What was Levittown in the 1950s?
Levittown is the name of several large suburban housing developments created in the United States and one in Puerto Rico by William J. Levitt and his company Levitt & Sons. The first Levittown home sold for $7,900 and in a short period of time, 17,000 units were sold, providing homes for 84,000 people.
How much did Levitt homes sell for?
Levitt & Sons was sold to ITT in 1964 for a reported $90 million ($700 million today). The company continued to build housing developments as an ITT subsidiary, under a variety of names that usually included “Levitt”. Development in Florida started two years later.
Are there any Levittown houses left?
Short answer: Probably not. Long answer: The homes have all been altered, expanded or rebuilt since the first house went up 70 years ago, according to the Levittown Historical Society. Levittown began as the first modern suburb in the United States.
Where was the model sales hub for Levittown in the 1950’s?
During the 1950s, Levittown’s commercial hub was the Shop-a-Rama, a 60-acre pedestrian mall featuring over 65 retailers and a variety of special events. For many residents, the shopping center was Main Street.
How much did a house in Levittown cost?
Available only to World War II veterans and their families–and only white veterans at that–the first Levittown house cost $6,990 with nearly no money down. Levitt built 17,447 houses in the next four years. On average, Levitt’s builders finished 12 houses per day , and the tract house was here to stay.
How much did each different style of Levittown house cost in the 1950s?
Each home looked the same in Levittown — they were all built in the Cape Cod-style and featured the same floorplan. They each cost around $7,000.
How much did a home cost in Levittown?
When was Levittown built?
1947
In 1947, William Levitt of Levitt & Sons began building mass-produced, affordable housing for veterans returning from World War II. Island Trees, or Levittown as it later became known, is widely recognized as the first modern American suburb.
What was wrong with Levittown?
The Construction of Levittown One problem was a severe housing shortage.
How much did a house cost in Levittown?
Families started moving into the new homes on Oct. 1, 1947. While the original homes sold for just $7,990 in 1949, the median price of a Levitt home today is $400,000, according to Multiple Listing Service of Long Island.
How much did it cost to buy a home in Levittown?
How much did each different style of Levittown PA house cost in the 1950s?
What was the cost of a home in Levittown?
Every finished home was equipped with televisions and modern kitchens. Homes cost around $8,000 at the end of the 1940s, and the G.I. Bill reduced this cost to only $400, or about $4,500 today. The median price of a Levitt home in today’s market is $400,000. Levittown, Long Island originally planned to feature 2,000 of these mass-produced homes.
What was the history of Levittown in the 1950s?
Levittown itself arguably embodied the best and worst of the postwar American story; it was a result of the entrepreneurship and ingenuity that has come to define the American spirit, but it also participated in the violent prejudice that has also been part of American history. The suburbs, of course, were not born in the 1950s.
Where did Abraham Levitt build Levittown Long Island?
In 1947, entrepreneur Abraham Levitt and his two sons, William and Alfred, broke ground on a planned community located in Nassau County, Long Island. Within a few years, the Levitts had transformed the former farmland into a suburban community housing thousands of men—many of whom were veterans returned from World War II—and their families.
When did the first Levittown car come out?
Introduced in 1952, the sleek, ranch-style Levittownerwas the best selling model during Levittown’s first few years.