Summer has arrived here in the lower Hudson Valley, and it got off to a rousing start with the Clearwater’s Great Hudson River Revival at Croton Point Park in Croton-on -Hudson this weekend. If you missed the Festival this year, be sure to bookmark it for the future. Croton Point Park, situated on a large peninsula in the Hudson River, is a great place to visit at any time. Like other Westchester County Parks, it is home to a variety of events throughout the year. In summer it is also a favorite spot from which to launch a boat, swim, camp or hike. Other Westchester County Parks within the Town of Cortlandt are: Blue Mountain Reservation, Croton Gorge Park, and George’s Island. Another summer perennial in the area is the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. The 23rd season is already underway at Boscobel in Garrison with this year’s first selection, “Troilus and Cressida,” but tickets are still available for it and the other 2 plays in this year’s series. Plan to arrive early to tour Boscobel House and Gardens and enjoy a picnic overlooking the Hudson River before the show begins. These are a few of my favorite ways to celebrate summer here in the Hudson Valley. There are many others – from shopping at my local Farmers’ Markets in Croton-on-Hudson and Ossining, to walks along the riverfront, to exploring the art galleries in Peekskill – let me know what favorites of yours I’ve missed so I can add to my list.

Posted by:  Liz Pereira

Walking across the Croton Dam with my dog Ella last week, I came upon a man hunched over a serious-looking, tripod-mounted telescope, his own dog pressed against his legs in the chill air. The scope was trained on the distant shore of the Croton Reservoir, a good half-mile away across open water. Glancing over his shoulder as we approached, he said, “You want to see a bald eagle?”

It wasn’t easy at first. With an 80X power telescope held steady by the tripod it’s your head that has to become motionless enough to focus on an object that far away. But a bright white head stood out from the gray-brown mass of bare winter branches, and there it was. “I’m pretty sure that’s the male,” the man said. “The females have the same white head and tail, but they’re larger, a third again as big.”

“I knew there were some eagles over-wintering here,” I said, “but I thought they had all left for Canada by now.”

Bob Breen has been watching eagles on the reservoir for two years – since he retired as police chief of the nearby town of New Castle. A few weeks ago he counted 16 bald eagles on the ice of the frozen reservoir, the most he has ever seen at one time here. Most of them have since headed north on their spring migration, but this pair has been nesting at the reservoir for three or four years. Agents for the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), which monitors the birds, has concluded that their nest has eggs in it.

We are seeing the fruits of a state-sponsored program to restore bald eagles to their old habitats in New York. When the program began in 1976, the entire state had just one pair of nesting bald eagles, but they failed to produce any offspring. By 2009, that number had increased to 173 nesting pairs.

In 1997, the first bald eagle was born along the Hudson River in more than 100 years. And by last year, 20 breeding pairs were nested along the Hudson, producing 32 fledgling eagles.

The total DEC count of bald eagles over-wintering in New York statewide for last year was 401 – 241 adults and 160 juveniles. (Bald eagles reach sexual maturity at five years of age, when their head and tail feathers turn white.) The final statewide tally for this year has not yet been released, but preliminary results suggest that the number will be an all-time high, surpassing the previous record of 573 set in 2008.

“Let me see if I can spot the female in the nest,” Bob said. The nest was not hard to find. Eagles mate for life – which can be more than 30 years – and they tend to use the same nest, adding to it year after year. Built high in the branches of a white pine by the water, it can be as much as six feet across, eight feet deep and weigh hundreds of pounds.

“There she is, her head just popped up!” Bob yielded his place at the scope and, sure enough, I could see the magnificent head of the female just above the rim of the huge nest. It made my day.

Croton-on-Hudson is a prime area for viewing bald eagles in winter. Morning commuters often spot them from the train as it crosses the mouth of the Croton River where the river empties into the Hudson. Some of those birds make daily flights a few miles up the Croton River to the dam. Other local vantage points include George’s Island Park in Montrose; the Verplanck waterfront; Riverfront Park and Charles Point/China Pier, both in Peekskill; and the Route 6/202 overlook above Iona State Park, one of the great scenic lookouts of the Lower Hudson Valley at any time of year.

