Exactly ten years ago Main Street Magazine looked at the real estate market in the “consistently quiet” town of Sharon, CT. Not very much has changed except for real estate prices, super-charged by COVID. The construction fence around Hotchkiss Library on the Sharon Green has been removed and the multi-year renovation is almost complete, with […]
June is the month of adventure for Main Street Magazine, and of Father’s Day. Darrel Long spoke to Main Street early on a Saturday morning about his passion for hot-air ballooning and Spirit Ballooning, the business that brings his family together.
Why do you only fly at sunrise?
For ballooning, winds are safest below five knots per […]
We are a nation divided. Deep chasms have opened in our society, stretch-ing the boundaries of decorum and decency. It is not helpful that major corporations, those behemoths with countless resources, have taken sides in this debate, leaving individuals struggling to find and cement alli-ances in the face of seemingly relent-less advertising and incentives.
Politics? They […]
It’s happening again. Revaluation is increasing assessment values based on top of the market sales. What’s worse is that people don’t know how much their taxes will be until county and school budgets are finalized months from now. This month’s real estate feature will try to explain the complex assessment process in New York. Each […]
James Demmert had to run after our early morning conversation to appear on the Yahoo Finance channel, where he’s a frequent talking head on stock markets. In our brief 45-minute interview, he explained that attending Berkshire School had turned his life around and made him return to set up a New England office of his […]
Recently it seems like houses, modest and grand, have been disappearing. Here one day and gone the next, including one of Main Street’s mystery houses. For our environmental issue, this article explores why demolition is occurring, how long it takes, and how much it costs.
It’s not worth saving
Why do owners make the decision to […]
As the real estate market gets ready for an uncertain spring season, savvy sellers and their real estate brokers are once again considering staging to present a property for maximum advantage and to outshine the competition. I spent a morning with Dawn Trachtenberg in her packed Ashley Falls, MA, warehouse learning about this creative business, […]
Ten years ago, when Main Street planned its first issue, we realized that readers wanted news about real estate activity, which was still suffering from the Great Recession of 2008. Initially our editorial focus was very specific, and monthly articles tracked the characteristics, performance, and trends in specific towns and villages in New York, Connecticut, […]
I am grateful to the three entrepreneurs, Joan Osofsky, Michael Fallon, and John Harney, who so generously talked to a writer they did not know for a magazine that was just beginning ten years ago. They started their careers as a schoolteacher, a car dealership service manager, and an innkeeper and then created destination home […]
December is a time of gatherings and celebrations and often conjures up visions of log cabins in the snow with roaring fires in a massive, stone fireplace, and flannel pajamas. Log homes’ distinctive construction material can create a rustic Lincoln cabin or a grand Adirondack camp. For this holiday issue we researched the history of […]