You can buy a great house for just about any price (and in any condition) in the the City of Newburgh, but I’m a sucker for a rough & tumble bargain. These are my favorites on the market right now. Don’t let boarded-up windows scare you, either—my house looked like this just a few years ago!
Click the address links for more photos and info.
162 South St / $50,000 / 2040 SF
156 Grand St / $225,000 / 3476 SF (7 Bed, 4 Bath)
191 Gidney Ave / $249,000 / 4100 SF (9 Bed, 3 Bath)
17 S. Miller / $150,000 / 3168 SF (7 Bed, 4 Bath)
139 Lander St / $45,000 / 1452 SF (5 Bed, 2 Bath)
137 Lander St / $65,000 / 1506 SF (4 Bed, 2 Bath)
67 Comments
wow. I think those agents should give you a cut on any houses that they sell.
I want to move to Newburgh. My 2,000 sqft house on the west coast of Canada cost $526,000.
What’s the commute to NYC like?
Hmm….
Wow! These are just lovely from the outside. I do wonder though what they look like on the inside…price scares me a little bit (unless Newburgh is WAY cheaper than TX). :/
kat: 5m ferry ride to Beacon, 75m on Metro-North to Grand Central (more or less, depending on the time of day). A little extra time to sleep, read, look at the river, listen to music, etc…
averill: At least 3 of these listing are total fixers, and I’m sure they ALL need work. That’s why I started this blog — my house needed (and still needs) a LOT of work. I don’t think you can run fair real estate comparisons between New York and Texas, but I can tell you that Newburgh is MUCH less expensive than any other city within commuting distance to Manhattan.
(By the way, a few of the links above do show interior photos, if you’re interested.)
Whoa… I live in California and those prices make me want to cry.
My mouth waters just looking at that second one.
I love it when you post houses… So close to New York for so cheap.
wow. i can’t believe the first three. beautiful.
it makes me want to adopt one as a vacation house! ;)
Are you kidding me with these prices?? It’s hard to believe you can buy such great old houses for so little. The Gidney Ave one is gorgeous. I can totally see the potential in all of them. You’re going to have all of us moving to Newburgh soon!
Great houses!! I sure hope nobody tears them down.
As Emily said… living in California, these prices make me want to cry. And with our town 1/2 evacuated because of fire, this is very tempting.
It’s hard for me to imagine having a house with 7 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. Must be nice.
Huh. Well. That is tempting. And some of those have been on the market for a while.
I love the philosophy of finding something old and turning it around. Anna you’re a star!
I’ve been to Newburgh and I’ve spent a good deal of time in nearby Duchess County and also Beacon and if you’ve never been, Hudson Valley is a very beautiful area of New York.
191 Gidney is calling my name.
I recently took some documentation on a 1890 home in Ottawa, KS… just 15 minutes from Baldwin, KS (where I live.)
Get ready for this… 3-story Victorian mansion… the inside is pretty good, outside needs new siding due to termites, but the roof is brand new and done in historically accurate shingles.
The house is in foreclosure and owned by a bank which needs to clear its books. They have slashed it to way under half price. It is listed at under $80k.
http://cottageofstone.blogspot.com/2009/04/diamond-in-rough.html
I WANT that house but my current projects are way too much to handle. But that house is a preservationists dream since it is so complete. And the stained glass, Annna… you would die.
I love Victorians but I don’t live in NY. Someone snap these up and blog about it so I can live vicariously through you!
oh god, anna. you would be aghast at how shockingly little you can get for 200,000 in vancouver. it’s disgusting, really.
anna, i need the gidney avenue house. need it now.
so nice. the issue here, there are some bargains in Oakland but you have to have spot cash money or you can’t even put an offer in. i looked for a few months but even with fantastic credit, no loans on cheapies!
I love 162 South St., and it’s totally in my price range! Now I jut need a teaching job down there!
