Community guide · Town of North Hempstead · Nassau County, NY
Buying a home in the Town of North Hempstead
The Town of North Hempstead covers the northwest corner of Nassau County — the Great Neck and Port Washington peninsulas, Manhasset, Roslyn, and a band of villages running south to Mineola and Westbury. Around 240,000 people live here across roughly thirty incorporated villages and a set of unincorporated hamlets. This guide lays out how the town fits together, how the commute and the school districts work, and how Leatherman Homes handles a purchase here.
The Town of North Hempstead at a glance
The structural facts that shape a search here — the layout, the layers of government, and the rail lines that decide which communities fit your life.
2 peninsulas
Great Neck and Port Washington, reaching into the Long Island Sound
~30 villages
Roughly thirty incorporated villages, plus unincorporated hamlets
3 LIRR lines
Port Washington branch, Oyster Bay branch, and the Main Line
Since 1996
Leatherman Homes has worked Nassau County from Rockville Centre
How the town is laid out
Nassau County divides into three towns and two cities, and North Hempstead is the county's North Shore town. It runs from the Queens line east along the Long Island Sound, taking in the stretch of shoreline once known as the Gold Coast. The town itself is a layer of government — a supervisor and six council members, each council member elected by district — and inside it sit roughly thirty incorporated villages plus a set of unincorporated hamlets. Each incorporated village keeps its own mayor, board, and zoning, while the town administers the hamlets directly. Mineola, the village that serves as the Nassau County seat, sits mostly inside this town at its southern edge.
For a buyer, the practical read is geographic. The town has a waterfront half and an inland half, and the two shop differently.
The peninsulas and the harbor villages
Two peninsulas reach north into the Sound: Great Neck on the west, a cluster of small incorporated villages sharing one busy downtown and one LIRR station, and the Port Washington peninsula across Manhasset Bay, where the hamlet of Port Washington is ringed by small villages like Sands Point, Baxter Estates, Manorhaven, and the three Plandomes. Between and below them sit Manhasset, with its Americana shopping corridor on Northern Boulevard, and Roslyn, at the head of Hempstead Harbor with a historic village center. This is the town's water-view, larger-lot, older-tree half.
The central spine and the southern tier
South of Northern Boulevard the town settles into inland villages and hamlets: Albertson, Searingtown, Herricks, and Williston Park in the middle band, then Mineola, Carle Place, Westbury, and part of New Hyde Park along the Main Line corridor at the town's southern edge. Lots are tighter, downtowns sit on their stations, and the price of entry is generally lower than on the peninsulas. Many buyers who start a search in Manhasset or Roslyn end up closing in this band.
The short answer
If you only read one section, read this one.
The Town of North Hempstead is Nassau County's North Shore town — around 240,000 people across roughly thirty incorporated villages and a set of hamlets, from the Great Neck and Port Washington peninsulas on the Sound down to Mineola and Westbury on the Main Line. The waterfront half carries the Gold Coast character and the higher prices; the inland half offers the same school-district-driven family markets at a lower entry point.
Three things decide most purchases here. First, the school district, because about a dozen separate districts serve parts of the town and the lines run block by block. Second, the rail line, because the Port Washington branch reaches Manhattan without a change at Jamaica while the southern villages ride the Main Line. Third, the ownership type, because the town mixes single-family houses with a meaningful pool of co-ops and condos around its downtowns. Settle those three and the search narrows itself.
Quick facts
The reference points buyers ask about first, with the public sources to confirm them in the sources section below.
- What it is: One of Nassau County's three towns, on the North Shore
- Population: 237,639 at the 2020 Census — about 240,000 today
- Government: Town supervisor plus six council members elected by district
- Inside the town: Roughly thirty incorporated villages plus hamlets
- County seat: Mineola — the village sits mostly within this town
- Rail: Port Washington branch, Oyster Bay branch, and the LIRR Main Line
- Schools: About a dozen public school districts serve parts of the town
- Character: The Gold Coast shoreline north, commuter villages south
Data last verified July 2026 against the public sources linked in Sources & references below. We do not publish town-wide medians, days-on-market, or appreciation figures here, because a single number that blends Sands Point with New Hyde Park would mislead more than it informs — live pricing for the exact community and home type sits on the listings page.
