countless times and never noticed the contrast. Eventually, we were able to construct a database of Levitt house models by street address and with that information we were able to sort the sales information by house model. So what did we find? The model with the highest sales volume (190) is the Levittowner, which also had the lowest average sale price of $176,940. At total sales of $33,617,920, sales of Levittowners represented almost 31% of the total real estate sales dollars in Levittown (Levitt built homes). The Jubilee, with the second highest number of sales (177) captured the highest total sales dollar category at $34,938,460 representing 32% of total sales. The Country Clubber model had the highest average sales value at $276,710. For contrast, it is noteworthy that the estimated value for a home in Pennsylvania according to the most recent (2008 – 2012) estimates made in the American Community Survey (ACS) by the Census Bureau is $164,900. In Bucks County, the average (median) estimated house value is reported to be $315,600 and for Levittown (CDP) it is reported to be $233,900. Note that the average value in the
done here.
The Levittowner model is a brisk seller, just as it was in 1952. ACS ($233,900) exceeds the estimate for the 2013 sales data ($195,000). The ACS does not exclusively consider only Levitt built homes as I have
Levittown (Levitt built) housing has retained value over the years that presently exceeds the average value for a house in Pennsylvania. The Levittowner, a single story ranch style house originally built with around 1,000’ of floor space, has the highest sales volume, as we already noted, among the 6 Levitt house models. These sales data suggest Levittown housing and the Levittowner in particular, continue to provide a reasonably affordable entry point into home ownership in Bucks County. With annual (2013) real estate sales of $109M and associated activity (tax revenue, mortgages, furnishings, remodeling) estimated to be on the scale of $100M +/-, the continued resale of Levitt built housing is a large driver for the local economy. ■ —Kevin Deeny Kevin Deeny is an Environmental Engineer and Sustainable Building Advisor living in Levittown, PA. He has been working to develop a Green Levittown Initiative to help make Levittown housing more sustainable for the future. He can be reached at kdeeny@comcast.net
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The Levittown Leader
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