Home Inspector in Yonkers and New Rochelle, Westchester County, NY

Areas we serve › Westchester County › Yonkers and New Rochelle

Yonkers and New Rochelle sit next to each other on the southern edge of Westchester County, and they are as different from Nassau’s postwar subdivisions as they are from Queens. Housing here runs from large apartment buildings downtown to Victorian and early-twentieth-century revival houses in the historic districts, from two-family homes on city blocks to single-family houses near rivers that flooded in 2021. A home inspection in Yonkers or New Rochelle spends as much time on water, oil tanks and old mechanical systems as on the house itself.

This page uses census and flood-insurance records to describe what you are likely to find in each of the ZIP codes of the two cities, and what it means for a home inspection in Yonkers or New Rochelle. We are Inspecwise, a New York State–licensed, InterNACHI-certified inspector based in Queens, and Westchester is within our service area. The rules and history below link to their sources so that you can read them yourself.

Two cities, several housing markets

The first thing the numbers show is that “Yonkers” and “New Rochelle” are not one market each. The tables use ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, which are mail-delivery areas and not neighborhoods, but they are the smallest units for which the Census Bureau publishes this survey. Read each row as a type of place.

Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020–2024 five-year estimates (tables B25034, B25003 and B25024). Percentages of occupied homes in each ZIP; they do not add up to 100 because mobile homes and other types are left out.

Three groups stand out. ZIP 10701 and ZIP 10705 in Yonkers and ZIP 10805 in New Rochelle are mostly apartments, with 63%, 61% and 63% of homes in buildings of five or more units, and a minority of owners. ZIP 10703, 10704 and 10710 in Yonkers, and ZIP 10801 in New Rochelle, are mixed: between 23% and 44% detached houses, and 35% of homes in ZIP 10703 in buildings of two to four units. ZIP 10804 in New Rochelle is the opposite of downtown: 96% owner-occupied and 87% detached houses, with a median home value of $927,000, compared with $663,200 for the county.

For a buyer, the practical consequence is that a two-family house in ZIP 10703 and a detached house in ZIP 10804 need different inspections. Our guide to two- and three-family houses and our comparison of condo and house inspections cover the other types.

The housing here is old, and it is documented. The county’s housing needs assessment, republishing 2017 Census survey data, puts the share of homes built in 1939 or earlier at 37.4% in New Rochelle and 31.2% in Yonkers, which matches the neighborhood-level figures above. Both cities have historic districts where that age is visible. The National Park Service lists the Rochelle Park–Rochelle Heights Historic District in New Rochelle (listed in 2005, in Late Victorian and twentieth-century revival styles, with significant years of 1885 and 1905), and the Halcyon Place Historic District in Yonkers (listed in 1991, in Classical Revival, Late Victorian and Mission or Spanish Revival styles, 1900 to 1924).

The practical point for a buyer is that a house in a district may come with rules. New Rochelle’s historic district brochure says Rochelle Park–Rochelle Heights became the city’s first local historic district in 1986 and that owners must obtain a Certificate of Appropriateness before certain kinds of changes to the exterior of a property. If you are thinking of replacing windows, siding or a roof, ask whether the house is in a district before you price the work.

Old houses, old systems

Between 12% and 35% of homes in these ZIP codes were built before 1940, and another 16% to 42% between 1940 and 1959. The median year built in ZIP 10801 is 1957, in ZIP 10804 it is 1952 and in ZIP 10704 it is 1953. A buyer of one of the older houses can reasonably expect some of these:

• Heating plants of several generations. Steam boilers with radiators, hot-water systems with baseboard, and forced-air additions. The boiler’s age, its safety controls, the chimney or flue, and the condition of the radiators or piping all go in the report.
• Wiring that has been added to. Original wiring may include knob-and-tube or cloth-covered cable. Many houses have been partly rewired, and old and new sit in the same walls. We look at the panel, the service size, and the outlets and junctions we can reach.
• Mixed plumbing. Galvanized supply pipes and cast-iron drains alongside copper and plastic repairs. Low water pressure, rusty water and slow drains are common signs.
• Roofs that are costly to repair. Slate and clay tile roofs, copper flashing and built-in gutters are durable but expensive when they fail, and a roofer who works at that level is a specialist.
• Masonry and stucco. Brick pointing, chimney crowns, stucco cracks and half-timbered details let water into walls slowly. The damage may not show until a lot of it has happened.
• Foundations and retaining walls. Stone and brick foundations, and the retaining walls and steps on sloping lots, are where cracks and movement show up. We look at them and at what the water does around the house.
• Old trees close to the house. Roots, overhanging limbs and leaves in gutters affect drains, roofs and foundations.

