Country Air, City Flair
New England’s countryside offers rural atmospheres with big-city amenities.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, American socialite families such as the Astors and the Vanderbilts would summer away from the hustle, bustle and heat of New York, in opulent oceanfront mansions that were, and still are, the crowning jewels of Newport, R.I. Despite the mansions’ extraordinary scale (The Breakers, summer home of the Vanderbilts, has 70 rooms), the families referred to these homes as “cottages.” Here, they would spend lazy days yachting and while away tranquil nights hosting lavish parties on pristine lawns.
Today, the factors motivating the wealthy to purchase a country retreat in New England remain the same. “The idea of coming out of New York to a place with 10 acres is like going to a kingdom,” says Seymour Surnow, director of Sotheby’s International Realty inWashington Depot, Conn., less than two hours from New York. Calm, space and privacy continue to draw buyers to Litchfield County, says Surnow, where the luxury price range starts at $2 million and some listings offer as many as 500 to 600 acres.
Farther north, the Berkshires region inMassachusetts presents country retreats suitable for second-home or year-round living, just two and one-half hours from New York and Boston. “My niche in the market is approximately 80 percent second/vacation homes, which means that our buyers are most often from New York and the suburban areas of New Jersey and Connecticut,” says Nancy Kalodner, broker/owner of Benchmark Real Estate in Otis, Mass. “Halidome,” a $6 millionplus estate in Stockbridge, is reminiscent of the GildedAge, Newport-style stone Berkshire estates, according to Kalodner, and features sweeping lawns and views of Monument Mountain. The year-round home displays a growing trend among Kalodner’s clients. “As technology reaches every corner of our nation and county, we find more and more younger families choosing to change their status from second-home owners to year-round (or very slightly commuting) residents,” she says.
Alternatively, for prospective buyers who can’t bear to put hours of driving between their homes and the business, educational and cultural opportunities available in a major metro area, several suburbs of Boston offer grand estates carefully concealed from neighbors, providing an illusion of almost-complete isolation. Saul Cohen, division executive of Hammond Residential GMAC Real Estate in Brookline, notes that it’s possible to own a respectable lot as close to center city as Brookline or Newton. Listed at $4.495 million, an Italianate Tuscan-style villa on an acre in Brookline’s estate area is hidden from the street by tall evergreen trees. Completing the villa’s “country” feel are mature flowering trees, a garden and a concealed pool surrounded by plantings.
Wade BC Weathers, of LandVest, Inc.’s Burlington, Vt. office, perhaps best describes the reason so many buyers look for retreats in New England, and he does so in less than 10 words. Speaking of Burlington, though the sentiment is echoed throughout New England, he says, “It has a small-town feeling with big-city benefits.”Weathers’ office specializes in waterfront properties and gentlemen farms, in an area where “waterfront remains the most in-demand with large acreage the next most-asked-for amenity,” he says.
No matter the particular location in New England or the size of one’s chosen retreat, a buyer can take pride in owning a small piece of what is arguably the most historically rich region in the country. Kalodner says, “Each subsequent generation has built new and beautiful country homes after the fashion of their age, and we remain the beneficiaries of our unique history.”
