Sell Your Levittown House for Cash, As-Is

Nassau County's Department of Assessment puts the value on every house in the hamlet, and you can look yours up at mynassauproperty.com. If that number looks wrong, the Assessment Review Commission hears appeals on value, exemptions and tax class. ARC is its own agency, separate from the Department of Assessment, and its customer service line is 516-571-3214.

The next filing period starts January 4, 2027, the day the county publishes its 2028/29 tentative roll, and it closes March 1, 2027. Filing online through AROW costs nothing. Paper applications go to ARC's Mineola office, 240 Old Country Road, 5th Floor. ARC also runs community workshops, and customer service has the 2028/29 schedule. ARC then has until March 31, 2028 to decide, and the county publishes the final roll on April 3, 2028. Still unhappy after that? May 1, 2028 is the last day to ask a court to review the 2028/29 final assessment.

Listen, the delay is the whole story. File in early 2027 and the result lands on the school tax billed in October 2028 and the general tax billed in January 2029. If you expect to close in 2026 or 2027, any savings will most likely land on the buyer's bills, not yours. Decide whether to file based on your closing date.

If you still have the old STAR exemption, the state says a buyer may receive it for their first year of ownership and then has to switch to the STAR credit. It won't follow you to your next home in New York either.

Redfin's report covering June through August 2026 puts the median at $775,000, an 8.8% jump over those months in 2025. The median house needed 29 days on market (22 a year earlier), and homes closed at 101.3% of asking on average. August alone had 141 closed sales (127 the August before), and Redfin scores the market 85 out of 100 for competitiveness. Bottom line: buyers are paying more, but they're taking about a week longer to commit.

Alfred Levitt designed these houses with ideas borrowed from Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian homes, according to Hofstra University's Levittown exhibit. Instead of a dug basement, each one sat on a concrete slab with heating pipes embedded in it. The first model was a Cape Cod. In 1949, under pressure from the Federal Housing Administration, the design became a ranch with the living room moved to the back behind a Thermopane window wall, and the kitchen kept at the front. Per the exhibit, that front kitchen also shortened the sewer pipe run to the street, which kept costs down. The 1950 and 1951 models kept that layout and added features such as a built-in television set. Inside, the plan leaned on built-in shelving and storage, an open living area, and a fireplace between the kitchen and living room with an indoor barbecue grill.

So what does that mean when you sell? Know what's heating your house today. If the original slab pipes were abandoned or a new system went in, have the paperwork. And if you added a dormer, a second floor or a rear extension, make sure a permit for it is on file with the town.

Every original house here predates 1978 by decades, so federal lead rules ride along with your contract. The contract has to carry a Lead Warning Statement. You also hand over EPA's lead booklet. Anything known about lead paint, plus any test results, goes in the disclosure. Then the buyer gets a 10-day test period, unless they sign it away.

Hempstead's town Building Department, on the 2nd floor at One Washington Street in Hempstead, enforces building, plumbing, electrical and housing codes and rules on the use and occupancy of property. Permits and building forms live in the town's online permit center at hempsteadny.viewpointcloud.com. Call 516-538-8500 before you list and find out what's open on your address. Email works too, at TOHBuildingQuestions@hempsteadny.gov, and the front counter is open 8 am to 4:45 pm.

New York requires the state disclosure form, the PCDS, and since March 20, 2024 you can't buy your way out of it with a $500 credit. Seven flood questions were added at the same time, covering FEMA floodplain maps, flood insurance and past flood claims. The whole form now runs 56 questions, so give yourself an evening with your records to fill it out right.

When the deed transfers, the state's transfer tax falls on you, at $2 on every $500 of sale price. The buyer's 1% mansion tax only kicks in from $1 million up, and the Redfin median here sits at $775,000, so the typical sale doesn't hit it.

Don't want to update an original Cape before listing? Easy Sell will take the house as it sits, with a cash offer inside 24 hours.

Start at mynassauproperty.com. Look up your parcel and the county's current assessment there. ARC's online form will ask for your address or Parcel ID (Section/Block/Lot), so jot it down.

Then reach the Hempstead building office. Ask at 516-538-8500 or TOHBuildingQuestions@hempsteadny.gov what permits are open on your address, and use the online permit center for the forms to close them out.

Decide on a grievance before March 1, 2027. AROW opens January 4, and it wants your contact details, the parcel information, your own market value estimate and an email address. ARC takes questions at arc@nassaucountyny.gov.

Before the buyer signs, deliver the paperwork. That's the PCDS, plus the lead disclosure package, since every original Levitt house went up between 1947 and 1951.

At the closing table, the state transfer tax comes out of your proceeds at $2 per $500. Point your buyer to the STAR credit registration, since the state says your old exemption only carries into their first year.