None of that is a reason to avoid an older house, and many buyers want one for its detail and its setting. It is a reason to put a name on each system and learn how much life it has left.

Flood history: Ida, rivers and the Sound

Water is the most important local difference between these two cities and the suburbs to the east. FEMA’s flood-insurance claims file lists 1,503 claims in the eight ZIP codes in the tables since 1978, with 201 of them from Hurricane Ida in September 2021, and building claims paid of about $23,645,916. ZIP 10804 in New Rochelle alone has 500 claims, 89 of them from Ida. For comparison, ZIP 11756 in Levittown has 16 claims in total.

The claims count only insured losses. Many floods go unclaimed because a standard homeowner’s policy does not generally cover flood damage, and because many owners do not carry flood insurance. The file also assigns each claim to a ZIP code, which is a mail area and not a flood zone. Treat the table as a signal of where water has been, and check the specific address.

FEMA’s record of the major disaster declared after the remnants of Hurricane Ida lists Westchester County, with an incident period of 1 to 3 September 2021. NOAA’s storm-events database gives a county-wide damage estimate of $92.6 million, which it says includes $78 million in FEMA assistance to property owners, renters and businesses and $14.6 million in damage to county infrastructure. It records that in Yonkers on 1 September the Cross County Parkway was closed in both directions and Ashburton Avenue near the Saw Mill River Parkway was closed by flooding. A smaller storm on 8 July 2021 had already flooded Central Park Avenue in Yonkers to the doors of stranded cars.

The county’s 2021 hazard mitigation plan names where the water collects. Its Yonkers annex describes persistent flooding at the Nepperhan River Valley (the Saw Mill River), along the Hudson, and on Clunie Avenue, Nepperhan Avenue and in Long Vale. The New Rochelle annex says Beechmont Drive is low-lying and floods in heavy rain because the storm drains are too small, that emergency crews routinely rescue residents of Valley Road by boat, and that the Hutchinson River floods. Both plans give flood-insurance statistics from FEMA as of July 2021, which is before Ida:

The plan reports 286 repetitive-loss properties in New Rochelle. For Yonkers it gives two different counts in the same document, so we do not repeat one. It also notes that new construction in a FEMA special flood hazard area must be built two feet above the base flood elevation, which affects anyone planning to rebuild or add to a house in one.

What an inspection does about water

• Looks at grading, downspouts, window wells, driveway slope and retaining walls, because most basement water starts outside.
• Checks basement walls and floors for stains, efflorescence, cracking and past repairs, and tests suspect areas with a moisture meter.
• Tests sump pumps and notes where they discharge, whether there is a battery backup, and whether any floor drain has a backwater valve.
• Recommends a camera inspection of the sewer line for older houses or those with a history of backups. See our sewer scope guide.
• Asks about past flooding and insurance claims, and prompts you to check the address on FEMA’s flood map before you buy.

Sewer laterals

The county’s Department of Environment and Facilities says that after sewage leaves a house it flows through a lateral line, which is the property owner’s responsibility, into a sewer main owned and maintained by the municipality. New Rochelle’s sewer backups page repeats it for homeowners there, warns that it is illegal to connect French drains, sump pumps and other flood-control systems to the sanitary sewer, and says homeowners insurance does not cover sewer backup. A sump pump that discharges into a sanitary line is a defect to flag. Yonkers’ Water Bureau says many Yonkers homeowners are responsible for the repair and maintenance of the water and sewer service lines on their property.

Yonkers also has a chapter of its city code, Chapter 57, Article XI, titled “Private Sewers and Laterals.” Its table of contents lists sections called “Disclosure, inspection and repair” and “Sewer lateral certificates of compliance.” We read the headings and not the text, so we cannot say what triggers them. Ask your attorney whether a lateral certificate applies to your purchase, and plan for a camera inspection of the line either way. See our sewer scope guide.

