As much as I love wine- and I do, I also enjoy a cool brew.  Especially when the weather warms up! This Festival is huge, and even those that are car-free, can enjoy the weekend with a bus trip from the city to the fest, and back again, via Urban Sherpa and Tapped Enterprises!

For the past 15 years, TapNY has highlighted thousands of craft brews in New York State, and offered up a platform to taste test samples from these breweries as well as local chef’s fare.  It all began with a couple hudred beer fanatics and a handful of craft brewers from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park. This year, April 28th and 29th- there are over 70 invited breweries and 200+ samples of beer to wet your whistle.

TapNY is a beer competition, and there will be trophies and plaques to the breweries and brews that most impress the qualified panel of judges. This is not a frat packed kegger party with the prime objection of the day to get wasted. (Don’t get me wrong, last year there was a little of this cheese in the festival, but they did not make up the whole pizza) These breweries are professionals, who take their product seriously and many of the attendees do as well. That doesn’t mean it isn’t a good time though- with music, and food demonstations and some tasty treats to keep you from tipping over from the beer, it is a good way to ring in the spring season with friends. This year The Christine Spero Group will be performing their Brazilian Pop music live on stage, and there will be cooking demos from one of my favorite chefs Ric Orlando of New World Home Cooking, Marcus Guiliano of Aroma Thyme Bistro, and Michael Connolly Jr. from Hyde Park Brewing Company.

You can purchase designated driver tickets if you aren’t drinking, and I recommend comfy shoes and layers. It can be a quite a bit cooler up on the Mountain than it is elsewhere. For a full schedule of the two days worth of events click here.

4/28 thru 4/29 at Hunter Mountain

Ticket Prices:

Advance Sale:

• Saturday: $64
• Sunday: $52
• Two-Day: $105
• Designated Driver (Sat. or Sun.): $20

Doors open on Saturday at 1:00pm and close at 5:00pm  -  Doors open on Sunday at 12:00pm and close at 4:00pm

Hunter is, along with nearby Lexington, the Catskills town I’ve spent the most time in, so I’ve been paying particular attention to the bargain end of this area.  It seems the Mountaintop has fared better than its southerly cousins during the financial downturn, and real estate values have held up better.  Plus there’s always the possibility of using your property as a ski rental to buoy prices.  All of which means, when you delve under $100k, you find places like this:

Angels and ministers of grace.  A lovely, Miss Havisham-esque old wreck, to be sure, but perhaps a little challenging as a DIY rehab, yes?  I’m not even linking to the $70k cabin where the listing merrily states “very damp!  Could be mold!”  *Shudder.*

Thankfully, there are some more promising entries in the bargain hunt:

First up is a FSBO from Craigslist.  It’s a 4BR (!), 2 bath farmhouse on a quarter acre, conveniently located square between Hunter and Tannersville.  It’s had a recent (2008), somewhat flavorless renovation, but at least  the major systems have been attended to – the owner reports new water heater, floor, windows, wood stove, well pump and high efficiency propane furnace.

It’s on village sewer, and there’s a deck off one of the upstairs bedrooms.  With major sleeping capacity and proximity to the slopes, $99k seems like a bargain on this one.

10 Clum Hill Road (FSBO/Craigslist) Gmap
Asking Price: $99,000
Beds: 4
Baths: 2
Square Feet: 1,376
Land: .25 acres
Taxes: $2025
Features: Updated systems, central location, deck

Next up is a traditional ski condo.  Not usually my bag, but it’s in good shape and sits just two block from the ski-on/ski-off part of the Hunter slopes.

Yes, okay, it’s bland as saltines despite the somewhat slapdash flourish of the stone fireplace, but I doubt you’ll find a (almost)slopeside condo for less than the $99k they’re asking here.

142-Q4 Hunter Drive (Win Morrison) Gmap
Asking Price: $99,000
Beds: 1
Baths: 1
Square Feet: 620
Land: .12 acres
Year Built: 1980
Taxes: unk.
Features: Community water and sewer, fireplace

Sure, it’s a trailer, but the interior has been completely renovated with a sort of Sauna Chic flair which I really dig.  It’s located right in the village, and one picture I found showed a dishwasher and washer/dryer.

It also apparently comes furnished.  Turn-key!  $90k.

