Levittown was built as a community of starter homes for young marrieds seeking their American Dream.
Recently, however, a Levittown house sold for $720,000 — a price so steep that average Levittowners would not qualify for a mortgage.
Real estate records show that the house, a 1958 Country Clubber along Fountain Road in the Forsythia Gate section of Middletown, brought the record price in November. It’s the highest price paid for a William Levitt-built house in the iconic suburb’s 72-year history.
“It’s a beautiful house, totally redone, with a ton of amenities,” said realtor Robin Kemmerer, who grew up in the famous post-World War II development known for sturdy, low-priced houses and labeled by its builder as the “most perfectly planned community in America.”
The price tag, while good for Levittowners building equity and wealth, is likely bad for their children and grandchildren. A couple seeking their first house here would need an annual income of approximately $120,000 to afford a typically priced Levitt-built house, which today costs between $350,00 to $450,000.
Asked where the affordable, single-family houses are located in Bucks County, Kemmerer said: “There aren’t any.”
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An average Levittown house in need of kitchen and bath updates now hits the market at between $350,000 and $450,000.
Splitting the difference, a $400,000 house purchased with a 30-year fixed mortgage at 6.5% would require a 20% down payment of $90,000. The monthly payment would be approximately $3,000 a month.
“Who can afford that?” Kemmerer said.
Not many in Levittown. The median annual household income is $97,750, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That means the average Levittown homeowner could not qualify for a mortgage to buy into their own neighborhood.
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Inflation and high mortgage interest rates aren’t the only two items driving house prices. A lack of new single-family homes has made the market tight.
In the third week of December, Kemmerer said, just one Levittown house was available, in the Cobalt Ridge section.
Among the reasons so few affordably priced homes are built in Bucks County is that, like Levittown, they would have to be constructed in a large numbers, just as Levitt and Sons did in the 1950s.
Exploiting economies of scale, a Levitt-built Rancher, the least expensive model, sold for $8,990 in 1953. At the time that was less than half the price for a typical new house, and it had more amenities.
A 30-year mortgage for a 1953 Levitt Rancher was $59 a month, including property taxes and insurance.
For that, a newlywed couple received 900 square feet of first-floor living space with an unfinished second floor, radiant heat, “Thermopane” windows, and a kitchen outfitted with metal white, pink or blue Tracy cabinets with matching General Electric appliances.
All of this was on about a quarter-acre of land…
Read More: Levittown house sells for record price in Bucks County real estate