Amy: I grew up in northern Dutchess County (Rhinebeck), and lived in Beacon for a year before buying our house in Newburgh three years ago — so yes, I’m very familiar with the area! :) I love the Hudson Valley.
puck: There’s a house very similar to that one behind our house. It’s vacant, but not for sale…frustrating! Many of the houses in Newburgh are relatively intact if only for the economic blight this city has suffered for so long.
leah: I don’t think I’d be aghast. Remember that Newburgh isn’t that far from NYC — where $200k will get you exactly nothing (the same is true for virtually every other area within commuting distance to Manhattan, too). These prices are typical to Newburgh, but NOT typical to the region.
Adam: We did a drive-by tonight to check it out. It’s SO cute! I’m sure it needs a ton of work inside because it’s basically free, of course, but the exterior looks great.
I’ve been looking at real estate in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and Newburgh.
Oddly enough Buffalo was the one with the least amount of housing for sale, cept the east side. There are a few rehab temptations like…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/asteriahanover/sets/72157616094686614/
For 145k you think how lovely. Then I realized that 10k square feet or historic rehab may be a little too much.
Rochester had the most kept up houses for the least amount of money (figuring after rehab.) But the dipping housing prices raised some real red flags about the future of their neighborhoods.
Syracuse had a lot of rehab projects but the neighborhoods looked like a mess and a half.
Then Newburgh has a lot of the linked above. Mansard roofs, italianate, and rowhouses which are loaded with potential and who doesn’t love all that? Newburgh was an oddity to me because I do not know all that much about it. Why is there so much architecture in a city of 30k? It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.
One thing people whom don’t live in New York realize is that yes, the housing is cheap but the taxes and fees are not. And in this case I feel especially bad for people from Buffalo who are constantly taking taxes in the rear from every direction.
“Newburgh was an oddity to me because I do not know all that much about it. Why is there so much architecture in a city of 30k?”
Dave: You should take a trip to Newburgh if you haven’t already. It’s not like any other place — you drive around and nearly EVERY house is amazing, even the most common rowhouse. I grew up in a “pristine” historic Hudson Valley town (Rhinebeck), and it’s got nothing on Newburgh in terms of architecture and city layout.
This site, while woefully outdated (hasn’t been updated since 2003, and Newburgh has seen a LOT of improvement since then), does a very good job of explaining the history of Newburgh through the good times and to the start of its long, long downfall beginning after WWII.
“One thing people whom don’t live in New York realize is that yes, the housing is cheap but the taxes and fees are not.”
That is very true, and it is exactly the reason why I can’t live outside of commuting distance to NYC. Even though I live in an economically depressed area and my house was relatively inexpensive, it doesn’t really cost me any less to live here than it did to live in Brooklyn. The upside, of course, is that I get to own a beautiful house with a view of the Hudson, and I get to see a hundred beautiful houses (at least) every day.
NO WAY!!!
We live outside of D.C. and paid $250k for a teeny little duplex that probably has a fourth the square footage of your smallest house up there.
That really is amazing. Living in or very close to big cities is becoming less and less important to me…
i’m in love. im like you, i want to restore a home.. and these make my mouth drop!! definitely doesn’t scare me one bit! and 7 bedrooms!!!!!?? crazy. i also live in CA. are there any bad parts of newburgh that someone wouldn’t want to live in?
Crazy prices!! Our 1000 sf *apartment* on the west coast of Canada would go for about $400,000 (and it’s not in a high end or trendy neighbourhood or anything).
angelica: Well, the City of Newburgh itself is the “bad part” of NY state, at least statistically speaking. That said, there are definitely some pockets that are much worse than others. It’s definitely a city suffering from serious socioeconomic woes, but I have never felt unsafe here. The City of Newburgh (I include “City of” to distinguish it from the “Town of Newburgh”, which is a completely different world) gets a REALLY bad rap, and much of it is undeserved. Are there blocks I wouldn’t want to live on? Sure, but the longer I live here, the less those places that looked so scary to me a few years ago have started to feel. I’m sure that’s in part due to desensitizing, but also to very slow but very real signs of progress and improvement.