For more information on bald eagles in our area, go to the Web sites of The DEC and The Eagle Institute.

Photo sources: http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkadog/3683073458, http://www.flickr.com/photos/dobak/86751957, http://www.flickr.com/photos/alanvernon/3228433079.

Posted By: Bruce Dollar

Political science, in one view, studies the clash of competing legitimate interests, sometimes boiled down to the classic question, “Whose ox gets gored?” Such a dispute among neighbors is unfolding in Croton-on-Hudson, as a beloved cooperative community nursery school tries to reap the benefit of a benefactor’s gift and runs into opposition in the community, including from some parents and alumni of the school.

The confrontation concerns the fate of ten acres of pristine wooded land along North Highland Ave., in the heart of the village. There are purists on both sides, of course: hard-core defenders of nature vs. hard-line defenders of property rights. But complicated circumstances make it not so easy to choose sides.

Fifty years ago, a philanthropist named Samuel Rubin donated the land to the Croton Community Nursery School. CCNS has deep roots in the local culture, having nurtured generations of Croton preschoolers (including my wife). At least two distinguished architects, reportedly including the great Marcel Breuer, as well as Ricardo Scofidio, produced designs for a new school building for the site but, CCNS always being something of a shoestring operation, nothing was ever built.

Fast forward to the beginning of the 21st Century, (a few years ago). Croton was in the midst of a development boom in real estate. Ravenous buyers were fighting over houses for sale and, for the first time in Croton history, paying seven figures for great big ones. Vacant land was scarce, and lots once considered too steep or too wet to be built on were getting a second look.

This was the atmosphere that may have prompted CCNS to reconsider its big, slumbering asset: ten acres of vacant land, from which it was getting no benefit. What kind of sense did that make when the school was living hand to mouth? Its board of directors voted to sell the land and, a year later, asked a local builder to draw up plans to subdivide roughly half the property into building lots.

Then there’s the other side to the story. The property is virtually a gorge with a water course running at the bottom of it. There is a narrow strip along North Highland Ave. (where the school would have been built) that’s relatively level, but then it becomes a series of steep inclines with rock outcroppings and big old-growth trees. It’s not hard to see why it was never considered desirable for development. Building anywhere but along North Highland would require variances to local code restrictions affecting wetlands and steep slopes.

Plans were drawn up dividing half of CCNS’s land into four lots, each to accommodate a new house. The other half, about 5 acres, would be preserved in its natural state and donated to the village. The plans were submitted to the village Planning Board, which would have to approve any exceptions to the building codes. Soon word got out and opposition began to form, their reasons articulated at a well-attended public hearing of the Planning Board.

Environmental damage and its consequences were at the core of the opposition. The property is one of the last remaining substantial untouched green spaces in the Village. Not only would 200-year-old trees be destroyed – at least 100 trees were slated to come down in the development plan – but also clearing the land would create runoff into the gorge that, after heavy rainfall, could cause flooding in the houses downstream. (A single mature oak tree consumes 50 gallons of water a day.) Other objections included concerns that chemicals from lawn treatment would wash into the gorge, that increased car traffic would make the narrow street less safe, and that the unspoiled beauty of the woods would be ruined for hikers and neighbors.

Is a compromise possible? Many opponents of the plan seem ready to accept two or even three houses, if they can be sited without penetrating too close to the wetlands and steep slopes. And few opponents seem bent on preventing CCNS from deriving some benefit from their land. But so far, the school has not modified its position that the Planning Board should approve all four projected building lots.

Stay tuned. In the meantime, information including photos and copies of the subdivision plan can be seen online by going to facebook.com and searching for “Save North Highland Woods.”