The communities inside the town
Every community here deserves its own page, and those village guides are being built now. Until each one is live, this is the working map — and the Nassau County guide is the hub that puts the whole county in context.
The Great Neck peninsula
A collection of small incorporated villages — Great Neck, Great Neck Plaza, Kings Point, Kensington, Saddle Rock, Thomaston, Russell Gardens, and their neighbors — sharing one peninsula, one downtown, and the first Nassau stop on the Port Washington branch. The apartment stock runs deep here alongside the houses, and the price range is one of the widest in the county.
The Port Washington peninsula, Manhasset & Roslyn
Port Washington wraps around its harbor at the end of the rail line, with Sands Point, Baxter Estates, Manorhaven, and the Plandomes around it. Manhasset anchors the base of the peninsula, and Roslyn sits at the head of Hempstead Harbor with one of the North Shore's oldest village centers. Larger lots, water views, and estate-scale properties concentrate in this pocket.
The spine and the Main Line villages
Albertson, Searingtown, Herricks, and Williston Park fill the middle of the town, with Mineola, Carle Place, Westbury, and part of New Hyde Park along the southern rail corridor. These are station-centered communities where the housing is mostly single-family, the commute runs through the Main Line, and the school district on the block does most of the work of setting the price.
How the school districts work
Schools drive more North Hempstead purchases than any other single factor, and the structure rewards a careful read.
About a dozen public school districts serve parts of the town. Great Neck, Port Washington, Manhasset, Roslyn, Herricks, East Williston, Mineola, Westbury, and Carle Place each run their own district, and several more districts cover smaller slices. The lines were drawn independently of village boundaries, so a village name on the mailing address settles very little — two houses a few blocks apart can sit in different districts, and an unincorporated hamlet like Searingtown or Albertson can feed a district named for a different community entirely.
That structure is workable once you treat the district map as the starting point. On any house you are serious about, we confirm the actual district against the district's own boundary maps and the county's records, so the school assumption behind your offer is a checked fact. The districts publish their own enrollment and program information, and the New York State Education Department carries the underlying data for every one of them.
The range of homes you will find
Three ownership types cover most of what comes to market in the town, and the type sets the financing, the timeline, and the approval steps before price enters the picture.
Single-family houses
The bulk of the inventory, and the full spread is here: postwar Capes and splits in the southern villages, center-hall colonials in Manhasset and Roslyn, and estate-scale properties toward Sands Point and Kings Point. Condition and district do most of the sorting within any one community.
Co-op apartments
The town carries a real co-op market, concentrated around the busier station downtowns — Great Neck Plaza most visibly. A co-op purchase adds a board-approval step and different financing rules, which changes the timeline and the paperwork. It is the most affordable way into several of the town's best-known districts.
Condominiums
A smaller pool than houses or co-ops: deeded units, less upkeep than a house, and no board purchase approval. Newer condo buildings cluster near the downtowns and along the main corridors, and they suit buyers who want the peninsula location with a simpler transaction.
The Town of North Hempstead listings page filters all three types across the town's main communities in one grid.
The commute: three rail lines, one big difference
Rail service shapes value across the whole town, and one branch carries a genuine structural advantage.
The Port Washington branch serves the waterfront half of the town — Great Neck, Manhasset, and Plandome, terminating at Port Washington. It is the one LIRR branch that reaches Manhattan without passing through Jamaica, which makes it a one-seat ride and removes the transfer that shapes most Long Island commutes. That advantage is priced into the peninsula markets, and it is durable.
The rest of the town rides two other lines. The Oyster Bay branch runs up the town's eastern side through East Williston, Albertson, Roslyn, and Greenvale. The Main Line runs across the southern tier through New Hyde Park, Mineola, Carle Place, and Westbury, with Mineola serving as one of the busiest stations in the county. Drivers work the Long Island Expressway and Northern State Parkway, which cross the town east to west. When we walk a house with you, the honest commute math — platform to desk, in both directions — is part of the conversation.
