New Paltz Contemporary, $499,000

Normally when I say a house needs updating, I’m talking about structural issues. But in this case, I think the bones on this place are strong. It’s the mid-80s decor that’s gonna need to go. However, some new tile, new carpet and reupholstering will do the trick. What it’s got going for it is the view. I love the sliding glass doors revealing the mountains beyond. Funny built-in fireplace with rounded corners that must have been high design at some point. I think it could still be cool.

Why do they make it so hard to figure out the taxes? As with so many Ulster County homes, I had to search on Property Shark to find an assessment: $14,787. Oh, that’s why. Jeez. Stats on the jump.

New Paltz Cape, $529,000

Warning: conflict of interest, instance of nepotism. This is my pal’s place, and since she so kindly gave us her insights into life in New Paltz, we decided to show it to you. Liz says the house, built in 1999, is amazing, wonderful, a revelation, close to town…and just too big for her family of three. So they’re looking to downsize.

If you, however, are looking to upsize, here’s what you’ll get: “4 bedrooms, 5 baths, finished recreation room, a second sunroom with soaring, sky lit ceiling, and a gourmet kitchen with granite counters joining the spacious breakfast area.” Space, indeed, with over 4,000 square feet. And nice views. Close to town. Taxes: over $16,000, which is a common problem with real estate around these parts.

 

Ulster County Property Taxes On the Rise

Has anyone been following the story about the New York State Property Tax Cap? As far as I understand it, Cuomo ushered through some legislation late last year that caps the increase in property taxes at 2% or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower. Sounds good, right? Here’s the catch: municipalities can vote out the cap (which doesn’t apply to NYC, by the way). “Communities may raise or lower property taxes according to the needs of the community. If the taxpayers want to pay more taxes they can, and they can override the cap with a 60 percent vote for schools and by a 60 percent vote of the governing body for local governments.”

In Ulster County, all but two municipalities opted out of the cap, according to the Daily Freeman. Here’s the skinny:

“According to the  Real Property Tax Service Agency, 2012 county tax rates per $1,000 of assessed property value will be as follows.

• Denning: $23.34, up 8.4 percent from $21.53 in 2011.
• Esopus: $4.25, up 8.4 percent from $3.92.
• Gardiner: $4.85 per $1,000, up 2.3 percent from $4.74.
• Hardenburgh: $6.39, up 8.3 percent from $5.90.
• Hurley: $4.02, up 0.5 percent from $4.
• Kingston (town): $4.69, up 1.5 percent from $4.62.
• Kingston (city): $4.24, up 8.4 percent from $3.91.
• Lloyd: $4.24, up 8.4 percent from $3.91.
• Marbletown: $3.95, up 1.3 percent from $3.90.
• Marlborough: $4.27, up 8.4 percent from $3.94.
• New Paltz: $4.23, up 8.5 percent from $3.90.
• Olive: $4.21, up 8.5 percent from $3.88.
• Plattekill: $4.27, down 0.6 percent from $4.30.
• Rochester: $4.23, up 4.2 percent from $4.06.
• Rosendale: $4.25, up 8.4 percent from $3.92.
• Saugerties: $4.27, up 8.7 percent from $3.93.
• Shandaken: $18.30, up 8.3 percent from $16.89.
• Shawangunk: $21.35, up 3 percent from $20.72.
• Ulster: $5.24, down 0.2 percent from $5.25.
• Wawarsing: $257.92, up 8.3 percent from $238.05.
• Woodstock: $4.43, up 3.7 percent from $4.27.

That means that for lower taxes, head to Plattekill or the town of Ulster. Upstater will check those towns out soon!

New Paltz Center Hall Colonial, $499,999

Hm, what have we here? I’m not a big fan of the center hall myself — I cotton to open floor plans myself — but this New Paltz center hall colonial has enough to offer that I’d be willing to overlook it. What nice views, gardens, pool. Built in 1840, it’s on 7.5 acres and has over 3,500 square feet. Been on the market for over a year and has already had a $100,000 price reduction. I admit the description has me interested: “A Majestic tree lined driveway leads to this stately, historically significant Schreiber Family Homestead. Original woodwork is intact, wideboard floors, original doors, a beautiful wrap screened dining porch w/ MT. views for entertaining!”

