This we did not know until we were turned on to the addictive new real estate blog Upstater, which has a weekly budget-friendly house roundup called Five-Figure Fridays, featuring rock-bottom Catskills properties. To be sure, not all are beauts, but there are some cute finds. In the latest FFF roundup, “at least three of them seemed inhabitable,” Upstater writes. “A couple of them could probably transform into something closer to adorable with a little love.” The favorite: a 576-foot cottage on three acres of land.
Upstater was launched in April by former Brownstoner writer Lisa Selin Davis, who lives in a rent-stabilized apartment in Park Slope and swaps a bedroom with her brother up in Tivoli. Since she’s perpetually in search of her own pad, we asked Davis where the deals are north of NYC. She told Brokelyn that Sullivan, Greene and Delaware counties are cheaper than Columbia, Dutchess and Ulster Counties. What if $100K is still too much? Try a bungalow:
If you want a serious deal, then, yes, a bungalow is the way to go. We’ve covered bungalows for sale for $6,000! The most expensive one we’ve seen is $59,000. There are annual co-op fees–usually less than $,2000–and most places have a pool and some other communal facilities. They’re vacation houses, three-season places, so you can’t get a mortgage on them. And, of course, you can’t use them in winter, unless you want to “camp” in them. Here’s a sample.
Hmmm… no interiors? Upstater also has winter Catskills rentals that you could split with some friends (this Hopewell Junction place is adorbs) as well as a handy blog item on half-off ski lift tickets at Plattekill, but you may have to use these.
