New York's Columbia County Bargains

What a difference a few months make! In December, I wrote that there were still nice second homes that were "affordable" -- in the $300,000 category -- in New York's popular Columbia County, within a 3-hr drive of New York City. A quick visit this weekend shows many homes now available in the $200,000-$290,000 range from Hillsdale to Hudson, Copake to Kinderhook. For listings, see Web sites for Weichert Realtors and Beach and Bartolo, among others.(Beach and Bartolo has the listing of the Chatham house, pictured.) MLS includes houses that with "motivated sellers" and half-finished properties.

NY Upstate Weekend Houses Still Affordable

Metro New York and New Jersey residents still hunting for affordable vacation homes in "upstate" New York can still find decent deals in Columbia County and Rensselaer Counties, with properties that are no more than three hours of so from Manhattan. For example, the Kinderhook Group real estate agency lists a 3-BR 2-bath "customized cape" style house in Canaan, in upper Columbia County not far from the Massachusetts state line for $379,000, and a 3 BR 2-Bath Sand Lake house (Rensselaer) for $309,0000. Now is a good time: winter is slow season for most RE brokers.