Posted By: Bruce Dollar

Max Eastman

After a version of a previous blog post, Mount Airy Road: Reds-on-Hudson, appeared in a local newspaper, the historical accuracy of some of its assertions was challenged by Robert Scott, for many years Croton-on-Hudson’s unofficial historian. Specifically, he says it is untrue that Charlie Chaplin and Leon Trotsky were “house guests” of Max Eastman, and that Isadora Duncan, the San Francisco-born founder of modern dance, could not have danced on the terrace of Gloria Swanson’s “castle.”

My research was conducted on the Internet, that rich mine of undifferentiated knowledge that sweeps up and throws back everything from established fact to rank speculation, rumor and invention without distinction. It is perfectly plausible to me that my research was contaminated by lore (“knowledge gained through tradition or anecdote”) posing as fact. But since even information on a blog can mislead the unwary Googler searching for truth, it’s still important to correct the record here. Besides, true history can be every bit as colorful as lore.

Charlie Chaplin

In correcting my mistakes, Mr. Scott provided facts that were even more fascinating than my own suspect ones. While Charlie Chaplin certainly was close friends with Max Eastman, he would not have been Eastman’s house guest in Croton, says Mr. Scott, because at the time of his visit to Croton in 1920, he and Eastman were vying for the affections of Hollywood actress Florence Deshon. “She was living with Eastman and shuttling back and forth between the suitors, trying to decide which one she loved. Although she and Chaplin walked together around Croton, Chaplin refused to visit Eastman.” And where was Chaplin actually staying while in Croton? The Tumble Inn, Scott says, a roadhouse located where the Skyview Nursing Home now stands. A slightly different version is found in Joyce Milton’s 1998 biography, “Tramp: the Life of Charlie Chaplin.” Torn between the two men, and determined “to spark a confrontation, [Deshon] persuaded Charlie to accompany her to Croton, but while walking up the path to Max’s cottage, his courage failed him. He left her there and hurried back to New York alone.” This is great stuff.

Leon Trotsky

As for Eastman’s great friend Leon Trotsky, Mr. Scott convincingly explains why Trotsky also could not have been Eastman’s guest at the latter’s house on Mount Airy Road. But in an extended phone conversation, Scott told me that long-time Croton resident Dr. Daniel Salzberg, who bought the house from Eastman in the 1940s, found in the attic Trotsky’s original manuscript for his massive book, “The History of the Russian Revolution,” which Eastman translated into English with the help of his Russian bride.

Finally, Isadora Duncan could not have danced on the terrace of Gloria Swanson’s castle in Croton because, as Robert Scott pointed out, the dates don’t work. Duncan gave her last performances in the United States in 1923, then left the country, never to return. Swanson bought her house in Croton the following year, 1924.

Isadora Duncan

Yet the Croton lore persists. Isadora’s sister Elizabeth ran a dance school off Mount Airy Road on Glengary Road, a stone’s throw from Swanson’s estate. Isadora undoubtedly spent time in Croton with her sister (according to the New York Times, Isadora “lived in Croton-on-Hudson for part of her life”). Even the long-time owner of the Swanson property, who had occasion to reminisce about it with Swanson herself, thought that Duncan had danced there, though she couldn’t say that Swanson had told her so. And if the castle was built in 1917, as some local records have it, we can not rule out that Duncan danced there before Swanson owned the property. Still, there appears to be no hard evidence to support the local lore connecting Duncan to the castle.

Meanwhile, in her sympathy for the newly fledged Soviet Union, Isadora fit right in with Croton’s “Reds-on-Hudson.” In 1922 she moved to Moscow, where she set up a dance school; she was a Soviet citizen at her death. Her will was the first of a Soviet citizen to be probated in the United States.