Here’s the puzzling part: Property Shark says it was last sold in November 2010 (which contradicts the amount of time it’s been listed) for $850,000, a price that seems more reasonable considering what this house purports to have. The buyer was Alpenaster Corp, a company based on West Broadway in Manhattan. So, there’s a bit of a mystery, and a steep price cut. It’s also only about a mile from the Thruway, but I doubt you can hear it.

Here is the big bummer: taxes. $17,500. There goes my dream. Stats on the jump.

New Paltz Colonial With Pool, $349,000

 

Is this a colonial? I’m not sure — I always thought eyebrow windows were an ingredient in Greek revival architecture. Regardless, this New Paltz house from 1800 caught my eye. Tastefully renovated, harking back to its early 19th century roots but obviously updated. Route 32 is fairly busy, although it’s far enough out of town that one wouldn’t be affected by the traffic that sometimes clogs downtown New Paltz. One great thing about this place is that it sits far back off that road, which makes it a contender. And it has four fireplaces! A bit cozy at 1,500 square feet but, hey, it has a pool and a chicken coop! Taxes: $8,097.94. That’s Ulster County for you. It was purchased in in 2008 for $310,000 and before that, in 2006, for $325,000. So it went down in value, and is now finally worth more than its 2006 value… or so the seller hopes (last assessed at $310,000, FYI). Stats on the jump.

The $59,000 New Paltz Saltbox

Yes, that’s right: $59,000 for this handsome New Paltz saltbox. Would you like to hear the catch(es)? “It may not be a tear-down.” Yep, that’s in the description. A dream house begun and abandoned, with 3.9 acres on a pretty wooded road close to town. Seems like a good deal if the place is salvageable and you want to almost build your own house. Stats on the jump.

Town of the Week: New Paltz

Photo from Wikipedia

This week we have another guest-poster writing about her newly adopted home town of New Paltz, giving us the inside scoop from an ex-Brooklynite’s perpective.

Of course, this is not just any ex-Brooklynite. This happens to be my former acupuncturist and doula, so in addition to having discriminating taste in real estate, she has intimate knowledge of, um, me (and the 41 most grueling hours so far of my life). Thus, I trust her with my life…and my Upstater.

By way of full disclosure, Liz is also selling her house in New Paltz (which we’ll put up later in the week), but only because it’s too much house. Sometimes people relocating from 700-square feet Windsor Terrace apartments get a little square feet crazy, and now Liz and her family are looking for something smaller. But they definitely want to stay in New Paltz, and you’ll find out why below.

As far as my own impressions, well, New Paltz has a bit too much tie-dye and a few too many drunken college students for my taste, although the non-drunken students make for a great babysitting pool. I’ve eaten at some delicious restaurants there, especially the Village Tea Room. The real estate snapshop at the time of this writing shows an average listing price of $397,000, with an average of $182/square foot, the same as last year at this time. The average for sale price is over $400,000, but the average sold price is less than $300,000. Pricier than some surrounding towns, but that probably has to do with the amenities, which Liz will tell you about now…

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I grew up in Brooklyn with a hundred kids on my block playing kick the can, catching fire flies in jars and going to the football field to tumble with all the neighborhood gymnasts. Life was good and my mom cooked for the neighborhood. She’d open the door and yell my name when it was time to eat and we’d all come running. Our house, which my parents bought in 1977 for a whopping $54K, was filled with neighborhood kids and family from morning till night. That was Brooklyn. And I loved it.

But it was different as an adult and a parent.  Prospect Park became the backyard for our kids. Moms would gather and meet at the playground, we’d meet at the zoo and at local kids sing alongs. We were always trying to find a place to go, since no one’s apartment was big enough to play in. There was a great sense of community amongst my mom friends, but as many of them began having a second and even third child, things began to shift. Space, high priced real estate and schools were the issues at hand. Slowly, friends started leaving Brooklyn. They all left for the same reasons, more space, better schools, safer streets and yards to play in.

We visited them. A lot. It was clear that we wanted to go too.

