What’s the Best Way to Buy Property in Newburgh?

  |  November 27, 2013
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Chris Hanson and his wife Merle Becker have lived in Newburgh for over a decade, ever since they came to look at a 6,000-square-foot Victorian with Hudson River views, on the market for $72,000.  They were enchanted by the city and moved, first to a beautiful, but condemned, home in the Washington Heights neighborhood known as the Wedding Cake House, and then, after restoring that home and living in it for 10 years, he and Becker were drawn to another home further north in the city, where some of Newburgh’s grandest homes stand. Along the way, Chris saw a need to help facilitate the rescuing of property, so he became a real estate broker in Newburgh (though he’s still an artist and musician), as well as an indefatigable activist for the city; an agent of change.

Because he’s seen the city shifting and grinding over the last 10 years, he has strong ideas about what improvements could have lasting change. Several Newburgh neighborhoods have strong momentum–fewer vacancies, safer streets, restored houses. Those include Washington Heights, the Montgomery/Grand Street area and Colonial Terraces. Rather than buying houses for, say, $20,000 on some of the grittier streets — the known centers of gangs and drugs — in an attempt to rescue them, he suggests filling in all the vacant or decaying spots in the already improving neighborhoods. After the jump: the best place to buy property in Newburgh.

The most viable spot to pioneer, he says, is Liberty Street (one block west of Grand St), which runs all the way north-south through the city and past Washington’s Headquarters historic site. “Liberty Street is the transformational front-line both commercially and residentially,” he says. “It’s the most viable, with the strongest transformational power.” This is because it has the architecture that people love, as well as the beginnings of a business district, thanks to places like Cafe Macchiato, Millennium Tattoo, The Wherehouse restaurant, and nearby Newburgh Brewery.”

Start, or perhaps continue, there, he says, and the improvements will spread out to some of the needier parts of the city.  Build on success.  “If I could get together with all of the “pioneer” buyers looking for a good deal, with real and lasting impact in Newburgh, I’d tell them to start with Liberty Street,” he says. “Fill in the gaps and make that street really succeed, which builds on the successes of Montgomery and Grand Streets before it.  The next streets to the west could become strongly viable very quickly afterwards, but Liberty Street is the key to their financial viability, and a vital part of Newburgh’s healthy progression.”

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