Posted By: Bruce Dollar

Early in the last century – the Twentieth, that is – Croton-on-Hudson became a Mecca for New York’s artsy, leftist crowd. Easy access from the City via the new electric trains (which switched back to steam at Harmon, now Croton-Harmon station) enticed both leading lights and fellow travelers – actors, writers, poets, painters and left-wing intellectuals – to build or buy summer or year-round cottages in the hills above the village. By the 1920s there was a thriving bohemian community centered in Croton, which became known as ”Greenwich Village on the Hudson.”

The focal point for this community became Mount Airy Road, which starts in the village downtown and climbs up what old timers still call “Red Hill” for the political leanings of these very particular settlers. A few years ago, long-time Croton resident Cornelia Cotton, artistic and political scion and chronicler of the history of this group, gave a lecture and slide show on historical Mount Airy houses to a standing-room-only audience at the Croton Free Library. She had to stop after 2½ hours and two full carousels of slides, not half-way through her program.

As a realtor with family roots in Croton, I’ve always been fascinated by this history, and if I drive by these noteworthy houses with clients in the car, they’ll probably get the full guided-tour treatment, even when we’re on our way somewhere else. I take special pleasure in showing and selling these homes, and I’ve sold more than my share.

Joseph Freeman, a writer and frequent visitor in the post-World War I period, described the radical colony in his 1936 memoir, An American Testament:

“At this time, Croton-on-Hudson was a kind of literary and political shrine. The sacred grove was a stretch of brown hilly earth known as Mount Airy Road, on both sides of which, separated by an acre or two of land, stood the houses of John Reed, Boardman Robinson, Lydia Gibson, Floyd Dell and Stuart Chase… . It was some time before I realized that Croton was only a suburb of Washington Square.”

Freeman usually stayed with Floyd Dell, who bought the 1892 farmhouse at 75 Mount Airy Rd. in 1919. Dell was an influential editor, novelist and literary critic who held virtual salons at his house for visiting radical artists and intellectuals. Freeman recalls a memorable weekend there with Upton Sinclair, author of The Jungle, the muckraking novel about the U.S. meatpacking industry that had led to passage of the Pure Food & Drug Act in 1909. Last year I sold this house to a charming young couple who have been restoring it.

Across the street at no. 66 lived Boardman Robinson, artist and political cartoonist, in a classic center-hall colonial perched high on a bluff with views of the Hudson River. The poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, another frequenter of the Croton colony, was married in this house in 1923.

Next door and up the hill at no. 70 is the 200 year-old house that belonged to Max Eastman and his sister Crystal. Max was the dashing literary and social critic who was a leader in the radical Greenwich Village community. He was also editor of The Masses, a magazine combining socialist philosophy with the arts. His sister was a journalist and a prominent feminist who co-wrote the Equal Rights Amendment in 1923 and was a founding member and lawyer of the ACLU. Their home was the main crossroads for visiting luminaries, and their house guests included Charlie Chaplin and Max’s great friend Leon Trotsky. As a realtor, I was fascinated to discover that when Eastman bought this house, his down payment was twenty dollars and the purchase price was $1,500. In 2005, it sold for well over the asking price of $799,000.

Around the bend at the top of the hill, at no. 106, stands the 1840 house that John Reed bought in 1916. Reed is best known as the radical journalist who, with his wife Louise Bryant, participated in the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 and wrote about it in his famous book, Ten Days That Shook the World. Warren Beatty based his great Oscar-winning movie Reds on “Jack” Reed’s story, and part of the film is set in Croton (though it was filmed in England), at the house where Reed wrote his book. Beatty took the role of Reed, of course, Diane Keaton played Bryant, and Floyd Dell was also featured in the screenplay. The Reed house was recently listed for sale.