If you’re interested in Newburgh, check out the links in my sidebar on the right, as well as this article from the NY Times from 2005, and this one from the Daily News from last fall. (Weirdly, both articles chose to feature home prices on the high end of what’s available here. Something to keep in mind.)
Good God, this makes me wish I had money for a down payment. I’ve been wanting to move closer to the city (my commute door to door is about 2 hours now) but having all that space, not to mention owning my own home, seems like it would be worth it. And I love Beacon (though I’ve never been to Newburgh–yet). Time to start saving up!
Those prices seem crazy cheap, even adding our poor Australian dollar exchange rate. Let alone the fantastic architecture on offer which is so different from anything over here. They all look amazing and I’d love to renovate one…..
thanks for the links and response!
I am in love with the first one :D
these prices are insane.
Awesome. I live in Virginia Beach and these prices are unbelievable. $150 will barely buy you a condo. Wah!
Newburgh has all the right elements, and historic homes to see it’s time come again.
Neighborhoods like this change in cycles. Waves of creative people, pioneers push this along a community to change.
My husband lived in a whole dilapidated shit hole brownstone in park slope, unfit for living, the landlord offered it to him for $20,000.
Now Maggie Gyllenhaal lives in that Brownstone for millions of dollars!!
Neighborhoods like Newburgh with historic properties always change.
Heh. I suggested a while ago to a friend of mine and my husband that we buy #3 together as a weekend home. No one went for it, though, because both had last been to Newburgh a while ago, and both found it really scary. I have never been to Newburgh, but I have seen a number of depressed Hudson Valley towns.
That said, I’m sure it’s not that scary anymore, because you are a woman and seem to feel safe. I’ve always thought Kingston has a lot of potential, although that is too far to commute, imo (but I have a child and commuting in general is out for me).
I think it is great you are promoting your town. That’s how I am about Queens–I think it’s undiscovered (still maligned) and so much more affordable than Manhattan and Brooklyn.
What about the schools?
I could sell my 1000sq ft condo in L.A. and buy an entire block!!
i know you mentioned never feeling “unsafe” – even at night? i work in the area, know the ‘burgh..and it is certainly tempting for those who are just starting out (me and my soon-to-be hubby)…but we have our concerns as well..
swoooooooning…
wow. here in vancouver we think anything under $350k for 600 square feet is a pretty good deal…why is it SO affordable???
Fiona/meaghan: I hear a lot of people talk about the City of Newburgh being “scary”, but as a resident, I have to wonder what it is exactly that they find so terrifying. Are they actually afraid they’re going to get shot or stabbed? Or are they afraid of poverty and urban decay? Honestly, I think it’s the latter. Yes, there are a few blocks in Newburgh that I wouldn’t choose to hang out on by myself late at night, but you can say the same thing about almost any urban area. I think it’s important to separate our gut reactions to poor living conditions, derelict buildings, and other obvious signs of poverty from situations that are legitimately life-threatening. Also, don’t judge the whole of Newburgh by the crime clusters of a few specific areas. There’s a whole lot going on here that doesn’t have anything to do with drug or gang violence! (By the way, I say this as someone who found the City of Newburgh absolutely horrifying just 5 years ago. I definitely understand the trepidation — I’m not THAT naive!!) (Also, there are areas of Newburgh — the parts with more money, unsurprisingly — that are not included in the city’s crime statistics, which throws off the numbers considerably.)
LIMOM: I don’t have kids, so I don’t feel qualified to even attempt to answer that question. I think that’s something you’d want to research in depth on your own if you’re considering raising kids here.