How Leatherman Homes works a purchase here
A boutique Rockville Centre brokerage that has worked Nassau County since 1996 — and a broker who has spent years inside the systems that move every Long Island deal.
Leatherman Homes is twenty-six licensed associates, most running their own book, plus two small teams within the roster, working out of Rockville Centre. Broker Kevin Leatherman has closed 1,100-plus career transactions across single-family, co-op, and condo work, and he is a Past President of the Long Island Board of REALTORS® and of MLSli, serving today on the Board of Managers of OneKey® MLS.
On a North Hempstead purchase, that experience turns into a checklist: the school district confirmed against the district's own maps, the village or hamlet's permit history pulled from the right building department, flood exposure read for the harbor-front blocks, and comparable sales drawn from the specific community you are buying into. You work with a named associate from the first showing to the closing table, and the broker's file review sits behind every offer. Meet the roster on the associates page.
- Broker, Leatherman Homes
- 1,100+ career transactions
- Past President, LIBOR
- Past President, MLSli
- Board of Managers, OneKey® MLS
- Boutique brokerage since 1996
My take on buying in the Town of North Hempstead
Thirty years of Nassau County work condenses to a short, honest list for this town.
What works in your favor
- The one-seat Port Washington branch ride is a structural advantage that holds its value through every market cycle.
- About a dozen strong school districts give families real choice at several different price points.
- The co-op and condo pool around the downtowns opens the town's best-known districts to buyers below the single-family entry price.
- Because the town spans peninsula estates and Main Line villages, a flexible buyer can stay inside it while the budget moves.
What to weigh honestly
- Nassau property taxes are a serious carrying cost everywhere in the town — budget the tax line alongside the mortgage.
- District lines run block by block and change value sharply; confirm the district on the specific house before you get attached.
- Village-by-village zoning and permitting means renovation history needs checking with the right office, which differs by address.
- Harbor-front and low-lying blocks carry flood considerations that deserve a FEMA map read before an offer.
What is on the market in the town now
Headline medians go stale the week they are written, so we keep the live picture instead — the active listings across the town's main communities, refreshed daily from the MLS. The Town of North Hempstead listings page gathers Great Neck, Port Washington, Manhasset, Roslyn, Westbury, Williston Park, New Hyde Park, and Albertson into one grid, with filters for type, beds, and price.
The live Town of North Hempstead market snapshot loads here, refreshed from the MLS. You can also open the full listings page to filter by single-family, condo, or co-op, by bedrooms, or by price band — or widen out to every active Nassau County listing.
The Town of North Hempstead on the map
The landmarks that anchor a search here — open each in Google Maps to see how a community sits relative to the water, the rail, and the county seat.
$618,000
90 Knightsbridge RD #4J, Great Neck, NY 11021
Listed by Compass Greater NY LLC
$730,000
36 Elton ST, Westbury, NY 11590
Listed by Park Assets Real Estate Corp
$1,485,000
23 West DR, Port Washington, NY 11050
Listed by Douglas Elliman Real Estate
$1,150,000
2501 Rose PL, Westbury, NY 11590
Listed by Professional RE of New York
$725,000
229 Sylvester Streets, Westbury, NY 11590
Listed by Challinger Realty Inc
$680,000
180 S MIDDLE NECK RD #3-K, Great Neck, NY 11021
Listed by Douglas Elliman Real Estate
$999,999
1673 Northern BLVD, Roslyn, NY 11576
Listed by Neighborhood Elite Homes LLC
$9,890,000
107A Wildwood RD, Great Neck, NY 11024
Listed by Lin Pan Realty Group LLC
$8,999,000
355A E Shore RD, Great Neck, NY 11023
Listed by Lin Pan Realty Group LLC
$2,980,000
355 E Shore RD, Great Neck, NY 11023
Listed by Lin Pan Realty Group LLC
$2,970,000
107 Wildwood RD, Great Neck, NY 11024
Listed by Lin Pan Realty Group LLC
$2,850,000
185 Whistler RD, Manhasset, NY 11030
Listed by Compass Greater NY LLC
$1,299,000
29 Tenafly DR, New Hyde Park, NY 11040
Listed by Ashford Homes 6 Inc
$1,599,000
163 Doral CT, Roslyn, NY 11576
Listed by Daniel Gale Sothebys Intl Rlty
$299,000
185 S Middle Neck RD #3G, Great Neck, NY 11021
Listed by Jamie Realty Group
$3,295,000
15 Ridge DR, Port Washington, NY 11050
Listed by Daniel Gale Sothebys Intl Rlty
$5,199,000
16 Middle DR, Manhasset, NY 11030
Listed by Douglas Elliman Real Estate
$1,888,000
20 OLD FARM RD, Great Neck, NY 11020
Listed by Edna Mashaal Realty LLC
$3,998,000
22 OLD FIELD LN, Great Neck, NY 11020
Listed by Edna Mashaal Realty LLC
$899,000
160 Broad ST, Williston Park, NY 11596
Listed by ERA/Caputo Realty
$995,000
50 New Hyde Park RD, New Hyde Park, NY 11040
Listed by LAFFEY REAL ESTATE
Town of North Hempstead — common questions
The questions buyers ask us first about this town, answered straight.