Village of Hunter (address unknown) (Timberland)
Asking Price: $90,000
Beds: 1
Baths: 1
Features: Wood paneling, village location, furnished

This 2BR/2BA cottage is on Route 214, an incredibly scenic drive from Hunter down past Devil’s Tombstone Campground to Phoenicia.  The realtor cleverly excludes the worst of the exterior shots that show up on Realtor.com – there’s a bunch of “TLC” needed here.

That said, the angular paneled den and fireplace are charming, and there’s a seafoam green kitchen suite!  1,220 square feet of potential in a great location for $89k.

3973 Route 214 (Gene Gordon) Gmap
Asking Price: $89,000
Beds: 2
Baths: 2
Square Feet: 1,220
Land: .30 acres
Year Built: 1919
Taxes: unk.
Features: Fireplace, garage

All right, internet, I almost didn’t show you this last one.  Because, to be honest, I am completely smitten with this place and I want it for myself.  So promise me that if you buy this place you’ll let us stay there some time, okay?  Call it a finder’s fee.

It’s an itty-bitty (650 sq. ft.) 2BR/1BA with cedar shake siding, a half-acre lot and a creek running along the back.  Set just off Platte Clove Road, which runs from Hunter/Tannersville straight down the side of a gorge into Saugerties.  Convenient to everything but secluded and surrounded by high peaks and state land, with low taxes, lovely wood floors, a big flat lawn and an asking price of just $79k.  Swoon.

200 Dale Lane (Unique) Gmap
Asking Price: $79,000
Beds: 2
Baths: 1
Square Feet: 672
Land: .50 acres
Year Built: 1926
Taxes: ~$1600
Features: Shake siding, creek

More pictures of all the properties after the jump!

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Bear Creek Landing in Hunter is one of those one-stop-shopping places for recreation: snow mobile in the winter, horseback riding or paintball in the summer. Hit the driving range or take the kids to play miniature golf. It has a little something for everyone, and a combination of kitsch and beautiful views.

The mini golf course has 18 holes, complete with waterfalls, sand traps and all the things that straddle that line between frustrating mini-golf and fun mini-golf. If you prefer full-size golf to the mini kind, Bear Creek Landing also has a 20 pad, 300-yard driving range.

If you need something a little more exciting and dangerous, or if you feel like using your family or friends for target practice, Bear Creek also offers paintball. In case you’ve never played, be warned: getting hit with a paintball might sting a bit, especially if you’ve been shot at close range. There’s also a paintball shooting range if you prefer sharp-shooting over battlefield strategizing.

You can also ride at Bear Creek: horses in warmer months, snowmobiles in the snowy ones. Don’t worry; you won’t be left to your own devices.  Guides will be there to help you navigate the grounds on whichever means of transport you choose.  And since paintballing, horseback riding, and tiny golfing is hard work on those core muscles, you can refuel at the Bear Creek Landing Restaurant.  It’s basic and hearty fare, like burgers, pasta and lots of seafood.

Bear Creek books and caters special events, like birthdays, bachelor parties and tent weddings.  There are also holiday celebrations, such as Independence Day fire works displays and seasonal festivals, so check the website or call for details on those.

Prices for activities are not listed on their website, which always gives us pause.  The Bear Creek Landing website suggests you call for that information.  But the place looks cool, fun and perfect for when the family starts asking, “What are we going to do today?”

We’re starting to feel like kids in a candy store with these Hunter-area listings. There are so many nice, affordable houses in the area that we’re wondering if Hunter is built on a Poltergeist-esque Indian burial ground. But let’s not look our gift horse in the mouth. Instead, let’s look at this cute lake house:

In addition to having a lake in the backyard for your deck-viewing and recreational pleasure, this 3,024-square-foot home is set up as a two-family dwelling: three bedrooms upstairs, three bedrooms downstairs. So, although you could keep it all to yourself, you could also live one one floor and rent the other as an income opportunity. The second floor has two decks, and the ground level opens out onto the lake.

The neighborhood is residential. There are other houses nearby, so if you’re looking for seclusion, you won’t get it here. And compared to some other properties in Hunter we’ve featured here on Upstater, this one doesn’t sit on a lot of land. But what it lacks in land it more than makes up for in lake.