Hey Dave–as a person who just bought a house built in 1870 in Buffalo this past winter just before the real estate market went totally crazy here I can say there are deals to be had in Buffalo. Look at the west side–west of Richmond Ave. We lucked out and found a great double in Allentown but I think we were an anomaly and most people we know are having more trouble finding houses now that the stimulus package incentives and mortgage rates are lower. The taxes are bad here–but most of New York state is killed with taxes. It’s twice as bad in Long Island from what I hear.
oooh that second one is so dreamy!
Nice selection of houses! Sorry I missed the discussion. There are a number of cities on the Hudson with growing artist districts and wonderful older homes. Newburgh, Beacon, and Hudson all have a lot to offer. If people want something closer to NYC, they can check out Peekskill (a 50 minute train ride), which also has some well-priced stunners. This one is not the cheapest, but most of the work has already been done:
http://northernwestchesterhome.blogspot.com/2009/04/more-details-on-victorian.html
The Hudson Valley is awesome and there are loads of great towns with great buys!
These are just beautiful! I lucked out on a 1920’s home in East Texas, pricewise, because it needed fixing up. It’s like living inside a project, but fun, fun, fun!
Thanks for ten minutes of vicarious living!
Hello
I live in the city of Newburgh for 3 years and have also taken the ferry to commute to NYC. I follow this blog from time to time to get ideas for my own home.
I own a brick Italianate two-family close to the hospital which is also being slowly restored and have never felt threatened.
However there are places to avoid after dark. If I were in the position to buy another home I would seriously consider 156 Grand St and 191 Gidney Ave. The first home on South street looks deceptively good, but is on a challenging corner. Lander street should be avoided at night. South Miller might be challenging for families as well but could change for the better.
On the whole there are many great neighborhoods in Newburgh which are livable and things change from block to block. For example Liberty Street has some great sections were new businesses have moved in, but on the same street near South & Liberty you might want to avoid.
Take care
Oh, I get both inspired and jealous when I see this! Inspired, cause I’d love to redecorate one of those amazing places. And jealous, because for prices like this you hardly get a garage or one-room-studio in my city… :(
I am in love with the white house on Gidney Ave. It has always been my dream to fix up a house! If only I was in a position to do so… Your blog inspires me to one day take on this challenge!
Oh ah, we don’t even have houses like these in Sweden… and at these prices… we’re packing our bags right now!
Btw, your blog is the best find I’ve done in a very long time. Very inspirational!
I really love the white house on Gidney Ave. I can’t believe it has 9 bedrooms – even if it needs work, it’s a great price.
I just found a site called “100 Abandoned Houses” via A Cup of Jo… all the homes photographed are found in the city of Detroit. ( I live about 10 minutes outside the city.) Everytime my husband and I go downtown, usually to a sporting event, kids in tow, I wonder why these mansions are just sitting, rotting…??? Doesn’t anyone care about their history? It breaks my heart. I just wrote about it on my blog, and I thought to myself… it would be wonderful if thousands of Anna’s moved into Detroit. You want people to come along that care about a community’s history, about the craftmanship someone once put into a house…you want to see people with vision restore the place. Yet, I’m guilty of making the assumptions you mentioned above. I associate poverty and neglect with getting shot, so I don’t bother looking for a house in the city.
http://www.100abandonedhouses.com if you want to check it out.
Newburgh is a really nice area, but gets a bad rap because of the crime and tons of economic problems in the City of Newburgh. The crime is really localize to certian area/blocks within the city and it’s mostly with drugs.
Commuting to Manhattan is not bad, contrary to what some people say. Metro North Railroad is probably one of the best if not the railroads in the country compared to the Long Island Railroad and their countless delays and being in ugly Penn Station.
The commute to Manhattan only works if you work within walking distance to Grand Central Terminal (Midtown) or on the Upper East or West Side. If you work in the village, SoHo, financial district forget about it. A subway commute adds an easily 20-30 minutes, especially during rush hour.
