David Knudsen Licensed Associate Broker Catskills Buyer Agency — Sullivan County Real Estate
Summer is always busy in real estate here, but the last month has seemed especially frenzied. Looking back at my calendar for July, the weekends are just blue blocks, with most of the weekend days booked with double appointments. Short term appointments, with just a day or two notice, have been difficult to squeeze in.…
DetailsFarmhouses are very popular among second second home buyers, and the best examples (like the wrap porch Victorian out of the movie 'Love, Valour, Compassion) can carry hefty price tags. Pickings can be pretty slim for more modest charmers in the moderate, under $300K range, especially in quieter settings away from main roads. Sometimes there…
DetailsA 7,621 sq. ft. lakefront home at the Chapin Estate just closed for $3.15M, the highest priced single family home sale in Sullivan County since 2007.
It's the end of the 4th of July weekend. Over the past couple of days, I've been around a lot of the lakes here, both showing property and just visiting. They're such happy places in summer, especially the 'older' lakes, with lake houses and cottages on little postage stamp lots. The newer lake communities (those…
DetailsThe years leading up to the 'Great Recession' was a time of pretty extravagant spending fed by unbridled optimism, particularly in real estate. Like many areas of the country, there was a building boom here in Sullivan County that hadn't been seen in decades. Most of that new construction was at the moderate end, but…
DetailsThe weather gods this week weren't kind to Sullivan County. On Wed. and Thurs., a series of severe thunderstorms swept over the area, dumping by some reports as much as eight inches of rain. On Wednesday, I was glued to the moving radar map at Intellicast, watching lines of red and yellow march like an…
DetailsFinding a cute getaway on a few acres on a quiet country road here in the low $100's can be a huge challenge. So when this house hit the MLS last week, it caught my eye. But given the price — $129,000 — I didn't want to blog about it until I actually saw it.…
DetailsOne of the great events of the summer is the Summer Supper at Neversink Farm near Claryville, on Saturday July 19 from 3 to 7PM, to benefit Catskill Mountainkeeper. The event features locally sourced foods prepared James Beard award winning chef James Connolly. Tix are $50, and it's a sell out every year. Tickets were…
DetailsI just posted my latest Market Conditions Report for Sullivan County Real Estate. For the first time in a year, year-over-year sales volume fell (for 12 months, we've seen double digit increases.) Sales for the three month period ending May 31st largely reflect winter buying behavior, and we had a brutally cold winter, which may…
DetailsThe annual Day To Be Gay in the Catskills gathering, sponsored by GALA Catskills, is this Saturday, June 21st, from noon to 5PM at the Pavillion at the Fat Lady Cafe in Kauneonga Lake. More information at galacatskills.org.
I'm involved in my 4th multiple bid situation in the past six weeks. I'm almost as stunned as my clients are. Multiple offer scenarios haven't been common here since the market peak back in 2008 or thereabouts. From what I've been involved in, as well as chats with other agents, multiple bids seem to be…
DetailsThere are two multiple listing systems serving Sullivan County. The dominant one is the local Sullivan County MLS, which contains the lion's share of listings here. The Hudson Gateway MLS, which covers a wide area on both sides of the Hudson River, also contains listings in Sullivan Couinty, primarily in the southern areas of the…
DetailsIt's 'listing season', the time of year when a crop of new listings come to market. This year, the crop has been pretty bountiful. In the Sullivan MLS, there have been 175 new single family home listings posted in the past 30 days. Now, not all of these are totally 'new'. Some are relistings that…
DetailsConnectivity, for cell calls and high speed internet, is an increasingly important issue for home buyers in the country. For high speed internet, 4G/LTE has become a very viable alternative to satellite internet in areas not served by cable or DSL (and typically offers much higher speeds than DSL.) But you still need good cell…
DetailsThe price on this adorable little lakefront cottage at Hunter Lake was just cut to $179,000. (It started 5 months ago at $299,000, and has had a few intermittent reductions.) This is one of those situations where the owners are very motivated to sell. The cottage is small, just 720 sqaure feet, with one loft…
DetailsI just posted my latest Market Conditions Report for Sullivan County real estate with sales data through April 2014. It was another pretty good month, with the number of sales up 13.7% over the previous year.
I've worked selling real estate here in Sullivan County for 13 years now. I've witnessed some great times when Sullivan County was 'the next big thing' (the country equivalent of Williamsburg or Fort Greene), and weathered some not great times, post-crash when the county also also struggling with the scarlet letter of potential 'fracking'. I've…
DetailsMemorial Day weekend is my favorite of the three summer holiday weekends.Folks have come out of hibernation, weekenders have opened their houses for the summer, and the county almost transforms overnight. The icing on the cake was that the weather Sunday and Monday was postcard perfect. Between showing appointments and drop ins at summer kick…
DetailsToday I was out with some clients, and we were driving on the Forestburgh Road from Forestburgh over towards Lake Devenoge. All of a sudden, a mother bear crossed the road, followed by 4 of the most adorable little bear cubs. I slowed down, but didn't have enough time to get the phone to take…
DetailsAs a Realtor, I see lots of houses. I've probably seen a couple of thousand here, from tiny cabins to spawling country McMansions. Even the most expensive houses are seldom perfect, with a scale or balance that doesn't feel homey or detailing and finishes that scream more money than taste. For close to the first…
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