History might have been different if Mabel Dodge hadn’t turned down Jack Reed’s proposal of marriage early in 1916, the same year he later married Louise Bryant. Dodge was the formidable heiress and patron of the arts who had established a weekly salon at her Fifth Avenue apartment in Greenwich Village. In 1913, she and Reed ran off to Paris, where they became lovers. In Paris and in Mabel’s palatial Tuscan villa outside Florence, they hobnobbed with the likes of Picasso, Gertrude Stein & Alice B. Toklas, Artur Rubenstein and Andre Gide. Back in the U.S., Dodge lived in a house on Mount Airy, but when she rebuffed Reed’s marriage proposal, she moved to Finney Farm, not far away in the village. There, in a rambling farmhouse built in 1870, she offered Reed the use of the third floor as a writing studio. He tried it for a time, but it didn’t work out. He then bought her Mount Airy house and, that same year, Mabel married painter Maurice Sterne, her third husband. (1916 must have been quite a year.) Finney Farm already had a rich history when Dodge bought it. Horace (“Go West, young man”) Greeley was just one of the prominent visitors there in the mid-19th century. When I sold this house two years ago it was full of documents and other lore evoking this colorful past.

The stories and the history go on and on. Farther along Mount Airy, at no. 131, is another landmark of the time, Longue Vue Farm, the grand estate where Gloria Swanson lived and entertained in the late 1920s, and where Isadora Duncan loved to dance on the terrace of the castle. I sold this property too, but that’s a topic for another time. Croton’s history is too rich to be covered in other than small, manageable bites.

Posted By: Bruce Dollar

People who follow the ebbs and flows of real estate sales will know that the luxury home market has been suffering. Those who have a high-end home to sell know this in their gut. That suffering hits them personally.

Here in Croton-on-Hudson, the picture is especially stark. As of early November, a month into the fourth quarter, Croton has a whopping 21 houses for sale in the million-dollar range*. Yet the total number of million-dollar houses that have sold so far this year is just four, one in February, one in April, two more in October. With just one other recently in contract, chances are slim of another closing in 2009. At that rate, we have a five-year supply of luxury homes for sale – provided no more come on the market.

Recent reports have noted an up-tick in sales activity that might portend a long-awaited turnaround in real estate. But that good news is offset by the fact that, while houses are selling in greater number, prices continue to decline. The freeze at the high end accentuates the overall drop in prices. Most of the sales these days are concentrated at the low end, spurred on by the federal stimulus program that offers substantial tax credits to first-time home buyers in 2009. But without sales of costlier homes to balance the cheaper home sales, both the average and the median home prices get driven down.

Croton has always had its sprinkling of luxury homes – up in Teatown, off Mount Airy, out the Post Rd., overlooking the Hudson. Still, sales of homes for over a million dollars used to be a rarity in Croton, limited to the occasional estate property or exceptionally large or luxurious house. That all began to change in the late 1990s – just yesterday, it seems – as builders started feeding a hungry market with the new big-box colonials for the first time locally. The Arrowcrest subdivision off the Albany Post Rd. was the biggest development of these houses, but prices there initially didn’t approach $1 million. One Indian Summer Drive, the 5,000 sq. ft., 5-bedroom model for the development with Hudson River views and all the bells and whistles, sold in 1999 for only $753,000.

By the turn of the century, however, the market heated up enough to drive prices for high-end houses into seven figures. In 2000 an Arrowcrest house, one of the biggest in the development, sold for the first time for over $1 million. Two other properties, both older estates, also broke the million-dollar barrier that year. In 2001, four houses sold that had listed at over a million, then eight in 2002 and eleven in 2003. By 2006, that same model Arrowcrest house, the one that sold for $753,000 in 1999, was being offered for sale at $1,599,000! From 2002 through 2008, an average of eight houses a year, the majority of them newer construction, sold in the million dollar-plus range.

Then the bottom fell out. Or more precisely, since the subject is luxury homes, the top fell off. By the third quarter of 2008 the real estate bubble had burst nationally and the collapse of credit and the meltdown in the financial markets had hit the fan. The housing market had been softening and then slumping for a year already, but now it went into virtual hibernation. Buyers didn’t want to purchase in a falling market, and sellers didn’t want to take the losses the market seemed to demand. The Wall Street bonuses that traditionally fueled high-end sales after the holidays just never materialized.