I passed by on my way to a graduation in Albany this weekend. Although I had been thinking about moving upstate, honestly that drive was total 100% torture.
That being said, for any first time buyers, those homes might be worth the 2 hour something drive into the city. That is seriously cheap and SO SO SO cute! Almost dreamlike!
I’ll prolly be staying in my 3-bedroom on Staten, which now seems pricey, at around $150k more than those, but I would DEF visit Newburgh again! So cute!
TravelingAnna: Hmmm, I can’t imagine why someone would DRIVE to and from the city from Newburgh??? (It definitely doesn’t take 2 hours, though, regardless.) I take the train every day. Not much longer than commuting from South Brooklyn, honestly, and you don’t need a car.
You have inspired my husband and me to meet with a broker and take a look at Newburgh this weekend! We are checking out at least two of the houses you listed.
Anything I should be sure not to miss while looking around?
Yay, Elizabeth! I will email you. :)
*gasp*
Those same houses in Seattle would be close to a million buckaroos (or more). Unbelievable.
And they all have such great potential!
we renovated our home (which was nearly condemnable) located in a rivertown in rockland county. we thrive on a challenging project and the boarded windows and rotting structures DO NOT scare us. what scares us is the crime rate, the drug lords and the crack houses!! newburgh is TERRIFYING!!!
i admit, the possibilities are endless, the architecture is unbelievable and i fell in LOVE. but, driving around with my two young children in the car, felt simply irresponsible. i researched the hell out of it and truly value the history and craftsmanship of the area. it depresses me that such a spectacular city can end up in such ruin. but i need to draw the line somewhere.
a very good friend of mine who bought in newburgh 5 years ago, is looking to leave since the birth of her son. and i know 2 other couples who would not even get out of their cars to look at homes.
i WISH i had the courage to live there. but honestly, i feel like i would be putting my children is serious danger if i purchased a home in newburgh. so my main question is… how are you not afraid?? am i missing something??
in closing let me say, that i enjoy your site and love your home. we have very similar tastes and even a lot of the same stuff. or garden is very similar to what you are working on. i would love to chat with you a bit.
It would be fun to fix one up!
Holy, what a beautiful town! And the prices! The only thing I don’t understand is the tax level – why is it so high? I too was able to buy an old building (a little wooden Vancouver church) because of its proximity to a rundown, poverty-stricken area, and I get the same questions about its safety – some people are afraid to drop by, even though it’s really no more dangerous than anywhere else in town. I think you made a genius move, though I have to say after 6 years of DIY renovation (I’m the contractor), I’m pretty exhausted and the repetitive strain injuries are accumulating.
Ashley H – I’m in the same boat as you! I live right on the DC line and I have a 1 br condo. I love it and am very grateful, but man those are beautiful!! Just thinking about all the creative things you could do with a home of that much character and space :) When I was condo hunting it actually took me a year of searching to find one with that old charm that I love.
Thanks for sharing these homes with us! :)
catherine, i hear you. newburgh breaks my heart. it’s really a beautiful place in many ways, but it’s also seriously scary on some streets. after a year of obsessing about it i kind of gave up after my last visit. i was really a little scared.
i did see the inside of 156 grand and the first floor is amazzzing. i really loved it. if the price goes any lower though, i might have to check out the city again! ;D
catherine & robin: What are you scared of, exactly? Are you honestly afraid something bad is going to happen to you here? Seriously?
The thought of people being too afraid to get out of their cars is just totally ABSURD. I mean…come on. Did they think they were going to get stabbed? Shot? What did they see that was so AWFUL and SCARY that they couldn’t leave the confines of their vehicle? Someone sitting on their porch?