Oil, gas and electric heat

Heating fuel varies by ZIP, as the table above shows. Oil runs from 13% to 28% of homes, with the highest share in ZIP 10805, compared with 28% for Westchester County. Electricity heats 24% of homes in ZIP 10701, where most homes are in large apartment buildings. Gas is the main fuel in every one of these ZIP codes.

A house that burns oil has a tank, and a house that was converted to gas may still have an old one. That is a standard question in an older Westchester house. Our oil tank inspection guide explains what an inspector can see and what needs a specialist.

Whether a house has a registered tank depends on its size. The Westchester County Department of Health runs the petroleum bulk storage program for the state, and its page defines a regulated facility as tanks holding more than 1,100 gallons combined, or any tank over 110 gallons with ten percent or more of its volume underground. The county says the tanks it regulates are mainly at commercial sites, gas stations and large apartment buildings, and the state’s rule carves out an on-premises heating-oil tank of less than 1,100 gallons that is not connected to another tank. We could not read the county code itself, so whether a typical residential tank has to be registered with the county is a question for the county health department, not a conclusion we draw.

The cities have their own rules for removal and closure. Yonkers’ forms say that tank removal, abandonment and installation are filed with the Fire Prevention Bureau, and that if a tank has leaked it must be removed and the state notified so a spill number can be assigned. Those forms are undated or from around 2011, so check the current ones. New Rochelle’s Fire Department says it does not allow above-ground tanks, that tanks must be installed by a licensed New Rochelle oil burner installer, and that a tank left in place needs soil samples and a fill of slurry, which the department witnesses. When you buy a house with oil heat, ask for the paperwork on any tank that was removed or closed in place. It is the best evidence that the work was done correctly, and the tank is the single most expensive thing to learn about after closing.

Radon

Radon is the clearest case in this county of a map that does not match the measurements. EPA’s 1993 map puts Westchester County in Zone 3, its lowest-potential category, with a predicted average indoor level below 2 picocuries per liter, and still says all homes should be tested regardless of zone. The tests tell a different story. The State Department of Health’s February 2007 estimates for Westchester show:

The department’s program results, which it publishes by county from 1987 onward, point the same way: of 2,875 Westchester basements tested with its kits, 17.5% measured at or above 4 pCi/L, against 5.7% in Nassau and 7.6% in Suffolk. Those results come from the program’s kits and not from every test done in the county. The Westchester County Department of Health’s Healthy Homes page tells buyers and sellers to have a home tested for radon, and adds that EPA and the Surgeon General recommend testing all homes below the third floor. Radon testing sits outside a New York home inspection by definition, so book it as its own service. Our radon testing page describes how, and our guide to safe radon levels explains the numbers.

Records to ask for before you buy

Both cities keep a file on each property, and the way to open it is an appointment or a portal. In Yonkers, the Department of Housing and Buildings tells owners to book an appointment at its property file room, with the block and lot ready, to see whether a certificate of occupancy and floor plans are in the file, and to ask about its “M5” computer system for records that are not in the paper file. Its FAQ says that if no certificate is found you will have to apply for one, and that work done without permits that does not match the city’s records has to be legalized by applying for a building permit. Permits are filed online through the City Squared portal. New Rochelle also uses CitySquared for permits, and its application for a certificate of occupancy or compliance follows a permit.

We did not find a rule in either city’s published materials that requires a certificate when an existing one- or two-family house is sold, which is not the same as there being none. Your attorney will confirm what applies to the address and will order the records. Read the file for additions, finished attics, converted garages and extra kitchens, and compare it with what you see.

If you plan to renovate, check the contractor. The county’s Department of Consumer Protection says home improvement contractors need a county license and that working without one is a Class A misdemeanor. It lists roofs, siding, windows, decks, waterproofing, gutters and additions among the work covered, advises you to be suspicious if the contractor asks you to get the permit, and offers a license lookup. Yonkers requires a home improvement contractor’s license from its Consumer Protection Bureau before it issues a permit to renovate a one- to three-family dwelling.

A home inspection contingency in the contract sets how long you have to inspect, and in a Westchester sale, the municipal records often take longer to get than the inspection. Ask your attorney to request them as soon as the contract is signed.

