In fact house on my side of the street went to Macarthur while houses on the other side went to Island Trees. How stupid is that. It did make a difference in resale value. All school reports show Wantagh and Massapequa to have very strong schools.

My parents have had major termite issues as well. Our neighbors used chemicals on their house that later we deemed illegal. The stuff they put down now isn't as strong to protect the ground water so they have been stuck with the problem. So keep that in mind. Like someone else said, the burner originally is in the kitchen, no basement so you really need to think if you get an original Cape how long will this house suit my needs before I need to move or expand and if I expand, what will my taxes be for an average district.

[Walter Greenspan]

Originally Posted by nkerr

... there are areas of Wantagh, Seaford that go to Levittown schools.

While there are parts of North Wantagh and Levittown that have a "Wantagh, NY 11793" or "Seaford, NY 11783" mailing address that are in the Levittown Union Free School District, no part of Wantagh or Seaford is in the Levittown Union Free School District.

[budsvtec]

As I said before Levittown schools are way better now than they were in the 80's. do your homework before buying in Levittown. Read the school grades on Newsday. You will see they are up there with the better school districts in Nassau County. They also offer an excellent Special Ed program, plenty of activities for your children, and Free Pools for anyone that lives in Levittown, and I believe N Wantagh.

My wife and I live in Levittown for 6 years now and we love everything about this town. I have a Levitt cape with an attached garage that we recently Dormered, gutted downstairs and knocked all the walls out, moved the stairs to the back of the house and moved the boiler to the garage. When we gutted downstairs we had a lot of termite damage, but we replaced all the wood and had terminix come in and spray everything before we insulated and sheet rocked again. I also have the terminix system in the ground. We had a swarm of termite wings in our kitchen a few years back, but since using terminix we have had no problems at all.