We started driving upstate, looking for towns; I think we went everywhere between Manhattan and Newburgh until we crept north to New Paltz.  As we drove through the village and then across the Carmine Liberta bridge in the summer with the cornfields and the sunflowers and the gunks in the distance, I felt a sense of openness and expansion that I have never felt in Brooklyn. New Paltz also had everything we wanted; a walkable village with a good coffee shop, bookstore, and yoga studio. It had the outdoors: climbing, canoeing, hiking and riding.  It had health food stores; CASs, organic restaurants and it even had an amazing Waldorf school. We know it’s amazing because our tween now goes there, and believe me… it’s amazing.

We test drove New Paltz. We lived here for a month and completely felt at home. We bought a house 3 months’ later and spent weekends in the country till we were able to sell our Brooklyn condo and make the full move. The transition was not without its hard moments, but they were just growing pains.

One of the first “play dates” our son had here in New Paltz was with a boy from his class. They went out into the woods behind our house and climbed trees. The neighbor’s dog, which is a huge German Shepard, met them in the woods and played with them. I watched from the window, sort of uncomfortable and worried. Finally I went to the office where my husband was working from home and sheepishly asked, “They are playing in the woods and I can’t always see them from the window, that’s ok, right?” He said “honey; they are 12-year-old boys playing in the woods with a dog, what could be more right?”

Yup. We were home.

The Amazing New Paltz Dome House, $1.2M

We wrote this place up during our upstate New York housing swap week, and, guess what? Curbed writes that the super eco-chic New Paltz dome house is now for sale. A cool $1.2 mill will get you the greenest, roundest, most space-age house we’ve seen.

Upstate Jane: New Paltz MCM Gem with Great Bones: $265K and Dropping!

I had my eye on this gem for a while, but decided I liked living in Woodstock too much to even visit it. I feared I would get a crush and then make some stupid rash decision…Okay, okay, we DID cruise it, and it was pretty cool in person and in a cool neighborhood. But we never went inside and got to know the house. I did keep updating myself on its price though, and even though I have already signed contracts on another house I thought of this pad for all of YOU out there reading Upstater.  With clean lines, a vaulted ceiling, a wall length stone fireplace and original details plus windows galore  this is a great house.  Click here for full listing.

Address: 15 Cedar Ridge Road, New Paltz NY 12561

Stats: Beds:3 Bed Baths:2 Bath House Size:1,884 Sq Ft Lot Size:2.55 Acres

Price: currently $265k Taxes: (according to Realtor.com) $7697

I believe that with some trimming in the backyard of your 2.55 acres- you may even get views of the Gunks! It has some GREAT bones and just needs a little updating. Naturally no pics of the bathroom leads me to the anticipation of walking into a carpeted bathtub surround, or something equally disturbing but let’s not get negative! It could be WONDERFUL! Not sure what those shoji screens are there for, but they were adamant in the listing info that they are NOT included- Nooo problem. For those unfamiliar with New Paltz, it is a cute college town, home of SUNY New Paltz. It has some great restaurants, bars and cute shops. It also is very close to Mohonk trails, wineries and the Gunks for those climbers out there. Although not on the train line, it is about an hour and half to hour 45 with traffic from Manhattan and is on the Trailways bus route!  The house rather reminds me of these killer digs below, owned by designer Amy Butler and her husband David. It has all the makings to be just as fabulous! For a full house tour of their home via Apartment Therapy, click here.

more photos on the jump!

The Coolest Upstate New York Housing Swap Ever

True, these folks are looking to swap their extraordinary dome home near New Paltz, NY for Hawaii, France or India (I take it they wouldn’t be interested in my Park Slope fourth-floor walkup), but if you have something particularly great to offer in the city, perhaps they’ll swap with you. It has three beds, two baths and amazing curved furniture to accommodate it. And, get this: it rotates to face (or turn away from) the sun. Turns out the place has been written up a bunch of times, most notably on a site called New York House, which I think our readers would appreciate — lots of great green info there. And here’s a video on the place, too. I envy those who get to spend some time here. Three beds, two baths, almost 2,500 square feet and spectacular outdoor space, replete with outdoor hottub.