Nurse buys Billy Joel's mom's house in Huntington Bay

Rocker Billy Joel recently sold the Huntington Bay house where his late mother, Rosalind, lived, according to Long Island Profiles, a Brightwaters-based real estate data gatherer.

Public records show that the buyer, Ann Lala-Genova, paid $540,000 for the red, four-bedroom, two-bathroom Colonial, which is on a .22-acre lot, public records show.

"We love it here," says Lala-Genova, a divorced mother of two.

Lala-Genova, 49, who is a registered nurse, says she feared she might have to leave her rental and relocate with her children, Olivia, 13, and John, 8. She discovered the Joel house was for sale after knocking on the front door as work was being done on it last fall, several months after Rosalind Joel's death. She says she had been watching Huntington Bay closely for any sign that a house within her budget might come up for sale.

The transaction was handled privately, and although she says Joel's representatives said he was seeking $650,000 for the property, her first offer of $540,000 was accepted.

Joel’s representative did not respond to a request for comment.

Lala-Genova says she never met Joel during the sale but sent him a note when she signed and returned the contract. "I just told him how thankful we all were," she says. "That it was a gift. That there were a lot of things around here that made it feel like home immediately."

The family moved in just before Christmas, and Lala-Genova says she plans to plant a garden in Rosalind's memory this spring.