Pendleton, Not Prada

My post below about the house at the Chapin Estate on the market at $2.15M generated a big response. A thread running through many of the comments is some disbelief that there's actually an upper end market here, and that anyone would pay upwards of $1 to $2 million for a place here rather than in the more 'glamorous' areas to our east — the Hudson Valley, Columbia County and the Berkshires.

This is not the first $2M+ house on the market here. There are 6 or 7 homes in the $2M+ range available, plus another dozen or so in the $1M to $2M range. Not all of these are in the multiple listing system. Some are just very quietly known to be available for purchase. Every year for the past few years there have been about a half dozen home sales in the $1M+ bracket, as best as I can determine (as large sales involving multiple tax parcels are sometimes handled as separate sales due to tax consequences.)

It's true, we don't have a lot of very upper end buyers. But those who gravitate here choose to be here, because of something unique and special they can't find elsewhere within 2 or 3 hours of Manhattan. The Chapin Estate, for example, is one of the only places where you can find an Adirondack-style setting with reasonable privacy on a motorboat lake within a hundred miles of the GW Bridge. (One lakefront home at Chapin sold last year for $2.4M.) Greenwood Lake, Candlewood Lake and Lake Wallenpaupack just don't have the same feel. Owners up at Lew Beach in the Beaverkill Valley choose the area because of the greenspace, environmental protections and mountain views — not to mention private access to some of the best fly fishing in the U.S.

Some buyers are also looking for property that affords a luxury increasingly difficult to find at any price around NYC — total privacy. Last year, a home (actually, a compound with a couple of homes) on 40 acres with stunning mountain views and total privacy (it sat at the end of a dead end road) sold for $1.4M.

Another factor that some Sullivan nay-sayers may find hard to believe is that some upper end buyers choose Sullivan specifically because it's not like fancier, glitzier areas. A fair number of celebrities have second homes here, and a handful count this as their primary residence. No, we don't have the top of the "A" list — Branjolina and Tom and Kathy aren't here. But we do have quite a few recognizable names and faces. They like it here because they're pretty anonymous, fade into the woodwork and can be 'normal.' Some come here with their kids specifically to get out of the 'fast lane.' If you asked me the type of celeb that would fit in here, I'd say a couple like Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Saarsgard. Jeremy Piven wouldn't. (Besides, we probably wouldn't have a sufficient year round supply of mercury-free sushi for Jeremy.)

We don't have an "A" list. We don't have an exclusive social scene. We don't have a single club or restaurant with a velvet rope or a doorman. We don't even have a private members-only golf club (although we do have that private race car track.) Overall, Sullivan County is a place that's more Pendleton not Prada. And that's just fine with the wealthier folks that I know who find their way here.

Comments

[b.]

Namedropping...just like the city.

I kind of liked Callicoon and The Olympia Hotel being a cross between Virgina City meets Pompeii.

B.

[David Knudsen]

I wasn't name dropping at all. If you read carefully, I didn't drop the names of any celebs who actually have houses here. The two examples I used are of people that, to my knowledge, don't have houses here - one would be a fit, the other likely not.

[builder]

re: $2.15 million Chapin

Since I am a builder, please tell me how this price was derived.
Break the numbers down for us: first the shell, then the land...

[ar]

Builder -- wasn't it more likely calculated like this: "I want to end up at X, and I think I can get there if I start at $2.15-million and allow myself to get bid down from there." ?

[alex]

oh boy, all these million dollar remarks, I'm starting to feel I've hit the jackpot in Sullivan with my little cottage...lol.....damn it, should have bought 3 cottages, would now be a multi mill!!!!!
only if we can chat about homes that reflect us, the 99.9 percentile, and the realistic tomorrow....without jumping off the Verazzano on the way to Sullivan

[OJ Heinz]

Obama Warns of 'Lost Decade'

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123419281562063867.html

[Michael]

I know Branjolina, I know Tom...who is Kathy? Am I out of the loop?

[Michael]

I know Branjolina, I know Tom...who is Kathy? Am I out of the loop?

[Michael]

I know Branjolina, I know Tom...who is Kathy? Am I out of the loop?

[Michael]

I know Branjolina, I know Tom...who is Kathy? Am I out of the loop?

[bix]

I think David has a point. To get this kind of rusticity north of the city you have to travel to Vermont, and by that I mean *northern* Vermont.

[MS]

I'm pretty sure he meant Katey...

[Z.]

...Viggo?

[alex]

Viggo?

[bix]

Irving?

...as in Berlin. Lew Beach.