And what about you, Catherine? “newburgh is TERRIFYING!!!” Oh, really? What are you terrified of? Have you ever actually been here and walked around, or are you just Googling and reading the rhetoric thrown around by bigots who live in surrounding (and wealthier) towns? I find it hard to believe that you spent any time on Grand, Liberty, Montgomery, Broad, in the Heights, Colonial Terrace, or any of the other amazing parts of the City of Newburgh that comprise a large portion the population’s homes. Perhaps you just focused on the handful of blocks that have driven the crime stats up for the rest of city, I don’t know.
I really think these reactions to Newburgh have nothing to do with reality, and are all about perception and fears related to poverty. Unless you’re planning to deal or buy drugs here, you really don’t have much to worry about. Sure, there are a few blocks I’d stay away from at night by myself, but I think you can say that about most urban areas. It’s not hard to avoid bad situations.
I have NEVER felt in danger here. Ever. I don’t know what to say beyond that. Everyone has their own ideas about what it means to be “scared”, and I don’t know that I can tell you anything that will change your minds. Maybe Newburgh just isn’t for you.
My boyfriend and I bought a house in Newburgh and moved here from Brooklyn last November. Regarding crime and supposed terrifying experiences, we have never encountered anything remotely questionable here — not even close. (Unfortunately, this cannot be said for our block in Prospect Heights.) Of course there are areas where I wouldn’t walk alone in the middle of the night. This is true in Brooklyn as well. And most cities!
As an added unexpected bonus, we have met the most incredible people (Anna included!) here. Not once have I looked back and wished we hadn’t made the choice to live here.
WOW! These are quite nice.
Great blog. Found my way through someones Twitter link.
Anna, to answer your question, I HAVE actually visited Newburgh, A FEW TIMES! My husband did some work at the hospital a few years ago. More recently, we visited to look around with our two daughters (8 months and 3 yrs) To be honest, I was totally inspired after viewing your blog for the first time and immediately researched some real estate. I found some of the same gorgeous homes you’ve posted above. (191 Gidney and 156 Grand) We drove up that same night to check it out. We returned again the very next morning for a better look.
You may find it “hard to believe”, but we hit all of the areas you mentioned. We walked on Grand, and took a look around the old condemned school building as well as checking out the market and coffee shop, the park and the library-in-progress. As I also mentioned, a good friend of mine has lived in Newburgh for over 5 years. She has beautiful home on an acre of land and a river view. I am clearly aware of the diversity.
When considering raising my children in a neighborhood, I CANNOT rely on the safety of my “block” . There is no invisible wall protecting them from whatever may be happening one block away. Conditions seem to vary so severely street to street. I need more stability than that. I don’t need to be selling or purchasing drugs to be in harm’s way. Nor do my children!
I am not naive to conditions of poverty and urban decay, nor do I shy away from it. I grew up in Yonkers!
I congratulate you on your success in Newburgh. Believe me, I think the city is spectacular and I SINCERELY admire your passion. Perhaps if my situation were different; if i did not have children; I would feel differently? For now, you’re correct; it is not for me.
Again, what was it that you saw that you were so terrified of? That’s what I’m confused about. What scared you? What do you mean by, “Conditions seem to vary so severely street to street”? What “conditions”?
I’m sorry if I seem defensive, but if someone is going to post a series of inflammatory comments (“newburgh is TERRIFYING!!!”, etc.) on my blog about the city that I have CHOSEN (!!!!!) to make my home in; the city where I chose to be with my FAMILY, you had better believe I’m going to react strongly. This is where I live!! Think about everything you’re implying with the series of hyperbolic statements you made in your first comment. Did you think at all about how offensive the things you wrote are?
I can’t imagine visiting someone’s blog and making comments like that about the city they live in (ESPECIALLY as a reaction to a post that focuses on one of the greatest things about Newburgh — the affordability of the fantastic architecture), but for some reason, it’s fair game when it comes to Newburgh. Why is that, exactly?
THIS IS MY HOME. You can keep all of the eye-rolling opinions you want about Newburgh, but don’t trash up my blog with them and then ask me if I want to chat about garden design. Give me a break.