258 Pine Lane, Hunter (Hunter Windham Real Estate) GMAP
Asking Price: $329,000
Beds: 6
Baths: 3
Square Feet: 3,024
Year Built: 1970
Land: .43 acres
Taxes: Unknown
Features: Lake, two decks, can be a two-family dwelling

Hunter is unusual for upstate New York real estate in that its high season is winter, but we noticed an abundance of properties still available for the holiday weekend. We’ve cherry-picked a few that we think Upstater readers might like.

Private Inn
14 Beds
7 baths, 2 half-baths
Sleeps: 40
$1000/night or $10,000/week
Hot tub, pool, volleyball court, game room, bar
Note: all five-star reviews on HomeAway. More expensive than the other rental that sleeps 40 (below), but a pretty amazing place for a group.

Cathedral Ceiling Ski House
3 Beds
3 Baths
Sleeps: 10
$1800/wk or $5,000/day
Game room and Internet
Note: only one review, but very positive; looks better on the inside than the outside. No hot tub, sigh.

Hunter Farm House
11 Beds
4 Baths
Sleeps: 40
$750 – $1000/night; $7000/week
Three acres, double stove, satellite TV
Notes: No hot tub here, either. Low ceilings, but that could be part of the charm. A very cheap getaway if you manage to fill it with 30 friends.

The Little Train Station at Hunter
6 Beds
3 Baths
Sleeps: 22
$500 – $1,200/night
Hot tub, outdoor fireplace, many fine summer amenities (including inflatable water slide)
Note: mixed reviews on HomeAway, including an odd response from the owner. But some really positive.

This renovated English cathedral barn, built in 1900, is not only beautiful, but clearly well-loved. Attention to detail is a true testament to how much has been invested (not just money, but time and effort) in a property, and 3582 County Route 296 in Hunter is a gleaming example. Here is one of the three fireplaces in this house, and the mosaic work above the mantle is lovely:

It would be great if the photos were of a higher resolution so we could truly see these details, but nonetheless, even in slightly blurry pictures, you can tell this house is impressive and unique. There are so many features in it that even one of them alone would make an excellent selling point. Like the fireplace in the main room: it’s an epic 25 feet tall.

The barn was renovated by architectural writer Ernest Burden, and the current owners continued his work. It’s close to Hunter, Tannserville, Kaaterskill Falls, North-South Lake and all of the best things about this part of Greene County, and sits on four acres.

Though it’s on a county route,  it’s set back from the road and private.  The biggest flaw we could see from the photos is that the kitchen doesn’t seem to have much in the way of counter space — nothing a big slab of granite wouldn’t fix.

Considering how amazing this place is, we think it’s a bargain at $400,000 (even if that’s high for the area), and the taxes are low. That’s the deal with Hunter: a lot of house for what you spend.

3582 County Route 296, Hunter (Halstead Hudson Valley) GMAP
Asking Price: $400,000
Beds: 4
Baths: 3
Square Feet: 3300
Year Built: 1900
Land: 4 acres
Taxes: $3252
Features: 3 fireplaces, hickory wood floors

After scrolling through the incredible bounty of affordable homes in Hunter, NY, anything over $200K started to seem pricey to us (then we remembered the cost of a parking spot in Brooklyn). But this one seems like a nice bang for the buck. As you can see, great views, decent kitchen, nice floors, a little bit of land to call your own.

12 Arnold Drive sits just off the main drag, Route 23A, so not exactly a country feel. But it’s very close to the village of Hunter and a hop-skip from ski slopes.

We would, however, renovate the bathroom:

Here’s another draw (besides the game room): they’ll take no money down. The price was reduced by $20,000 at the end of last September, and seeing as this is the slow season, well, might be a good time to pounce, or at least to shop around. It has a detached three-car garage and a nice lean-to for your wood pile. Wood stove, too.

12 Arnold Drive (Houlihan Lawrence) GMAP
Asking Price: $259,000
Beds: 3
Baths: 1.5
Square Feet: 3,216
Year Built: 1890
Land: 1.4 acres
Taxes: $3,725
Features: Mountain views, wood stove

We think the owners have managed to eek a little bit out grace out of this humble 1960s ranch house: decent kitchen, nice sun room, maximized mountain views. The low ceilings, of course, can’t be fixed, but the write-up points out that this is a four-season pad, and even has a pond in the backyard. Plus: hot tub, something we think is pretty much required if you’re investing in a ski season property. That, and a fondue set.