Luxury home sales in Croton had an above-average year in 2008, when ten houses were sold at a million dollars or more. But 28 other such houses on the market in 2008 failed to sell; 14 of these were either withdrawn or expired without selling, the other 14 were carried over as still active into 2009. It’s even worse in 2009. Besides the 21 active houses, 10 others have already been taken off the market without selling, and a high number of the 21 remaining actives will likely be withdrawn or carried over into 2010.

What can be done? How can these houses get sold? Well, nothing can be done by sellers (or their agents) to change a bad market. They can’t persuade reluctant buyers to come in and start scooping up what are some pretty amazing bargains. But there are ways to differentiate a house from the competition.

Pricing is one answer. A Croton luxury home that didn’t sell at $1.4 or $1.3 million in 2008 was withdrawn long enough to update the kitchen and make other improvements. It was then returned to the market this year at $925,000, was in contract a few months later, and just closed at $910,000. Ouch! And, Hooray! The sellers were able to approach selling their home as a hard-nosed business proposition. They decided to bite the bullet and get on with their lives.

But pricing isn’t the only answer. Sometimes, after a series of price drops, it isn’t even the right answer. A house can be too big or too sumptuous or too unusual for buyers in its price range. The better solution might be to wait (if possible) for the right buyer, the one who appreciates the house and is willing to pay reasonably for it. Or wait (if possible) for the market to come back.

In the meantime, the suffering is bound to continue for luxury home owners, probably for the next year, maybe more. There is a sense among realtors of a pent-up demand among potential buyers, who have been putting their plans on hold but may be drawn back into the market by the undeniable bargains on offer. But that may be wishful thinking. Indeed, what buyers there are seem to be more intent on getting the deal of their dreams than the house of their dreams. Pretty cold comfort for sellers.

*I’m counting as million-dollar homes any house that was initially marketed at $990,000 and above, regardless of selling price or final asking price.

Posted By: Bruce Dollar

Last March I was prompted by a buyer client to analyze the relationship between asking prices and selling prices in two of the communities I cover, Briarcliff Manor and Croton-on-Hudson. A savvy Wall Streeter who followed market trends, this buyer was looking at houses in both places, and he told me flatly that he’d be a fool to pay any more than 75% of the asking price.

Sure enough, he liked a house I showed him and made an offer that took about a third, or almost 35%, off the asking price. When I told him he could not expect the seller to counter such a low-ball bid, he replied that given how the market was trending in Croton, especially for million-dollar-plus houses like this one, and given the history of this house which, although the price had come down from its original asking price, had been on the market for months at the same price, the seller should be happy with his offer.

The seller did not counter his offer.

Read the rest of this entry

When a realtor gets greeted with the question “How’s business?” it’s not the same as being asked “How are you?” People really want to know the answer. It’s not surprising. In a Westchester community like ours, most of us have some skin, one way or another, in the real estate game.

For this reason – and because big money is involved, and because it affects not just our personal fortune but those of our friends and neighbors – real estate is fertile ground for gossip and rumors.

Lately there has been buzz about a purported mini-surge in activity, that deals have picked up. People ask, “Is it true? Does it mean we may be coming to the end of this slumping market?”

Let’s start with what we know. Late in July, the Westchester-Putnam Multiple Listing Service (WPMLS) released its report* on residential sales for the second quarter of 2009, and it brought good news and bad. The good news was that home sales had picked up from the previous quarter. The bad news (unless you’re a buyer) was that prices continued to fall.

The rise in sales activity was substantial. Single family home sales, adjusted seasonally, showed a 19% increase over the first quarter, “the first significant break in the unrelenting decline in sales rates since the first quarter of 2007,” according to the WPMLS report.

