Can inherited cash assets be distributed even though the house, which was part of the inheritance, has not been sold?

Our last living parent passed away and left a will stating all assets were to be distributed equally between the children. My sister is the executor and has told us that since all our mothers POD accounts have been closed and processed and placed into an Estate account so the lawyer can tally up the total value of the estate. We just received the house appraisal, so now basically know the value of the estate. (This is in NJ and less than $650,000) I am being told that we have to wait until the house sells until the cash from the estate account can be distributed, for "tax purposes". This doesn''t sound right since we are below the taxable threshold. But I don''t know the law, so I''m asking here.