Amityville, NY 11701: A Buyer’s Guide to Price, Flood Risk, and Disclosure Law

What Homes in 11701 Cost Right Now

Three numbers get used interchangeably for “the Amityville housing market,” and they measure three different things. The village-wide figure is a recent-sales median: $663,353 in May 2026, up 10.1% year over year, from actual closed transactions. Redfin’s Amityville market page tracks this monthly. The zip-wide figure is an algorithmic value index covering every home in 11701, not just recent sales, and it runs lower at $614,472 as of the same month, per the Zillow Home Value Index. The gap between those two numbers is explained by the third: North Amityville, a separate census-designated place that shares the 11701 zip code but is not part of the incorporated village, had its own median sale price of $430,000 in March 2026, according to Redfin’s North Amityville data. A buyer comparing listings across the zip code without knowing this will misjudge value on either side of the village line.

The zip-wide index sits between the other two because it blends both geographies; treat a listing’s location, village or North Amityville, as the first filter before comparing its price to any “Amityville average.”

Is Amityville village the same thing as the 11701 zip code?No. The 11701 zip code covers both the incorporated Village of Amityville and the separate hamlet of North Amityville, which has its own, lower median sale price and its own census designation.

The Commute: LIRR Time and Fare by Zone

Amityville station sits on the Babylon Branch, in LIRR fare Zone 9. Off-peak and peak trains to Penn Station run on a scheduled trip of roughly 50 to 60 minutes, per the current MTA Babylon Branch timetable. The cost side is where most guides stop at “about an hour” and skip the number that affects a household budget every month.

These figures come from the MTA’s LIRR fare chart, effective January 4, 2026. A five-day-a-week commuter pays $356.50 a month regardless of how many trips they take that month; an occasional rider paying one-way fares twice a day, three days a week, spends roughly $438 a month at the off-peak rate, more than the monthly pass. Anyone commuting three or more days a week comes out ahead on the monthly ticket.

Flood Risk Depends on the Block, Not the Zip Code

Amityville’s canals and its position on South Oyster Bay make flood exposure a real underwriting question, but no single village-wide percentage answers it honestly. The clearest documented example: 30 Emerald Lane South, an inland 11701 parcel, sits in FEMA’s Zone X, a low-to-moderate risk designation where flood insurance is not required for a standard mortgage, according to Redfin’s flood-data panel for that listing. That is not representative of every parcel in the zip code. For North Amityville, a separate hamlet within 11701, First Street Foundation’s model puts 20% of properties at severe flood risk over the next 30 years, per the same Redfin North Amityville data cited above.

Waterfront listings sometimes advertise “no flood insurance required” based on elevation certificates; that claim is address-specific and should be verified against the parcel’s own FEMA rating, not assumed from a neighbor’s listing.

Is Amityville, NY in a flood zone?Parts of it are and parts of it aren’t. FEMA zone status is assigned parcel by parcel; an inland 11701 address can sit in a low-risk Zone X while a canal-front address a few blocks away carries a mandatory flood-insurance designation.

Schools: Two Districts, One Wide Gap

Most of the Village of Amityville falls in the Amityville Union Free School District, but part of 11701 is zoned to Copiague UFSD instead. On state testing, Amityville UFSD’s math and reading proficiency both sit far below the New York state average, and the district ranks near the bottom of the state’s 865 districts.

Source: SchoolDigger’s Amityville UFSD profile. A buyer whose decision depends on school assignment should confirm which district a specific address falls into before relying on any “Amityville schools” summary; a Redfin listing for 30 Emerald Lane South shows a Copiague UFSD assignment despite the Amityville zip code, and district boundaries inside 11701 don’t track the zip code cleanly.

Safety: A Village Department, Not a County Precinct

The incorporated Village of Amityville runs its own police department rather than being patrolled directly by a Suffolk County Police precinct, per the Village of Amityville’s police department page. No village-specific crime dataset with a public URL was found during this research, so this page states that gap rather than repeating a county-wide or third-party dashboard figure that would not actually describe the village.

The Amityville Horror House and New York’s Disclosure Law

New York’s Real Property Law § 443-a states directly that a property being, or being suspected of being, the site of a homicide, suicide, or other death is not a material defect a seller must disclose. The statute, available in full at the New York Senate’s legislation database, also covers occupant HIV/AIDS status on the same non-disclosure basis. Subdivision 3 gives buyers a specific tool the statute doesn’t advertise well: a buyer can submit a written inquiry about such history when making an offer, and while the seller isn’t required to answer, an agent who does respond must respond honestly.

The house behind the 1974 murders and the 1975 to 1976 hauntings claims sits at what is now 108 Ocean Avenue; the address was changed from its original 112 after the publicity made the original number a magnet for visitors, according to A&E’s reporting on the house and its subsequent owners. That same reporting notes the property last sold in 2017 for $605,000, after being listed the previous year at $850,000. No owner since the Lutz family has reported anything unusual.

For any specific 11701 address with an uncertain history, § 443-a means silence from a listing agent isn’t informative either way; the only way to get an answer is to ask in writing before or during an offer.

Do New York sellers have to disclose a murder or suicide in a house?No. New York Real Property Law § 443-a exempts homicide, suicide, and other deaths from the state’s material-defect disclosure requirement, though a seller’s agent must answer honestly if a buyer submits a specific written inquiry.

Renting vs. Buying: The Real Numbers

Amityville village’s median household income was $103,684 in the Census Bureau’s 2023 American Community Survey estimates, and median gross rent for the same year was $2,005, per the same ACS-sourced dataset. A year of renting at $2,005 a month runs $24,060. A $663,353 purchase adds property taxes and homeowner’s insurance to that baseline, and, for any parcel that turns out to sit in a mapped flood zone under the check described above, a mandatory flood-insurance premium on top of principal and interest. That flood-insurance contingency, not the mortgage rate alone, is what most often flips the rent-versus-buy math for a specific 11701 address.

Common Mistakes: The Accessory-Apartment Rules

Waterfront and starter-home listings in Amityville sometimes mention a finished basement or a second kitchen as an income opportunity. The Village Code treats this narrowly.

• “Parent-child residence” has a legal definition. The Village Code allows a one-family dwelling to add a second kitchen only for a parent-child arrangement, and requires a minimum 75-foot lot frontage, a minimum 15,000-square-foot lot, and a recorded covenant confirming the arrangement, per Article IV of the Village Zoning Code. A second kitchen without that covenant and certificate of occupancy is not a legal parent-child unit, whatever a listing calls it.
• The second unit can’t sit in an accessory building. The same code section specifically bars a parent-child dwelling unit from being located in a detached structure; it must be inside the main dwelling.
• Renting any unit to a non-owner requires a separate permit. Under the Village’s rental-permit local law, occupancy of any residential unit by someone other than the owner for 30 consecutive days or more requires a rental permit, and the property must meet Village, county, and state code before that permit issues.
• A first violation carries a real penalty. The rental-permit law sets a fine of $250 to $1,000, or up to six months’ imprisonment, for a first violation.

Can I legally rent out a basement or in-law apartment in Amityville?Only if it qualifies under the Village Code’s specific parent-child residence rules, or if the owner holds a separate rental permit for a non-owner-occupied unit. A finished basement with a kitchenette does not automatically qualify for either.