Rhinebeck Village Fixer-Upper 249K

IT’S BEEN SITTING ON THE MARKET for a year, with price drops along the way. What’s wrong with it?! It’s an 1890s house in pretty decent shape, in the impeccable Hudson River town of Rhinebeck. On a tiny lot, true — I would find the lack of gardening ops very frustrating.

But sweet it is. It can only be the overall lousy market conditions that keeps this place from being snapped up, as it would have been in years and markets past.

For all the deets, go here.

And thanks to Upstater, the Hudson River Valley/Catskills real-estate blog with taste, for zeroing in on this charmer.

Converted Rhinebeck Barn 329K

IT’S BEEN A WHILE SINCE I PLAYED AROUND on the Columbia Northern Dutchess Multiple Listing site. It’s the best MLS I know — it actually covers a wide range of upstate New York counties, and allows you to search on properties based on when they were built.

Tonight I entered “thru 1700” just to see what would pop up. While I don’t for a minute believe this barn conversion in desirable Rhinebeck, N.Y., was originally built before 1700, it’s a place I would definitely investigate, were I in the market right now for a weekend/summer place with gardening opportunities in the Hudson Valley.

The 1,200-square-foot post-and-beam house, on three acres with a pond, looks like a child’s drawing. You couldn’t get more basic in terms of structure. Before its renovation in the 1990s, it looked like this:

I’m not sure I love what was done in terms of window placement and other design choices, but it’s still appealing, and the property looks pretty. There are wide-board floors and a metal roof, and taxes aren’t horrific.

Here’s a view of the interior, below. Living, kitchen, and dining are on the ground floor. Stairs lead to the bedroom, study, and bath.

For more pictures and all the nitty-gritty, go here.

Historic Rhinebeck under 400K

THE CHELSEA CLINTON WEDDING EFFECT on real estate prices in Rhinebeck, N.Y., if ever there was to be one, seems like a non-starter. As we head into the best time of year for house-hunting — the dead of winter, when only the most serious shoppers are on the case — the mid-Hudson Valley is still very good value, especially compared to eastern Long Island, where for $400,000 your choices are nil but for the dreaded ranch.

In the Rhinebeck area, venerable architecture is not too much to ask for 400K. Were I in the market for an upstate place at this moment — and gosh, maybe I should be — I’d look at these two, a rare brick Federal-style farmhouse for 379K, above, and an 1830s Carpenter Gothic, offered at 399K, right. The listing agent for both is Paul Hallenbeck.

Brick houses are fairly unusual in this part of New York State (most are frame). To find a stately 1849 farmhouse on River Road, very near the Hudson River and the Bard College campus, is a double-whammy (there are no ‘bad parts’ of River Road). The 1.1 acre lot is high and open; the house has 3BR, 2baths, and original details including woodwork, floors, doors, and built-ins, with updated mechanicals, baths, and windows (pics below). Period barn and wildflower meadow included.

Rhinebeck village has almost exclusively old houses, many with some pedigree. The 3BR, 2-1/2 bath on Montgomery Street (all pics below) is an 1830s Carpenter Gothic reminiscent of Washington Irving’s Sunnyside in Tarrytown. It’s on 1.4 acres, with mature trees and a fenced garden; the house has 9-foot ceilings and a large porch, and there’s a classic red barn. The taxes are high for the area at $8,306/year (twice that of the house above), which is a drag.

For more pics and info on both houses, go here.

Note: I am not a real estate broker, nor do I have any financial interest in the properties mentioned on this blog. I just like spreading the word about old houses on the market and what I feel are viable investment opportunities.

Saugerties Village Victorian 230K

A READER, MARSHA FULTON, WRITES: “I have a 1903 Victorian house for sale on Main Street in Saugerties, N.Y. I wonder if you would list this property on your blog? My husband’s job required us to move to Montana right at the worst time in real estate.”

Sure, Marsha. I love Saugerties, and the 3BR house, on a .11 acre [note the point] corner lot, looks charming and in great shape. Saugerties, on the Catskills side of the Hudson River, is within a half hour’s drive of Rhinebeck, Hudson, Woodstock, and Kingston. Old-fashioned and relaxed, the town has funky antique stores and decent restaurants; I’ve enjoyed Miss Lucy’s Cafe and Cafe Tamayo.

Marsha and her husband used the house as a full-time residence for six years, renovating all the while. They stripped and stained the original staircase, fully remodeled 1-1/2 baths, and insulated and finished the attic. The kitchen got new appliances and other improvements, and they replaced the old oil furnace with a new, efficient gas furnace in 2006.

She also created a garden from scratch. “There wasn’t one plant of any kind in the back yard when we bought the house,” she says (why is that so often the case?) Her brother-in-law, an artist and teacher from Manchester, England, visited one summer and hand-built a fence from a design the two of them created together.

I think Martha puts her finger on something important when she writes that the house “has such a warm feeling.” It served them especially well at the holidays, when extended family would visit, with plenty of room for all. “I would make a huge Thanksgiving meal and then we would walk around the corner to see the Christmas lights in Seamon Park. At night, I had everyone I loved safe and secure under one roof.”

There’s more information and pictures on this well-loved, well-priced home, plus lots of gushy copy and exclamation points, here.

Undiscovered Milan: Oldies, Acreage from 519K

COMING TO YOU TONIGHT FROM MILAN, not to be confused with the Italian fashion capital. This Milan is pronounced MY-lan, and it’s in northern Dutchess County, N.Y. In the 19th century, there was a crossroads around here called Milanville, with a post office. Now Milan doesn’t have even that. A few miles northeast of Rhinebeck, completely lacking in useful amenities of its own like stores and gas stations, Milan shares a ZIP code and a school district with Red Hook.

What Milan does have are old farmhouses, Catskill views from many spots, long country roads, a few remaining sheep farms and apple orchards, and unspoiled rural character, which is good enough for me.

Today I checked out a few recent for-sale listings here in Milan. Instead of capping my search at 500K or 600K, as I normally do for blogging purposes (doesn’t it say ‘Affordable Real Estate’ in the header?), I threw caution to the winds and didn’t set an upper limit. As a result, I saw three very appealing historic houses with lots of acreage, all on secluded sites off Academy Hill Road (exit at Rt. 199 off the Taconic State Parkway, just under 2 hours from NYC). Click the links on the descriptions below for the realtors’ listings, with full details.

• An eyebrow Colonial on 5 acres with pond view for 519K

• A clapboard center hall Colonial on 26.6 acres, immaculately renovated, for 879K

• A vintage farmhouse on a huge pond, top, on 53 acres for $1.25million