East vs. West; Saugerties vs Red Hook for under $250, 000

  |  November 1, 2011
East vs. West; Saugerties vs Red Hook for under $250, 000
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One of the first things you need to figure out if you’re buying a home north of NYC is which side of the river is for you. We profile towns and properties both East and West of the Hudson here on Upstater, but we thought we’d try to make the comparisons a bit more immediately graspable. East vs. West is our attempt to do just that: looking at homes for roughly the same price point in two comparable towns on different sides of the river.

For our throw-down, I wanted to compare Saugerties and Tivoli—-both quirky little towns with a lot of curb appeal, interesting full-timers and plenty of part-timers too. The problem was I couldn’t find much of anything in Tivoli for around $250,000. As Lisa has discussed, housing stock in Tivoli is tight—and expensive. To find something nice for roughly $250, 000, I had to move a little north to Red Hook, which is also a lovely place and quite desirable.

Let’s start with Saugerties first, where I found this cozy cottage for $234, 900.  I’m not using cozy as an euphemism for small: the house really does look like a nice place to curl up with a good book, thanks to the cobblestone fireplace, hand-hewn exposed beams and the deep screened in porch, all of which you can see in the pics at the top. It’s 1212 square feet for 3 beds, 2 baths, 1 acre of land, and three beds, two baths.

In Red Hook, I found this pretty 1899 farmhouse for $249,000. It’s bigger than the house in Saugerties—this one has 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, and 2644 feet of interior space. There’s less acreage, though, with only half an acre here. The interiors of the Saugerties home are clearer more modern, not only because it’s fifty years younger, but I think if you cleared away the clutter and drapes in the Red Hook farmhouse, you’d find some good bones.

Let us know which one you think is the better deal! Stats for each place on the jump.
 

Saugerties Cottage
Asking Price: $234,900
Beds: 3
Baths: 2
Square Feet: 1,212
Year Built: 1951
Land: 1 acre
 

Red Hook Farmhouse
Asking Price: $249,000
Beds: 4
Baths: 2
Square Feet: 2644
Year Built: 1899
Land: .5 acres

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