Posts by: upstater

Every Friday at 11:00, the Upstater website brings you a selection of houses for rent and sale within three hours north (and a little bit east and/or west) of New York City. This week: three-season bungalows, on the cheap.

The biggest bargain we found is this two-bed, two-bath cottage in a seasonal community in Spring Glen: $25,000. There are a bunch of bungalow colonies in Spring Glen, and we recommend visiting several of them to get a feel for how cooperative these co-ops really are. Because these are seasonal properties, you generally can’t get a mortgage on them (though sometimes you can swing a personal loan). And don’t expect architectural greatness: like this property, many bungalows for sale in upstate New York are stuck in the time in which they were built — usually the 1950s — and you can embrace the faux wood paneling or dream up a cool, retro renovation.

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Every Friday at 11:00, the Upstater website brings you a selection of houses for rent and sale within three hours north (and a little bit east and/or west) of New York City. This week: the 21st century farmhouse.

Perhaps you love the look of old houses, but don’t want to renovate or spend your upstate time tending to the old bones of a place. In that case, you might want a “new old house,” one that borrows from the architecture of older houses — folk Victorians, Greek revivals and such — but is new and modern.

Cottage 39

The upstate leader in this kind of house is Catskill Farms (you can read an interview with the owner/designer here). Their homes tend to be in the 1,300-square-foot/$335,000 range, with porches and open floor plans. They’re built in Sullivan and Ulster Counties, and the process seems pretty appealing: pick out a design and a piece of land. Catskill Farms builds the place on your choice of plot, but pays for everything until the home is done; you buy the finished project. Or you can pick up one in progress, like this two-bed, 1.5-bath, 1,300-square-foot Cottage 39.

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16 Mohonk View Lane, Accord

16 Mohonk View Lane in Accord, NY is a relatively luxurious example of such houses. Three beds, 3.1 baths, 3,776 square feet and 1.3 acres.

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Every Friday at 11AM, the Upstater blog brings you a selection of homes for sale (and occasionally for rent) within three hours north (and a little east or west) of Brooklyn. This week: architect-designed contemporaries.

Glass Shell House

Our favorite is this “Glass Shell House” in Roxbury, an up-and-coming Western Catskills town (and home to the hip Roxbury Hotel, a good place to stay while checking out local real estate).

The half-dome house, designed by architect Seymour Rutkin, seems like a pretty incredible deal to us at $599,000, although we’d tweak the furnishings and try to make the kitchen a little more accommodating if it were ours.

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This week, Upstater‘s taking a look at short sales, aka homes selling for less than what’s left on the mortgage, and generally subject to the bank’s approval. Short sales abound upstate, even in the million dollar range, but we’re going to pick out a few promising properties in the more affordable category. Many, but not all, need some — or a lot of — TLC. We focused in on Ulster County this week, since it’s among the most popular second home locales for Brooklynites.

6381 Route 28, Phoenicia

In the Mad Men-gone-awry department, here’s a strange take on Tudor-style half-timbering, a 1960s box of a pad — three beds, three baths, 1,742 square feet — in need of some serious work, per the listing. It’s asking $100,000, which we think is high, considering its location.

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Many folks searching for homes in Upstater’s territory are keen on the old farm house. But if you want the farm, too, there’s an incredible range of properties out there, from the luxurious/gentleman farm to the shockingly affordable working farm. (Here’s a pdf of a guide to tax breaks for farmers in NY State). This week, we’ve picked out a cheapie, a mid-range and a luxury property for Brownstoner.

In the luxury category, take a gander at this Coxsackie Horse Farm.

Set on 40 acres, with a kitchen Martha Stewart would approve of, 752 County Route 26 in Coxsackie is by far the most expensive property in a town that has loads of potential but has hit upon hard times. (We’ve speculated that this might be due to its housing the area’s prison, or maybe that it’s now associated with the eponymous virus). Click through for more photos… (more…)

We’ve found quite a few school houses for sale in Upstater territory, most of them tiny or in need of some TLC, but packed with charm.

We discovered this one-room schoolhouse for sale in Barryville, NY last year. Although it’s currently classified as a church, and has to be converted to a residence both in use and in name, it has many nice features.

For one thing, it’s 15 miles from the Port Jervis train station, so an easy commute to the city. The kitchen, which isn’t photographed, is reported as “small,” so that would probably need attending during the conversion.

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We’re not being greedy, but over at Upstater we have a special interest in properties with guest houses, the old two-for-one (or sometimes three- or four-for-one). This is partly because it’s one way to help cover the mortgage on an upstate New York vacation property (more on how to do that here), but it’s also because they’re so darn cute.

Take 49 Lafayette Street in Coxsackie, NY.

We dubbed this second empire Victorian a Secret Garden-esque getaway, with seven beds, three baths and over 4,000 square feet — a lot of house for the money (even though $599,000 is a lot of money for Coxsackie properties).

The house has a gorgeous curved staircase, hot tub, remodeled kitchen with all the name-brand appliances… and both a two-story barn/studio and an unfinished guest cottage. It’s on 3.75 acres right close to the Hudson. (more…)

In Upstater’s territory, a riverfront pad’s worth depends partly on what side of the river you’re on, and, of course, which river: get something along the Delaware and you’re bound for a bargain. Hudson River-front homes are a bit more complicated.

On the east side of the river, you have the interruption of the Amtrak, but it’s where all the extant grand estates reside, and it’s not as easy to snatch up a non-estate slice of riverfront. Over on the west side, it’s easier to set up shop along the mighty Hudson, especially if you go further up, in Greene County, or want to be right in town, say, in the city of Athens. We’ve picked out a few of the pricier pads for you this week, in prime locations.
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433 Rhinecliff Road in the sweet hamlet of Rhinecliff was Upstater’s car-free country house a ways back — it was for rent then, and is also on the market. (more…)

We’re not sure if the current American love all of things mod has yet extended to A-frames. They were out of fashion for a long while, and their prices still reflect their pre-Mad Men status, but they’ve caught the eye of some Upstater writers before.

If A-frames get a bad rap for not having enough natural light, this one in Accord, NY seems an exception…
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This week, Upstater brings you mansard roofs and bracketed cornices to your heart’s delight. You can find them on both sides of the river, in villages and in the countryside, and many of them are on or near the Hudson.

If you’re in the market for a mansion, try this 11,000-square foot beauty in Kingston, which we profiled last year on Upstater (it’s still waiting for a taker). Built in 1873, Edgewood Terrace has 30 rooms, seven beds, five baths and almost 12 acres. It’s $2.1 million, which these days is the price of a fixer-upper Brownstone over here in Park Slope.
Check out interior photos on the jump…
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Every Friday, Upstater (“the Brownstoner of upstate New York”) brings you a selection of super-cool properties for sale within a three-hour drive of Brooklyn. This week, we’ve tracked down converted barns for sale, and there are some real lookers on the market.

Lots more on the jump…
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