Upstate House

When interviewed on a podcast earlier this year about her Ulster County farm, actress Amanda Seyfried compared the rural upstate abode where she lives full-time to being in a Mary Oliver poem. Just across the river in Dutchess County, actors Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Hilarie Burton own a historic farmstead, along with a Rhinebeck candy shop in partnership with pal Paul Rudd, who also lives nearby.

For several years now, the Hudson Valley and the nearby Catskill Mountains have been a hidden haven of luxury homes owned by film industry stars and creatives of all stripes searching for a life that is unplugged, but connected. “The luxury lifestyle in our region is slow, not fast. It’s subtle, not flashy. It’s aspirational, but not exclusive. It’s not trendy, it’s evergreen,” is the description of upstate luxury coined by Megan Brenn-White, associate real estate broker and founder of the Upstate Curious Team at Compass, which covers 12 counties across the Catskills and Hudson Valley

Curated spaces for outdoor living are one of the features that attract luxury buyers according to Upstate Curious. This contemporary home in Saugerties features a custom bluestone patio sourced from a local quarry and a firepit area. Photo by Andrew Arthur

While many people associate high-end real estate with the Hamptons or South Florida, according to Brenn-White, trends in Hudson Valley and Catskills real estate over the last two years are pointing toward its ascension as one of the nation’s most sought-after luxury home markets—thanks in part to its low-key reputation.

“When I started in real estate, there were barely any properties listed over $1 million here. Now, there is a large segment of listings between $1 to 2 million—and many that are much higher” she says. “We have seen a dramatic increase in the sale of luxury properties in our area, with incredible renovations, new builds, and very special properties commanding prices that were unheard of even a couple years ago. ”

Compass’s 2023 Ultra-Luxury Report, which profiles over 80 markets nationwide, says of the region’s outlook: “Once the best-kept secret in the luxury market, the Hudson Valley is now firmly on the radar of discerning buyers both nationally and internationally.”

This modern farmhouse recently sold by Upstate Curious in Callicoon. Photo by Phil Mansfield

Last year, Brenn-White’s team represented the buyers and sellers in the highest Compass Regional Sale of 2023. Sold for $4.88M was the 19th-century Accord farmstead owned by prominent British artists Gary Hume and Georgie Hopton. The bucolic 41.5-acre property included a meticulously updated farmhouse situated next to a spring-fed pond, several antique barns, and a 4,500-square-foot Corten steel-faced contemporary studio space.

But just what goes into the region’s luxury home je ne sais quoi? “To some extent, luxury is not just a price point,” says Brenn-White. “It’s in the character, the design, the setting, and so much more. People love this region, with its farms, beautiful landscapes, access to nature, great restaurants and shops, and cultural offerings—and there is more to offer in that respect than ever.” 

Living Close to the Source

From furniture makers to farmers, the Hudson Valley and Catskills have long attracted passionate creatives and entrepreneurs of all kinds. “My whole childhood, I always just wanted to be living up here,” says Brian Persico, a high-end furniture maker based in Windham. In 2015, he and his wife moved from Brooklyn to the Greene County property his family purchased when he was a kid. “All my living expenses went down, which made me able to be more creative. I didn’t have to hustle so hard. Being around nature all the time is the base inspiration for everything I make. It’s just so much more inspiring up here.”

This modern farmhouse recently sold by Upstate Curious in Callicoon Center features a floor-to-ceiling glass gable wall with dramatic Catskill Mountain views. Photo by Phil Mansfield

“Over the last 10 to 15 years, the Hudson Valley has become such a haven for makers, and it has become much more desired by homeowners on the high end of the market,” says Bree Chambers, a real estate agent on the Upstate Curious Team who specializes in luxury listings. “People want to know the story behind everything, not just buy the product, and that’s especially true for people looking to buy a luxury home here.”

