Water View, Please, Even if It's from Sing Sing

By Bill Primavera

The Home Guru

So Sing Sing may be closing to save the state money and possibly make way for a luxury housing development?  Oh, my.  If this happens, future generations will understand the term “up the river” to mean traveling to classy digs, rather than to the “big house.”

Since 1825, the prison has held sway as the most famous penal institution in the country, perhaps in the world, with the possible exceptions of the Bastille or the Tower of London.  But now, there is strong sentiment to take the place down, lock, stock, and barrel and move all 1,725 inmates to another location. 

Much like Indian Point Nuclear Plant – oops, I mean, Indian Point Power Plant – there are some elected officials who say that a maximum security prison would never be built at that location today.  When the site was selected, its host town Ossining, then also called Sing-Sing until its name became notorious, was a more remote place. But over the years, the town’s image has traded an association with James Cagney as a movie gangster for the classier Don Draper character of “Mad Men.”

Dismantlement of Sing Sing may or may not happen, but one thing is certain. Homes on that patch of 60 acres on the banks of the mighty Hudson will not be hard to sell. There will always be a percentage of people who demand being on the water, or at least to have a view of it, whether it’s on “the” river or one of our many lakes in Westchester and Putnam Counties.

That preference has changed significantly since the 18^th and early 19^th centuries, when living along the river meant that you had to hold your nose to bear the stench from raw sewage dumped there, especially in New York City, and later, there was the danger of  toxic materials spewed from such industrial plants as GE further north.

Until relatively recently, people were cut off from the pleasures of the river by the necessity of industrial development, built there specifically for water transportation. And, in 1848 the Hudson River Railroad was located at “water level” on the river’s edge to allow the tycoons of Wall Street to travel easily to their country estates further upstate, but eliminating easy access to the river for the rest of us. This fact is acknowledged on tours at Sunnyside, where Washington Irving suddenly had his view of the river punctuated by the clatter of passing trains.

What is it about water “vus” that draw us? Perhaps it’s an imprinted thing that our brains associate water with calm and reflection. Maybe it’s the physical thing that water reflects light like a mirror and doubles our open space.  Perhaps it most appeals to those who enjoy water activities like boating and swimming. Probably it’s a combination of all three.

One of my first listings was for a home located on the shores of Mohegan Lake, and that listing earned me a buyer prospect whose top preference was a lakeside home. Over the next six months, we surely must have visited every home for sale in her price range on every lake in both Westchester and Putnam Counties. We saw some beautiful homes and some of questionable attraction, but it was always the view or the proximity to the shore line that compensated for any shortcomings of the structure that came with it.

Since then I have been asked many times to locate homes with water views and, fortunately, the Multiple Listing Service makes it easy for realtors to identify them. Beyond general criteria, like the number of bedrooms and baths, and the lot size, we can check the tab for “additional criteria,” then go to an option called “amenities.” Among them are “Lake/Pond/Stream” and another for “River.”

Right now there are over 400 homes on or near water for sale in the communities served by this newspaper.  The prices for these properties range from $299,000 for a place on Mohegan Lake in Yorktown to $3,250,000 for a combination horse farm with its own lake in Holmes in Putnam County.  And I’m sure that the sale of all of them will be facilitated by their H20 connection.

Me? I love water views as much as anyone, but I found my perfect historic home seven miles inland from the Hudson. However, I designed a pool surrounded on three sides by woods, making it look more like a pond. And if I stand at the window in my dining room and make a telescope out of my cupped hands, focused on the pool, I feel I’m on Lake Placid.

Bill Primavera is a licensed Realtor® (www.PrimaveraHomes.com), affiliated with Coldwell Banker, and a marketing practitioner (www.PrimaveraPR.com).  For questions or comments about the housing market, or selling or buying a home, he can be reached directly at 914-522-2076.