# Looking Upstate New York



## peaceandquiet (Oct 5, 2008)

Hello,

I have renewed my interest in finding a nice piece of land in New York on which I can, over time, build a small house. It has to have a high water table for a dug well but not be a bog, rich soil for growing food, mostly wooded (firewood source), preferably but not necessarily have a stream or pond, have a view and comparatively low taxes. I don't mind being alone, but it would be nice to be near a small town with a farmer's market.

If anyone is willing to offer some suggestions as to where I can look for such a spot, I would be thrilled to hear from you.

Carol


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## stranger (Feb 24, 2008)

NY is a big state with different weather on each side of the compass, i wouldn't move to Buffalo unless you like lots of snow, north near the Canadian border has a shorter growing season but the land is cheaper, I grew up on a dairy farm in central NY that had heavy clay soil and parts had sulpher water that smelled like rotten eggs.. I left there 50 yrs ago but remember it was nice in the summer, but during the winter, it seemed like the wind and snow would never stop blowing. good thing there wasn't snow days back them, because we'd never have to go to school.
you'll just have to pick a spot and ck it out. I wouldn't recomend the south east unless you have plenty of money, land is high, taxes are high and some of the people are high.


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## Beaners (Feb 23, 2005)

Stranger...were you from Tully?

Peaceandquiet, I would check out the area between Rochester and Syracuse, either a bit north of the thruway or a bit south. There were some inexpensive places there and a reasonable water table, although perhaps not suited to hand digging a well. The areas further out around Binghamton and Ithaca are also reasonably priced.

Even the warmer parts of New York are cold though. Try checking on Land and Farm, they had a lot of cool places listed the last time I checked.

Kayleigh


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## peaceandquiet (Oct 5, 2008)

Yes, thanks. I have been on landandfarm.com. Lots of nice looking properties. The best properties probably go quickly. I just have to plan a road trip.


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## BDB (Feb 26, 2005)

I have a place up near malone above the adirondacks. the water table is high all over up there . in fact I have a spring in front of my house runs all year long. there is a lot of reasonable property up there. lots of amish people to thats where I get a lot of vegatables and baked good. good luck on your search


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## Deb862 (Jun 22, 2005)

We've been looking for a property for the last year and a half in upstate NY. Something to be aware of is the recent natural "gas rush" due to the Marcellus shale and that runs from Syracuse all the way south to Binghamton and basically covers all of central NY and into the Finger Lakes. This was devastating to us as really no one is selling anything of value because of this and when they are there is invariably a gas lease existing on the property. We've been researching other areas of NY and really the only place left that has reasonably priced property is St. Lawrence County (unless you like 200+ inches of snow and then you could check out just east and north of Syracuse ). We absolutely love NYS and the loss of being able to look in Central NY is still very devastating to us, as we had so much invested in the search there. The areas just outside the Capital District (where we live) are very nice but anything on more than 2 acres that is decent is expensive (read $225K+). If it's less there is something wrong with the land/lot. I have seen camp-like properties in Schoharie county with 8-10 acres and decent camp home for $180k+ or so. I have also seen that currently (and in the past 6 months really) there really aren't any parcels of land even down to 5 acres that we would consider decent enough to buy available. 

Also, another thing we've seen this year is that the inventory of properties for sale with 2 or more acres is drastically reduced. People here are just not selling many decent rural properties (unless you can spend $350k or so). These are just some things we have found out during our 2-year long search in upstate NY. 

I monitor probably about 8 NYS Multiple Listing SErvices 2-3 times a day so am very knowledgable on the properties, what's been on the market forever, what's been listed and re-listed, etc. for at least the last 2 years. If you'd like more info or have any questions feel free to PM me and we'll answer any we can  Here are links to some of the MLSs I monitor daily:

www.wstarmls.com (southwestern NY)
www.slcmls.com (St. Lawrence county MLS)
www.homesteadnet.com (Rochester and surrounding area MLS)
www.timesunion.com/realestate (Capital district and surrounding counties)
www.prudentialmanor.com (Capital District and surrounding areas)
www.cnyrealtor.com (Syracuse area)

http://www.ired.com/boards/ny.htm (link to NYS board of realtors site with links to lots of the NYS area MLSs)

Because of the "gas rush" I've left out links to central NY MLS but if you'd like them they are:
www.ithacarealtors.com
www.odbrmls.com
www.binghamtonmls.com
www.cortlandmls.com

If you decide to search in CNY despite the above issue, again feel free to contact us via PM if you want any inside "scoop" on specific properties. We've either seen them or investigated most of them.