On the pricing side, the median sale price of a single-family home in Westchester fell by 16.3% compared to 2nd-quarter sales in 2008. In the first quarter of 2009, the decline from 2008 had been 14.5%.

Unfortunately, I can not break down these county-wide figures by individual communities and get meaningful results because the volume of sales is not high enough. Croton-on-Hudson and Briarcliff Manor, for instance, each had only four sales in the first quarter of this year, too small a sample to derive valid statistics.

The problem with the numbers in the MLS report, revealing as they may be, is that they’re old. They mostly reflect sales activity from last winter. So a house that was listed in January, went into contract in February and closed in April would be counted in 2nd quarter statistics (and most home sellers today can only dream of a transaction that speedy). Similarly, a house that goes into contract in August and doesn’t close by September 30 will be reflected in 4th quarter figures, the report for which we can look forward to seeing next January!

So what’s happening right now? Real estate insiders see a softening in the hard-line positions on pricing both buyers and sellers took up earlier this year, resulting in many standoffs and few deals. Christopher Meyers, chief operating officer of Houlihan Lawrence, said recently, “I think we are now in an environment where the buyers and sellers are coming to some consensus on where values should be.” In other words, prices are coming down enough to begin to be persuasive to buyers. How far down? According to Mr. Meyers, “they are down typically by about 20% from where they were at the height of the market and at those levels they are trading again.”

Does this mean we have hit bottom? The bottom of the market, like the peak, is usually visible only through a rear-view mirror. Few thoughtful observers see the start of a turnaround in the near future. The realistic optimists hope that prices are at least stabilizing. Others, like Multiple Listing president Mark Boyland, expect prices to continue to fall this year. Bottom line: the encouraging signs of late give reason to hope but not enough reason to predict a recovery any time soon.

*Contact me at Bruce@BruceDollar.com if you would like a copy of this report. I also welcome any feedback or questions.

Posted By: Bruce Dollar

On May 19 school districts throughout Westchester county will put their proposed budgets for next year up for vote. Don’t miss this opportunity to have a say in how your money is spent, to select school board members, and to influence the direction your schools will take in the future. Start educating yourself now by visiting your school district online:

• Briarcliff Manor
• Croton-on-Hudson/Croton-Harmon
• Hendrick Hudson
• Peekskill
• Pleasantville
• Ossining

For other sources of information email Liz@eLPereira.com.

Teach your children well … VOTE.

Posted By: Liz Pereira

Half Moon Bay, a luxury gated community in Croton-on-Hudson, is the only purely residential condominium complex in Westchester that is directly on the Hudson River.* The setting is just north of the Croton Point peninsula, where the river broadens dramatically into Haverstraw Bay, the widest part of the Hudson at about 3½ miles across. Location.

Only 25 miles upriver from New York City, Half Moon Bay is virtually adjacent to the Croton-Harmon train station, an express stop on the MetroNorth commuter train and an easy - and gloriously scenic – 45-minute ride south along the riverbank to Grand Central. It’s walkable, but a jitney bus takes residents to and from the station during rush hours. Location.

The complex is sandwiched between two waterfront parks. Croton Point Park just south is a 500-acre county park offering year-round events and activities with facilities for camping, hiking and swimming. It is one of the best “birding” sites in Westchester, featuring regular bald eagle-watching events. Adjoining to the north, the village’s Senasqua Park has waterside picnic and recreational facilities for local residents, including the Croton Sailing School, serving both children and adults. Above Senasqua is the Croton Yacht Club, followed by a new village park that just opened in October 2008. Croton Landing Park extends the Westchester Riverwalk pedestrian walkway for another mile along the water’s edge. In the center of these great amenities lies the Half Moon Bay complex, with its own paved promenade along the shoreline. Location.

Oh, did I mention? Half Moon Bay is close enough to walk to many of the village’s key commercial establishments, including at least four of Croton’s best restaurants, the big gourmet food store, the post office, two pharmacies and many others. Location!