The deficits of 8400 Main Street in Hunter, in our humble opinions, include the location, right on Route 23B, the main drag through town. But most of the places we’re looking at this week are in town and close to the mountains which is what makes them affordable, and in many cases what makes them rentable. The price was reduced by $14,900 in January.

8400 Main Street, Hunter (Coldwell Banker) GMAP
Asking Price: $185,000
Beds: 4
Baths: 1.5
Land: 1.1
Square Feet: 1,866
Taxes: $2,665
Features: Pond, hot tub, close to ski slopes

It says something about the Hunter, NY real estate market that you can get a ski-in, ski-out house (or close to it) with 4,000 square feet for less than $250,000. 6 Lake Road in Hunter, NY has has six beds, for goodness sakes. The inside is what you’d expect: lots of wood paneling, open floor plan, cathedral ceilings.

Less than half an acre, but you’ve got the mountain in your yard. We think if you give it the full 1970s decor treatment, you could maximize its retro potential.

Now, most folks who buy a place like this are looking to rent it. We’ll report later in the week about the state of the rental market in Hunter, but for now, take a look at the VRBO listings. They range from $69 a night for the cheapies to upwards of $500. If you manage to actually rent yours out, you might just cover a couple of your mortgage payments, or at least your taxes: $4,000 per year.

6 Lake Road, Hunter (Keller Williams) GMAP
Asking Price: $249,000
Beds: 6
Baths: 2
Square Feet: 4,000
Land: .3 acres
Taxes: $4,069

Hunter is home to the Catskill Mountain Foundation, an impressive arts collective that boasts performances spaces, an art collection, library, cinema, café and courses on sustainable living and literature. The Foundation is also home to the Steven E. Greenstein Piano Collection (where you can see 200-year-old piano tuning tools), which is available to view by appointment.

There’s some excellent eating to be done in Hunter, from pizza at Numero Uno to more swanky fare at the Bear Creek Restaurant and lots on Hunter Mountain itself, but we would be remiss if we didn’t mention  Maggie’s Krooked Cafe and Juice Bar in Tannersville. We made Tannersville our Town of the Week back in August, 2011.  But Maggie’s is something special and worth the hop over from Hunter. Maggie offers an extensive breakfast and lunch menu (very veggie friendly if you go easy on the flesh), as well as a bunch of fresh juices made fresh. Maggie herself will mostly be serving you one of her delicious menu offerings in her cozy dining room.

Greenstein Piano Collection

The Hunter-Tannserville-Haines Falls area is an outdoor lover’s paradise, from hiking up the Kaaterskill Falls trail to going swimming or canoeing a North-South Lake.

As far as living in Hunter goes, there’s a lot of real estate available, and, not surprisingly, plenty of rental options, plus condos and co-ops. Average house prices hover around $230,000, and the property taxes are relatively low; the median is around $1,200. Albany is northeast and about an hour away from Hunter, and if you head southeast, you’ll be in Ulster County and not far from Woodstock, Saugerties and Kingston. The Hunter-Tannersville Central School district ranks 359th out of 682 school districts in New York by school ranking site Schooldigger, which is not terribly impressive, frankly, but we’ve seen worse.  What’s interesting about the housing market in Hunter is that there are a couple of swanky gated communities, like Elka Park, where the estates can run into the millions and are situated on beautiful manicured grounds where members can visit the clubhouse to have cocktails.  But Hunter is quite affordable, as you will see from a couple of the properties we’re featuring on the blog this week, and there’s certainly more than enough acres to go around if you like your space.

Hunter is a bit dead in the summer, as you can probably imagine, but we don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing, especially if you don’t like having to fight tourists just to get groceries or pick up the mail.  Most of the hustle and bustle in the village proper comes during the colder months, when the skiers and snowboarders come down off the mountain in search of non-slope-related fun.  But Hunter does experience some foot traffic during the other months from hikers, hunters and campers from North-South Lake and surrounding trails and parks.

And, of course, Hunter is the home of Hunter Mountain, one of the best winter sports destinations in the Northeast. Even if you’re not a big skier, Hunter Mountain offers snowtubing, as well as ziplining and canopy tours when the weather is warmer.  Hunter Mountain also offers wedding, conference and private group event packages. 

We think Hunter’s is a pretty cool little village, even if it is quiet, and there are some beautiful, affordable houses for sale in the area.  It’s worth checking out if you’re looking for a bucolic upstate New York abode with plenty to do outside. GMAP