Is Hudson Valley Real Estate Entering A New Era?

12 minutes read

New Yorkers retreat to the Hudson Valley to escape the hustle and bustle of city life.

They find refuge in the quieter expanses in a two-hour range of Manhattan, where drool-worthy properties aren’t glitzy high-rise condos, but quaint farmhouses, Victorian mansions and sprawling estates. Historically, the firms trading those properties were boutique mainstays that embrace the pace of small(er) town life.

Enter Serhant.

The five-year-old brokerage set up shop in the region in October with a 10-person team poached from Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices’ Hudson Valley franchise.

The then-four-year-old brokerage was relatively early among its New York City-born competitors in establishing a Hudson Valley presence. Corcoran launched Corcoran Country Living in 2020 and Compass earlier this year added the 14-agent Upstate Untapped Team.

The interest from brokerages has followed a rising tide in the Hudson Valley market. Home prices hit record highs last year, just as Serhant opened its doors, with the median sale price in every county in the region beating $300,000, the Times Union reported earlier this year.

Almost a year into the Garay-Michaud Team’s tenure at the brokerage and it appears the team has embraced the firm’s signature social media- and content-friendly stunts to sell homes.

This week, broker Jordan Vaccaro hosted roughly 60 brokers at a mountaintop estate in East Fishkill for a sunset soiree, complete with a DJ and private chef. An unusual addition to the broker open house — off-road ATV tours of the 120-acre property, on the market for just under $4 million. (Vaccaro had initially planned for a helicopter to sail over 401 Woodmount Road, known as the Cloud Walk Estate, but wind conditions kept the party grounded.)

Cruising between the estate’s two homes, barn and three-car garage meant a trove of Instagram-worthy shots, and while taking an ATV around the streets of Manhattan likely won’t happen any time soon, the footage posted on social media rivals the drone shots of Billionaires’ Row towers that Serhant is famous for.

“Jaws” in the Hamptons

A luxury residential broker who’s a fixture in Manhattan’s social scene said she was caught in a beachfront fray in East Hampton this week. Gail Bomze, a 75-year-old Compass agent who has brought eight-figure listings to the market, was accused of biting a seven-year-old in a dust-up at a community concert.

An arrest report seen by Page Six described an account from an event worker that a woman was seen “kicking and punching kids” to get hold of a t-shirt thrown as a giveaway at a beach concert in East Hampton last week. In the frenzy, a child told police, a woman “grabbed her right arm and bit,” drawing blood.

Bomze, who was arrested Tuesday and charged with third-degree assault and endangering a child, has denied the allegations. In a statement to the outlet, her attorney said Bomze was instead “knocked to the ground” in the chaos of the t-shirt toss and reported the incident to organizers, who returned with an apology for the fray.

Not so fast…

Mayor Eric Adams’ administration is back in the news this week after two of the New York City leader’s associates were indicted on Thursday.

Prosecutors accused the mayor’s former aide, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, of accepting bribes and other perks from real estate developers in exchange for helping them secure city contracts and expediting their projects. Jesse Hamilton, who oversaw the city’s office leasing portfolio, allegedly conspired with Lewis-Martin and heeded her directives to give certain developers preference.

The developers identified in the indictments are Tian Ji Li and Yechiel Landau. One of the indictments also alleges Lewis-Martin conspired with Anthony and Gina Argento, the owners of a production studio, to ditch the protected bike lanes included in the redevelopment plans for McGuinness Boulevard in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

Lewis-Martin — who was already facing charges in a December indictment — allegedly accepted $75,000 worth of bribes over two years, including a speaking role in the TV show “Godfather of Harlem.”

Hamilton resigned from his post at the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, or DCAS, on Thursday following news of the indictment. Lewis-Martin resigned from the administration last year.

Adams was previously facing federal charges of fraud and bribery, among others, though a federal judge dropped the case in April.

NYC Deal of the Week

The priciest deal to land in public records this week was a condo at Extell Development’s One57, which traded at a loss. Unit 51C at the Billionaires’ Row tower sold for just under $15 million, or $4,300 per square foot — down from its 2015 purchase price of $19 million.

The discount is in line with other resales at the building, which has seen units trade for roughly 24 percent less than their sponsor sale price.

The four-bedroom, four-bathroom apartment has drifted on and off the market since 2018, when it was listed for $22 million, and last asked $18 million.

Bespoke had the listing.