The Half Moon Bay complex was first developed in the late 1980s, on one of the few strips of waterside land that was not already occupied by the railroad tracks that have lined the Hudson shore since the mid-19th Century. A second phase of construction, called Discovery Cove, followed in 2004, and the complex now comprises 158 units ranging in size from 900-2600 square feet.

Resort-style amenities make residents feel like they’re on permanent vacation. The complex has two heated pools, two clubhouses, two tennis courts, new state-of-the art exercise facility, sauna, a full-time guard at the gate, and a bike path in addition to the river walk promenade. There is even access to the adjacent Half Moon Bay Marina, an award-winning 173-slip facility that enhances the maritime scenery of the area..

Purchase prices in the last two years have ranged from $360,000 for a 2-bedroom, 2-bath unit with 1160 square feet to $1,450,000 for a 2600 square-foot 3-bedroom, 3-bath unit. Naturally, prices are greatly affected by proximity to and views of the river. That million-dollar unit was the biggest model; it had two decks overlooking the water and every room had a close-up, panoramic river view. Prices for the ten units on the market in April 2009 range from $400,000 to $800,000. Twenty-seven units have sold in the last 24 months, so the turnover averages about one a month. Rentals are also available, but in smaller numbers. Finally, you can buy one of those boat slips, called dockominiums, in the Marina.

I have sold and rented repeatedly in Half Moon Bay, and have listed the only two dockominiums currently available. I would be happy to answer any questions. Bruce@BruceDollar.com

*Ichabods Landing in Sleepy Hollow, the only other condo complex that does not have train tracks between itself and the water, has residential mixed with commercial spaces.

Home buyers who are drawn to Westchester County for its proximity to the majestic Hudson River sometimes insist on a house right on the water, and are willing to pay for it. When told there are virtually no houses with direct water access they are incredulous. Thirty-five miles of shoreline from New York City to Peekskill, and the number of waterfront houses for sale is zero? How is that possible?

The explanation is quite simple: the railroad. In the 19th Century, trains offered a faster, more efficient means of transport than boats, and the shoreline, unlike the rocky hills above it, was flat. Tracks were laid in 1850, and soon attracted factories and warehouses that cemented the character of the riverfront as largely commercial and industrial.

Not that there’s any shortage of houses with great views of the river. And commuters to Manhattan get the full benefit of those Hudson Line tracks, watching the changing seasons as the river scrolls by, and those glorious sunsets on the way home. But homes on the water? Mostly ruled out.

There are a few exceptions. Condos, for instance. In the late 1980s a strip of land on the water side of the tracks in Croton-on-Hudson was reclaimed for development of Half Moon Bay, an upscale, gated condominium complex. (More about that in a future blog posting here.) Similarly, another luxury condo complex, Ichabod’s Landing, has just been constructed where the huge former General Motors assembly plant used to sit, on the water just north of the Tarrytown train station.

Farther north, just above Croton, the tracks suddenly veer inland at Crugers and don’t reappear at the water’s edge till Peekskill, leaving the river hamlets of Montrose, Verplanck and Buchanan on a peninsula free of the railroad. Most of the shoreline here is taken up by a veterans hospital, a county park, a power plant, a yacht club and some light industrial buildings. There are, however, a few tiny enclaves of mostly (but not exclusively) modest houses on the water that very occasionally come on the market. It helps to know an agent who pays attention to these areas who can alert a buyer to an upcoming opportunity.

The next best thing to actual water access is a close-up river view from just behind the tracks, and here there are usually some interesting opportunities, especially between Tarrytown and Ossining, including Sleepy Hollow, Philipse Manor and Scarborough, but also in Croton and a bit farther north. More distant river views are more plentiful, and they too will be addressed in future postings. The point for now is to have realistic expectations of houses with direct water access on the Hudson River.

For more detailed information, contact me at Bruce@BruceDollar.com.

Posted By: Bruce Dollar