The gift of a good recommendation
Terrace living, Litchfield summers, Blackberry Mountain, Wassaic Project, Tryall, NYE ticketed, MORE
REAL ESTATE • In Contract
Brighter skies
Cause for celebration in this 100-year-storm of a housing market: The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate dipped below 7% last week for the first time since July. It’s still a long way to the sub-4% rates most homeowners are carrying, but with Fed cuts on the way in ’24, there’s finally some light at the end of the market’s congested tunnel of inventory.
Add in a December stock market rally, and things are looking up on the demand side of the equation, too. That should perk up new development sales, per Marketproof’s Kael Goodman, who also expects the percentage of all-cash buyers to begin to decline.
And while the brighter skies aren’t yet apparent in the data, there are glimmers of sunshine, like these three terrace-forward listings, which all went into contract last week:
→ 52 Wooster St. PH (Soho, above) • 3BR/3.5BA, 4270 SF condo • Closing ask: $10.995M • Triplex with three terraces, including 1163 SF rooftop • Days on market: 195 • Monthly taxes: $10,038; common charges: $4753 • Broker: Kristina Paces & Ryan Serhant, Serhant.
→ 378 Broome Street, Unit 2 (Nolita) • 3BR/2.5BA, 2180 SF condo • Closing ask: $5.995M • Four-unit boutique development • Days on market: 179 • Monthly taxes: $5108; common charges: $2401 • Broker: Scott Hustis, Compass.
→ 23 East 74th St. 14ABCDE (Upper East Side) • 4BR/3.5BA, 2400 SF co-op • Closing ask: $4.25M • Glass solarium and two separate wings • Days on market: 92 • Monthly maintenance: $8048 • Broker: Nikki Field, Sotheby’s.
REAL ESTATE • Litchfield Report
Over the hills we go
With only 195 days until July 4, it’s time to start thinking about summer getaways. This month, FOUND has been checking in on the rental markets in key localities (see our Hamptons and LBI reports). Next up: Upstate and Litchfield County.
The upstate summer rental market, covering far more ground than the Hamptons or Jersey Shore, isn’t one which requires serious advance planning. Most rentals are short-term.
As Megan Brenn-White, founder of the Upstate Curious team at Compass, tells FOUND: “There have traditionally been so few [long-term] summer rentals up here, but I think growing demand and Airbnb restrictions are going to start to open up that market.” Until that happens, though, a couple of curated marketplace recommendations from FOUND correspondents: Red Cottage and Home Sweet Hudson.
Meanwhile, across the border into tonier Connecticut, monthly rentals for the summer are very much in order, and spending around $25,000 a month will set you up quite nicely indeed. Here are three options currently renting for next year’s dog days in Litchfield County.
→ 321 West Shore Rd. (Washington, CT) • 6BR/5BA • June-July monthly rent: $30,000 • Low-slung house by Lake Waramaug, with pontoon boat availability • Agent: Stacey Matthews, William Raveis.
→ 35 Painter Ridge Rd. (Roxbury, CT) • 3BR/3BA • June-August monthly rent: $26,900 • Modern farmhouse-style home stocked with antiques and art, plus swimming pool • Agent: Peter Klemm, Klemm Real Estate.
→ 151 Treasure Hill Rd. (South Kent, CT, above) • 3BR/3BA • August rent: $25,000 • Main house plus 1-2BR guest house and swimming pool, with sweeping views • Agent: Pels Matthews, William Raveis.
NYC REAL ESTATE LINKS: Sag Harbor cracks down on rentals • Top 10 Hamptons sales of 2023 • 550 10th Ave. tops out in Hell’s Kitchen … as does One Domino Square in Williamsburg • Penthouse creep is everywhere.
CULTURE & LEISURE • Friday Routine
Flipping the script
JASON KLEIN, co-founder, ListenFirst
Neighborhoods you live in: Litchfield County, CT, and Gramercy NYC
It’s Friday afternoon, how are you rolling into the weekend?
