Levittown house lists for $700,000. When will we see the first $1 million house?

With its semi-circular driveway, entrance fountain, dramatic two-story foyer and pool house cabana aside an in-ground pool, the house on Rose Apple Road in Levittown is a stunner. So is its price, just below $700,000.

That’s a first in Levittown, which has served as a stop for first-time homebuyers since the first one bath, three-bedroom Levittowner was sold in the Stonybrook section in 1952.

But the house on Rose Apple Road may signal the end of Levittown as affordable. The $700k house in Red Rose Gate – in the slightly tonier “Gates” sections of Levittown in Middletown – is unprecedented.

“Oh, someone will buy it, that’s for sure,” said Robin Kemmerer, a realtor whose bread-and-butter is the Levittown market.

What would you need to finance that house on Rose Apple Road? With a 10 percent down payment and closing costs, about $95,000 cash at settlement. A fixed rate mortgage at 8-percent, along with insurance and taxes, your payment will be $5,643 a month – for 30 years.

While the average, Levitt-built house in Lower Bucks County has sold in recent years between $400,0000 to $450,000, it’s not unusual to see prices for houses gutted and flipped in the mid-$500,000s to low $600,000s throughout its 41 sections, which covers the municipalities of Bristol, Falls and Middletown townships, and Tullytown Borough.

In August, a redone Jubilee in the Kenwood section in Bristol Township sold for $620,000, though its makeover erased its clean, mid-century modern lines, leaving it a two-story contemporary, common to affluent neighborhoods above Route 1.

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North Park appears to be the tear-out king of Levittown, with humble Ranchers, which Levitt and Sons. Inc. sold for $8,990 in 1953, now going for well over $500,000.

“Have you seen how many houses in North Park are now colonials?” Kemmerer said.

The reasons are simple, supply and demand. There’s little of the first and lots of the second.

Last week, there were only two Country Clubber models for sale, including the $700k house.

“In Middletown, there are no Levittowners, Jubilees, Pennsylvanians or Colonials on the market. None. Not one for sale,” Kemmerer said. “There are four Levittown houses for sale in Falls Township (and Tullytown), and there’s 17 in Bristol Township. Now, in the old days, I’d be able to show you 30 houses each. In Bristol Township, there’d be 80 for sale.”

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But even 8-percent mortgage rates hasn’t stopped people from wanting to move to Levittown, especially if they live in Philadelphia. High crime rates are driving demand.

“People are rushing out of the city,” Kemmerer said. “Every time I have somebody here, and we go to settlement, and they’re from Philadelphia, I hear the same story, ‘Somebody got killed on my street.’ They have these horrific stories of why they had to get out. So, it’s primarily people from the Northeast, begging to get out,” she said.

That’s if you can afford Levittown. Even people with a college degree and a good income are being turned away because they don’t qualify for what the Levitts called “the most perfectly planned community in America.”

Gunnar Bolf, a mortgage lender who calls himself “the Levittown Loaner,” said a woman who is single and makes good money for Lower Bucks County was just turned down for a Levittown mortgage.

“This girl has a college degree, she has a great job, she makes $70,000 a year. Unfortunately, she has student loans and a car $175,” he said. “The problem is when you have that kind of debt with today’s interest rates, she qualifies for $175,000 mortgage. Two years ago, when interest was at 3 (percent), she would have qualified for a minimum $300,000,” he said.

Said Kemmerer: “You’re not buying anything in Levittown with $175k. You can’t afford Bucks County.”

Not Bristol Borough?

“Not Bristol. No way,” she said. “Too expensive.”

“You need a dual income,” Bolf said. “The days of being single and buying a house around here are done.”

As inflation rages and interest rates bump higher, will we see the first Levittown house listed for $1 million?

“Sure,” Kemmerer said. “When will that time be? I don’t know. But it’s inevitable.”

JD Mullane can be reached at 215-949-5745 or at jmullane@couriertimes.com.

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This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Levittown house lists for $700k as Bucks County real estate market soars