Water and lead service lines

Yonkers runs its own water bureau, which says it takes its water from the New York City supply, an unfiltered surface water from the Catskill and Delaware watersheds, and serves 211,569 residents through 29,600 metered connections. The city’s service line page says owners own the line from the house to the city main and that lead and galvanized service lines are found mostly in homes built before the mid-1940s. The state’s published inventory for Yonkers (certified in October 2024) counts 29,626 service lines: 65 known to be lead, 6 galvanized needing replacement, 2,329 non-lead and 27,226 of unknown material. New Rochelle is served by Veolia’s Westchester Rate District 1, whose state inventory covers the whole district and not New Rochelle alone: 32,470 lines, of which 8,008 are lead and 6,290 unknown.

For a buyer, “unknown” is the operative word. A home inspection does not evaluate drinking water, and the standards do not require an inspector to look at underground piping. A plumber can identify the material where the line enters the house, and a laboratory can test the tap. If the house predates the mid-1940s, ask the seller what the service line is made of and whether it has been replaced.

Termites and carpenter ants

Cornell’s integrated pest management program says termites favor the warmth around furnaces, chimneys, hot-water heaters and hot-water pipes, that wood in the ground or in cracked concrete cellar floors, and wood flooring and framing built on concrete slabs, are susceptible, and that annual inspections of the foundation inside and out help find damage or mud tubes early. It dates the spring swarms to February through May. The same program says carpenter ants are the most common ant pest in the Northeast, that they excavate wood for nests rather than eating it, and that they tunnel through moisture-damaged wood. None of these statements is specific to Westchester, but each describes a house with an old boiler, a stone foundation and a history of leaks.

Because the state’s definition of a home inspection excludes pests, a wood-destroying-insect inspection is a separate service. See our termite inspection guide.

Two pieces of paperwork come with a sale of a one- to four-family house in Westchester: the seller’s property condition disclosure statement, delivered before you sign, and an affidavit that the smoke alarms are in compliance, delivered at closing. If an alarm turns out not to work, the buyer has ten days from the conveyance to say so, and the seller bears the cost. Neither replaces an inspection, as our guide to what a New York inspection includes explains.

What a home inspection in Yonkers looks at

Selling in Yonkers or New Rochelle

Sellers of older houses sometimes learn about a boiler’s age, a roof leak or a damp basement only when a buyer’s inspector finds it. A pre-listing inspection puts the findings in your hands first and lets you fix, price or disclose each one on your terms. See our seller’s guide, and our page on inspections across Westchester County.

A Westchester seller gives the buyer the disclosure statement before they sign and the smoke alarm affidavit at closing, so test the alarms before the listing goes up.

Nearby communities

The same housing mix continues into the neighboring communities, from Mount Vernon and Bronxville to Pelham, Larchmont and Mamaroneck. For other parts of the county, see our White Plains page. To the south, the Bronx borders Yonkers. For postwar housing, see Nassau County and Levittown and Hicksville, and for the five boroughs, New York City.

Every neighborhood and county page is listed on our areas we serve page.

Frequently asked questions

About the numbers on this page

• US Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2020–2024 five-year estimates (year built, heating fuel, tenure, units in structure, median value) for the ZIP Code Tabulation Areas shown and for Westchester County. Estimates carry margins of error, larger for small areas. ZIP codes are mail areas, so their boundaries do not match city or neighborhood lines.
• OpenFEMA, National Flood Insurance Program claims for Westchester County, counted by reported ZIP code and by the storm FEMA names on each claim, through the data’s last update. Claims reflect insured losses only. The ZIP codes include areas beyond the two cities.
• NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database and the Westchester County Hazard Mitigation Plan (2021), read from archive copies in October 2026; NYS Department of Health radon estimates for Westchester; the cities’ and county’s published pages on records, tanks, sewers and water, and the state’s lead service line inventories. County web pages were read from archived copies, so check the live pages before you rely on a rule.
• Figures were pulled in October 2026. Public data changes over time, so check the date.

Booking an inspection with Inspecwise

Planning an offer in Yonkers or New Rochelle? Give us the address and tell us whether it is a one-family house, a two-family or a house with a basement apartment, and we will tell you what we would check first. The license number on every page of this site, NYS LIC # 16000113811, can be looked up at the Department of State, and this guide walks through it.

Westchester is one of the counties we cover, along with Nassau, Suffolk and the five boroughs, and we go further afield when asked. Urdu, Punjabi and Hindi are available as well as English.

Prefer to talk it through first? Call 718-925-7071.