Even city slickers can’t resist the autumn colors of widespread Westchester County, where ample acreage isn’t too much to ask. No wonder the inventory of prime estates is still at a pandemic-era nadir. “We’ve had low inventory really since the beginning of COVID,” says Westchester resident and broker David Turner of Compass. And where supply is down, prices must go up.
The median sale price for a home in Westchester County rose 11% year-over-year in July to $1.5 million, its highest watermark yet, according to the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors. On the ultra-high end of the market, the pickings become even slimmer. “There just aren’t a huge amount of great properties to buy,” says Turner, who happens, happily, to be selling two of the region’s best abodes.
In 2018, he represented the estate of famed financier David Rockefeller in the $33 million sale of his Westchester compound, Hudson Pines, and now he’s listed the family’s adjacent property, Winterburn Farm. Located at 48 Raafenberg Road in Sleepy Hollow, the 42-acre farm was home to the late Rodman Rockefeller — son of VIP VP Nelson Rockefeller — and his wife Sascha.
Mrs. Rockefeller is now asking $12 million for the mid-century modern masterpiece by architect Richard P. Donahue. “The house was commissioned by Rodman in the early 1970s. He wanted a modern house amid the park,” says Turner. That parkland, with 55 miles of riding trails, is now the Rockefeller State Park Preserve. “You can ride directly from the property on horseback onto what once were the Rockefellers’ private carriage trails,” he says.
