What has been happening over the last four years in our area’s real estate markets? This article analyzes sales in the Town of Ancram, NY, since Main Street’s last coverage four years ago to get a market snapshot in just one Columbia County town. (This feature is data intensive. For background on the community you […]

Many thanks to all of those who have shared their experience with dirt roads for this article including real estate agents, people who live on dirt roads, highway superintendents, town supervisors, first selectmen, and scientists. As usual, what I thought might be a clear conclusion about the impact of a dirt roads on real estate […]

I thought some guidelines existed to estimate the dollar value of wetland properties when I began to research the impact of swampy land on real estate values for this April’s environmental issue. After talking to assessors, buyers of wetlands, owners of wetlands, environmental regulators, appraisers, land trusts, and realtors in Columbia, Dutchess, and Litchfield counties, […]

The real estate market isn’t the only home-related business that is currently exploding. With the pet industry nearing 50 billion dollars, homeowners are always looking for a way to make their pets more comfortable. For their part, dog owners are willing to go the extra mile to protect man’s best friend from the backyard’s outdoor […]

Tudor Revival-style houses capture the imagination. They are dramatic whether it’s a Snow White cottage, or Jay Gatsby’s mansion. These picturesque buildings with a distinctive architectural style stand out amongst the colonial, federal, Victorian, split levels, and farmhouses that crowd our region’s villages and roads. “Tudor” commands our attention and for this Main Street issue […]

Real estate buyers frequently tell me that the house that fits their every need is “just too close to the road, too noisy, not private.” In Main Street’s May 2017 issue, I asked other realtors about the “road” discount on a home’s price. Experienced brokers estimated a discount between 5% to 30% with double the […]

Nineteenth century America was a jumble of architectural styles from stately Federal homes and Greek Revival temples to Gothic cottages, Italianate villas, and rambling Victorian Queen Anne houses. The briefest and most curious style was the American fascination for eight-sided octagon structures found in public buildings, barns, and houses. Like geodesic domes in the twentieth […]

With all the excitement and frustration of bidding wars and houses sold days after listing what about the houses that haven’t sold – houses that have been on the market for months or even years? Most real estate experts say a house that’s not moving in this market is priced wrong, but presentation, location, condition, […]

Even though the residential real estate market everywhere is booming with record low inventory, commercial real estate prices and activity remain sluggish. We wondered how to go about selling your real estate if it’s attached to your small business. One local entrepreneur explained, “I didn’t get much for the business, but I did really well […]

According to national statistics an estimated 6% of homes sold in the US are flipped properties – although from all the flipping, flopping, and fixing shows on television, flipping fascination seems much higher. For this issue of Main Street Magazine, we decided to explore the flipping phenomenon in our region at this moment in […]