What is the Town of North Hempstead?
It is one of the three towns that make up Nassau County, covering the county's northwest corner along the Long Island Sound. The town is a layer of government above the villages: roughly thirty incorporated villages and a set of unincorporated hamlets sit inside it, and about 240,000 people live there. The places people name as home are communities like Great Neck, Port Washington, Manhasset, Roslyn, and Westbury.
Which communities are in the Town of North Hempstead?
The Great Neck peninsula, the Port Washington peninsula, Manhasset, Roslyn, Westbury, Williston Park, Albertson, Carle Place, Herricks, Searingtown, most of Mineola, and part of New Hyde Park, among others. Some are incorporated villages with their own mayors and zoning; others are unincorporated hamlets administered directly by the town.
How does the commute to Manhattan work from the Town of North Hempstead?
Three LIRR lines serve the town. The Port Washington branch runs through Great Neck, Manhasset, and Plandome to Port Washington, and it is the one LIRR branch that reaches Manhattan without passing through Jamaica. The Oyster Bay branch serves East Williston, Albertson, Roslyn, and Greenvale, and the Main Line runs across the southern tier through New Hyde Park, Mineola, Carle Place, and Westbury.
How do school districts work in the Town of North Hempstead?
About a dozen public school districts serve parts of the town — Great Neck, Port Washington, Manhasset, Roslyn, Herricks, East Williston, Mineola, Westbury, and Carle Place among them. District lines are drawn independently of village boundaries and can change from block to block, so we confirm the district for any specific house against the district's own maps before you rely on it.
What kinds of homes are for sale in the Town of North Hempstead?
Mostly single-family houses, from postwar homes in the southern villages to estate-scale properties on the peninsulas. Co-op apartments and condominiums cluster around the busier station downtowns, Great Neck Plaza most visibly. Ownership type changes the financing, the timeline, and the approval steps, so it is the first filter worth setting.
Why is there no median price for the Town of North Hempstead on this page?
A single town-wide figure would blend Great Neck, Westbury, Sands Point, and New Hyde Park into one number, and no buyer shops that way. The live listings grid shows current asking prices for the exact communities, home types, and price bands you care about, and we pull comparable sales for the specific block when you are serious about a house.
Sources & references
The public records and agencies we use to confirm the facts on this page — and that you can check yourself before you buy.
- Town of North Hempstead — official town site (government structure, departments, hamlet services)
- Town of North Hempstead — school districts serving the town
- Nassau County, NY — official county site (assessment, records, the county seat)
- MTA Long Island Rail Road (Port Washington branch, Oyster Bay branch, and Main Line schedules)
- New York State Education Department (district data for every school district in the town)
- FEMA Flood Map Service Center (flood zone lookups for the harbor-front blocks)
- U.S. Census Bureau (town population and housing data — 237,639 at the 2020 Census)
Keep exploring
Put the town in county-wide context, browse the live inventory, or meet the people who would work your file.
Looking in the Town of North Hempstead?
See what is on the market across the town today, or talk through the right community and district with a brokerage that has worked Nassau County since 1996.
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