For the past 10 years, every Friday meant getting in the car and heading up to our place in Litchfield County (in northwest Connecticut), usually grabbing some pizza and wine in town at The Owl around the corner from our house.
Now we flipped our lives around (our weekend house is now our full-time house), so no more chauffeuring for me! Fridays could be dinner out with friends at one of our favorite Litchfield spots, like Community Table or Swyft. Or, this winter, it’ll be picking up the kids after school for skiing at Mohawk Mountain and apres-ski with friends, including farmhouse beers from Kent Falls and a portable raclette situation that my buddy brings to the mountain.
Where are you dining this weekend?
Back in NYC, I just had a killer meal at my friend’s new place Tolo in Dimes Square — the food was insane (don't skip the salt and pepper tofu or the rice noodles) and, because it’s connected to Parcelle, the wine was epic. And I’m always up for sushi at Yasuda (and just tried out Hoseki, odd location but solid omakase), roast chicken at Raf’s, and anything cooking at Jolene.
How about a little leisure or culture?
We just went to the opening of the new winter show at the Wassaic Project in Amenia, NY. Fifteen years ago our dear friends started an arts non-profit around an abandoned seven-story grain mill as an exhibition space, and it’s now grown to a full-on artist residency, education center, and place to discover young talent when their art is still affordable. Full disclosure: I’m on the board. But Wassaic alums now have art in places like the Whitney, MoMA, New Museum, etc. Finally, no trip there is complete without a meal at The Lantern.
Any weekend getaways?
Now that we have more cows than people in our neighborhood, we’re trying to travel a lot more. We recently did a weekend of hiking, paintballing and lots and lots of great eating and drinking at Blackberry Mountain in Tennessee (including swimming every morning in their outdoor pool, open year-round, above).
And we just did Thanksgiving weekend with the kids in Paris where we had an amazing time. Highlights were the Sean Landers exhibit at Museum of the Hunt (imagine Wes Anderson + The Explorers Club set in Paris), a visit to Deyrolle, steak au poivre at Bistro Paul Bert, the roast chicken at Chez l’ami Louis, a mammoth seafood tower instead of turkey at Vaudeville, choupettes at Les Choupettes de Chou Chou, Rothko at Foundation LV, and an evening motorcycle sidecar tour of Paris which was white knuckles for the grown-ups and the greatest night ever for the kids.
What was your last great vacation?
We’re taking more "trips" than "vacations" with the kids, but we love Tryall in Jamaica, where we go with friends, and everyone has a great time, due in large part to the rum punch and the most fun babysitters you can find anywhere. Another regular getaway for us: Rosewood Mayakoba, along Mexico’s Riviera Maya, where the service is impeccable and the grilled catch of the day for lunch on the beach can’t be beat.
GETAWAYS LINKS: Windham Mountain rebrands as luxury upstate ski getaway • Major Food Group opening its first Mexican restaurant, Chateau ZZ’s, in Miami this weekend • Aspen’s only ski-in/ski-out spa opens at Little Nell • U.S. Passport processing time finally back to normal pre-pandemic level.
CULTURE & LEISURE • NYE Parties
Cumbia y House con Hellotones and Friends, elNico (Williamsburg), 12/31 @ 8p, 5-hr open bar, passed canapés, live entertainment, bubbly toast, $125 per
Tigre's New Year's Eve Celebration!, Tigre (Lower East Side), 12/31 @ 10p-2a, includes 90-min cocktail table reservation and Champagne toast, $75 per (or $50 per for pre-10p seating)
NYE 007 'All-In' Extravaganza Ball!, Point Seven (Flatbush), 12/31 @ 9p-1a, reserved table, open bar, hors d’euvres, casino games, $245 per
CULTURE LINKS: 50 years later, CBGB still leaves a powerful legacy • How ‘The Nutcracker’ has been reimagined, for better and worse • ‘Law & Order’ creator’s holiday gift to Met: 200 art works • Alvin Ailey premieres two new works at City Center • Saying goodbye to Sundays at the library.
GOODS & SERVICES • The Nines
New Year’s Eve restaurants, ticketed
