Coronavirus Has New Yorkers Fleeing The City And Hunting For Second Homes

Speaking with an artist friend the other day, she mentioned that the stores in her neighborhood were well-stocked with food—meat, fish, fruits and vegetables, a veritable cornucopia of plenty.  She lives in one of the densest areas of New York City—the Upper East Side of Manhattan, which is chock-a-block full of high-rise apartment buildings. What did she think accounted for her good fortune?

“It seems that half the neighborhood fled for the Hamptons.”

Such is Life In the Time of the Coronavirus—or put another way, a slice of life from the annals of pandemic real estate.

My friend didn’t mention a few other destinations for New York City refugees. NYC broker Wendy Maitland did a deal in March in upstate New York. She had a client who lived on Fifth Avenue and was pregnant, due in June. The Covid-19 scourge was beginning to overwhelm city hospitals and delivering a baby in one of them looked dicey. What was the client to do? Maitland found her a vacant, unfurnished second home to buy in Rhinebeck, New York for under $1 million. And get this: She never physically showed the house. She sent the client on her own and gave her access through a code to a lockbox on the outside of the house. The house closed 2 weeks ago and the baby will be delivered at Northern Dutchess Hospital in Rhinebeck.

Compass broker Trish Goff also had a story to tell. In the beginning of April, she had clients who were looking for a pandemic evacuation plan. At that point, Goff was living in her second home in Ancram, New York, about two hours north of Manhattan in Columbia County. By this time, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo had shut the state down and real estate brokers were not allowed to show. Goff said the rentals near her were scarce, and she suggested that buying a modest home might be the best thing to do. Goff sent her husband to video a charming historic house in the area that had just come back on the market. It had two-bedrooms, one-bathroom, a wood-burning stove, and a wraparound deck. The house sat on five wooded acres with a barn and was asking $300,000. The clients negotiated a deal for $270,000 in cash without ever stepping foot in the house and closed within weeks. They moved in on April 22.

Then there was a family with five kids in private school and living in a Manhattan loft. With the schools and parks shuttered, their home was thrown into chaos. They decided to try a suburban experiment, and then called Emily Chen of Olshan Realty (the firm I founded and own). Chen sent them rental listings on websites that covered New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.  Many of the ideal rental properties were taken—the Hamptons rental market, for example, was moving  very quickly at exorbitant prices. They set their sights on an 8,500-square-foot, unfurnished house with a pool in Bedford, New York, a pastoral community that is about one hour north of Manhattan with famous residents such as Martha Stewart and Ralph Lauren. The house had been on the market for exactly one day. The clients offered to pay the full price without ever visiting, but within 48 hours, seven potential renters swooped in, including one offer that was almost 50% above the ask. The owner of the house stuck with the family with the five kids because they raised their offer and committed to a two-year lease that starts on May 24.

Oh, one more thing: The listing broker was Muffin Dowdle of Ginnel Real Estate in Bedford. She sealed the deal by cell phone while—wait for it—riding her pony through the Pound Ridge Reservation.