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## Brynne (Nov 12, 2007)

check out Northern Wayne County. That's where I am. The gas thing is only in the very southernmost part. We're near lake Ontario, which tempers the weather a bit. (not Florida, but we are zone 6) I think the land prices are reasonable, If you search a bit you can find a decent house and a couple outbuilding on 10-20 acres for less than 150K (you might not have to start from scratch)
Many of the smaller towns have farmer's markets. Seems to be plenty of water (though it is a tad sulfury).

I've only been here a year, so I'm not an expert, but fee free to PM me if you have questions on the area.

Brynne


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## Beaners (Feb 23, 2005)

Honestly, Deb, I just moved away from the area that you are talking about, and have spent most of my life there. There ARE still properties in that area that are worthwhile, we were looking at some of them before we moved a couple months ago. The properties might not have any utilities run to them, and may be very difficult to get to and from in the winter, but they are there with mineral rights intact and without a huge price tag. A lot of them are not listed with an agency, the owner may have posted a sign with their phone number and put an ad in the paper.

I really do recommend looking around the Binghamton and Ithaca areas.

Kayleigh


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## Deb862 (Jun 22, 2005)

The only problem in those areas is that even if the property still has the rights intact alot of the surrounding properties (even the State and County lands) have been or are going to be leased so that poses a problem. Broome, Tioga, Cortland, Chenango, Delaware, and Onondaga counties are the current "hot" gas leasing counties with the counties surrounding them the next to be explored. They've just recently done prospecting in Otsego county as well.

We have looked at some properties in Wayne county and liked them. From what we've seen, there is a high water table, good soils, and some properties are decently priced, though the lake effect snow factor bothered us a tad. After exploring the towns and such we decided that it wasn't a good "fit" for us though. Definitely an area to check out though.


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## WindSongAcres (Aug 8, 2007)

My DD and DSIL live in Richford, NY - not too far from Ithaca. It's beautiful, rural country up there. A friend of theirs just put in an offer on 50 acres with a house for $85,000 - I guess the house needs work, but is liveable. That was the asking price. Good luck with your search! Too cold and snowy back there for us - we left NE corner of Pennsylvania 7 years ago for the more mild temps in SC Missouri and don't regret it at all.


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## TedH71 (Jan 19, 2003)

Keep in mind, the Iroquois have a law suit pending because apparently their lands were stolen then sold to civilians a long time ago and court approved it to go thru and now they're planning to discuss with the peoples who are living in the houses ON their property. I believe it's the Seneca Nation. Not sure where the location of the alleged stolen properties are. Been a long time since I last lived in NY.


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## DeerHaven (Oct 20, 2006)

http://www.realtyusa.com/detail.php?k=70660&PT=47

I'm not sure but I don't think the creek dries up.


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## peaceandquiet (Oct 5, 2008)

Wow, that is excellent news. At the suggestion of *******, I am also checking out craigslist.

Thanks all!



WindSongAcres said:


> My DD and DSIL live in Richford, NY - not too far from Ithaca. It's beautiful, rural country up there. A friend of theirs just put in an offer on 50 acres with a house for $85,000 - I guess the house needs work, but is liveable. That was the asking price. Good luck with your search! Too cold and snowy back there for us - we left NE corner of Pennsylvania 7 years ago for the more mild temps in SC Missouri and don't regret it at all.


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## suz1023 (Feb 27, 2008)

i love upstate too. carol, i know of a place which may suit you in st. lawrence county. pm me for details.


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