Anne Sanger, founder of Pinkwater Gallery in Kingston, has noticed that more than just viewing art as an investment, people in this area crave a connection to the pieces that will decorate their homes. “A couple recently came into the gallery who just bought a modern house in Stone Ridge. We started chatting as they were looking lovingly at a few paintings by Karen Barthes, and they wanted to hear about her life and what prompted our retrospective,” she recalls. “People want the good things in life, but they want substance. It’s not just about the price tag.”

A Property with Room to Grow 

It’s common knowledge at this point that the pandemic drove intense interest in Hudson Valley and Catskills real estate. The rise of remote work redrew the boundary lines of where many workers could live, but it was just one of several real estate trends that have defined the region’s luxury market in the past few years.

According to Merill, the investment and wealth management division of Bank of America, the greatest wealth transfer in history is already taking place, with $84 trillion in assets set to change hands over the next 20 years. But the Baby Boomer generation isn’t waiting for their wills to kick in to start passing on wealth to their families. The trend of “giving while living” means that Gen X, the Millennials, and Gen Z are already seeing help in the form of down payments for homes and real estate purchases that make room for the whole family.

Founded in 2019 by CEO and associate real estate broker Megan Brenn-White, the Upstate Curious Team has expanded to 19 agents and eight support staff who cover 12 counties across the Catskills and Hudson Valley. Photo by Kate Callahan

“We’re seeing that it’s often the parents that want to buy a place for their kids and their grandkids to be close to them the way they were able to be together as a family during the pandemic,” says Diana Polack, an Upstate Curious real estate agent who partners with Chambers on listings. “They’re buying 30, 40, 50 acres. They want multi-generational living on one lot, but not the same building. Maybe there’s one main house on the property, and either there are already substructures on the property or something they will build in time.”

Putting the Quiet in Quiet Luxury

In a 2023 article that tracked the rise of quiet luxury in contemporary culture, the New York Times wrote that “As trends go, ‘stealth wealth’ was one well suited to a moment in which social media has made us all into de facto voyeurs,” and that the baseline requirements for the movement toward a more inconspicuous lifestyle are “privacy, discretion, and to a large extent anonymity.”

Nestled in the woods of Saugerties, this new three-bedroom contemporary home at 18 Diamond Court is currently on the market with the Upstate Curious Team at Compass. Photo by Andrew Arthur, styling by Madelynn Hudson.

Anyone who has wandered far enough down a country lane in the Hudson Valley or Catskills knows the exact kind of anonymous, off-the-grid vibe that can still be had within a two-hour drive of New York City. “One of the major differences in this luxury market is the landscape—the remoteness of the hills and mountains and spread out nature of our small towns,” says Polack.

“You can’t get that in the Hamptons,” says Chambers. “You can’t get 20 acres, you can’t get privacy.”

Design That Delights

Then, of course, there are the homes themselves. While Chambers and Polack acknowledge that there’s no one design feature that all high-end homebuyers are attracted to, the luxury properties that sell quickly and create lustworthy reactions among Upstate Curious’s 63 thousand Instagram followers all have an incredibly high level of materials and craftsmanship.   

On the historic end of the spectrum is a five-bedroom Georgian stone house in Hurley currently on the market with Upstate Curious. Originally built in 1688, the 3,569-square-foot home has been renovated throughout with modern interiors that include high-end appliances and custom cabinetry. Though sequestered on 13 pastoral acres with a saltwater pool, the property is just a five-minute drive from Uptown Kingston.

A home in Hurley listed by Upstate Curious.

In Shandaken, in the northwest Catskills, a newly renovated modernist home designed by a German architect in 1976 that was recently listed by the team was marked as contingent in less than five days. Perched in the mountain treetops and surrounded by thousands of acres of public land, the home’s tall ceilings and walls of windows offer a carefully considered relationship with the natural environment.

When it comes to the new construction homes that Upstate Curious represents, a sense of character is a must. A jet-black, 2,625-square-foot open concept home in Accord finished in 2024 currently on the market features hand-hewn beams that were reclaimed from a Victorian-era barn on site, blending the property’s rich past with top-of-the-line contemporary design.

“The quality of the homes that are entering this end of the market is on a level that we’ve never seen before,” says Chambers. “People really care about the details.”