What can I actually afford on Long Island
This is the first question I ask a buyer, and it is not what price do you want. It is what can you carry every month without hating your life. Start there and the price range answers itself. Taxes are in the math, because on Long Island they are often a third of the payment and leaving them out is how people end up touring homes they cannot close on.
Both of those last two are assumptions until you replace them. The rate is whatever a lender actually quotes you, and there are three on the resources page who will tell you in a phone call. Property tax is entered as a percent of value so it moves with the price, because a tax bill is not a fixed cost, it scales with the house. Published effective rates for Long Island generally sit somewhere around 1.8 to 2.4 percent depending on county and town, and the sources do not agree with each other, which is exactly why the only figure that counts is the actual bill on the actual house. The assessor publishes it and the listing should disclose it.
Want to talk it through with these numbers in front of me?
Send the run first, then call. I answer with your figures already on my screen instead of asking you to read them off yours.
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I want this home
Found the actual house? Type its price. Your down payment, rate, and tax figure from above carry straight down, and the three financing lanes line up side by side, which is the only view that shows what a low down payment really costs each month.
First home? Ask about SONYMA before you accept any rate.
New York State's own program lends to first time buyers at below market rates with down payment help. Its rates change and are not ours to quote, so the move is one question to a lender: am I SONYMA eligible? Three who answer the phone are on the resources page.
Estimates for planning. The FHA lane checks against the 2026 FHA one unit loan limits, $1,209,750 in Suffolk and $1,249,125 in Nassau, per HUD's published county limits, and uses FHA's standard premiums, 1.75 percent upfront financed into the loan and 0.55 percent a year. An official Loan Estimate from a lender is the binding document.
The cash on top of the down payment
Closing costs on Long Island generally run about 3 to 5 percent of the purchase price for a buyer. That covers your attorney, title insurance and searches, lender fees, recording, and the escrow the lender collects up front for taxes and insurance. If the price reaches $1,000,000 the mansion tax adds another 1 percent of the whole price, which you can check on the transfer tax calculator.
So the real cash question is not just the down payment. It is the down payment plus that 3 to 5 percent, and I would rather you know the top of that range now than find it in week six.
Your agent, and who pays for one
The rules changed with the National Association of REALTORS settlement, and every buyer should hear this before they tour anything. You now sign a written agreement with your agent before you go through a home, and that agreement has to state the compensation as a specific amount or rate rather than leaving it open ended. Offers of compensation can no longer be published in the MLS.
What that does not mean is that you automatically write a separate cheque. Sellers and listing brokers can still offer to cover a buyer agent, negotiated outside the MLS, and on plenty of Long Island purchases it is still handled that way. What changed is that it is now an explicit negotiation instead of an assumption. Ask about it at the first conversation, and plan for the possibility that it lands in your column.
Read it from the source rather than from an agent paraphrasing it: the National Association of REALTORS settlement FAQ, and the Long Island Board of REALTORS for how it is being handled here. I am a licensed salesperson, not your attorney, and your attorney reviews the contract before you sign anything.
Common questions
How much house can I afford on Long Island?
Start from the monthly payment you can carry, not from a price. Take out property taxes and insurance first, because taxes are often a third of the payment here, and what is left supports the loan. Add your down payment to that loan and you have a range. A buyer carrying $3,000 a month with 20 percent down is looking at a band, not one number, and the band moves with the tax bill on the specific house.
How much cash do I need to close?
The down payment plus roughly 3 to 5 percent of the price. On a $500,000 purchase with 20 percent down that is $100,000 down plus roughly $15,000 to $25,000 in costs, more if the price reaches the mansion tax line.
Do I have to pay my own agent now?
You sign a written agreement stating the compensation before you tour, and it cannot be left open ended. Sellers and listing brokers can still offer to cover it, negotiated outside the MLS, so on many purchases here it is still paid from the seller side. Ask at the first conversation and plan for either outcome.
Why does this calculator ask for the tax figure?
Because inventing one would make the answer wrong. Long Island taxes swing widely between towns and between two houses on the same street. This site does not publish a tax estimate it cannot trace to the assessor, so you supply the real figure and the math follows it.
Then we do it properly
A calculator gets you the shape of the thing. The next step is a lender confirming the rate and a conversation about the towns where that band actually buys the house you want.
Talk it through See what towns cost Contact Muds
Disclaimer: the band is computed with the standard 30 year mortgage amortization formula, using the rate, property tax percentage, and insurance figures shown as stated assumptions you can change. Actual payments, rates, taxes, and insurance vary by lender, property, and closing date, so your real numbers may differ from any estimate here. Estimates for planning, not a loan approval, not legal or tax advice. Your lender and your attorney give you the binding numbers. Mohammed Mudassir, licensed real estate salesperson, OverSouth Real Estate.