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Westchester county overview.

Article Excerpt
Real estate professional Sheila Siderow still remembers how in 1987 she closed on a 1920s-era property that became Chappaqua's first million-dollar house, her own. Eighteen years later, she says, that price would hardly signify any sort of high-end home in the hamlet.

"$1 million is no longer considered high end in northern Westchester. Today, you're talking $2 million and up," said Siderow, the president of Siderow Kennedy Real Estate in Chappaqua. "$3 million will get you a gracious house, a larger house that is new construction."

And those prices will continue climbing this year, said Siderow, echoing a consensus among real estate professionals and developers interviewed in recent days. They predict that this year will be a strong one for Westchester's luxury housing market, despite signs that prices for luxury housing in Manhattan have begun to plateau and that interest rates for mortgages will continue to rise this year.

According to Brown Harris Stevens, the average sale price of a Manhattan apartment of four or more bedrooms has dipped during the third and fourth quarters of 2004, to $4.7 million from a second-quarter high of $5.1 million. Over the years rising Manhattan prices have compelled many buyers to sell their apartments and use the proceeds to pay for cheaper luxury houses, with land to boot, in Westchester.

Slow and steady

While mortgage rates are headed up, the increases should be slow and steady,...

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