Frank Sinatra never lived here, but second-home owners can still golf at the 108 courses in the Coachella Valley. This town of 47,000, which started as a blue-collar bedroom community for hotel workers in Palm Springs, is now attracting people during the winter season, about 15,000 a year. ''You can have an inexpensive cabinish home next to a 3,000-square-foot modern house.''Ĭathedral City, known as Cat City, lacks the nouveau hipness of Palm Springs. ''The Cove is interesting and funky,'' said Trish Wortman, a broker at Marilyn Perlin Realtors Inc. The Cove, an old section of town, has a few houses with flat roofs and lots of glass that were built in the late 1950's or early 60's. And the Spanish-style villa you fantasized about isn't available at a discount.įifteen minutes away is Cathedral City, in the foothills of the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains. Want to buy a midcentury modern glass house on a green fairway? Too late.
WHY: Palm Springs, the grande dame of desert resorts, has already undergone a face lift. The cost of a three-bedroom, two-bath house is $300,000 to $1 million, said Ms. A little more agricultural in character, a little farther down Highway 82 from Aspen and perhaps a little less quaint than Basalt. In Aspen, the average house price is $3.4 million, and prices of $1.5 million for a small one- to three-bedroom house - what locals call a scrapper - are not uncommon.ĬONTENDER: Carbondale. At the high end is a $5,595,000 working cattle ranch on 136 acres, with an 1889 farmhouse. At the low end is a $289,000 three-bedroom tract house in a subdivision. WHAT IT WILL COST: In Basalt, a 2,500- to 3,500-square-foot house will cost around $700,000. ''Even if someone has the economic means to live in Aspen, Basalt's a viable choice.''
WESTWOOD METES AND BOUNDS WEST HURLEY PROFESSIONAL
''Well-educated, professional people are now in Basalt,'' said John Cottle, a 22-year resident and a principal in Cottle Gray Beal & Yaw, a local architecture firm. Architects, interior designers, real estate brokers and contractors have built offices there. Still, Basalt, which has about 2,800 year-round residents, is mainly a bedroom community for people who work in the area, which means there's less of the tourist trade that some people say has begun to erode some of Aspen's charm.īasalt seems poised to take off. ''A lot of 100-year-old homes are being bought and renovated and beautifully landscaped.'' Adams & Company, a real estate brokerage company in Aspen. ''It's very reminiscent of Aspen 30 years ago,'' said B. Like Aspen, it is a historic 19th-century town that has some Victorian houses dating from the 1880's. Aspen Mountain is 20 to 45 minutes away, and for summer fly-fishing and rafting on the Grand Fork and Frying Pan Rivers, which converge in Basalt, it's more central than Aspen. WHY: A classic Western river town, Basalt is 18 miles northwest of Aspen, the cosmopolitan ski resort. Then having to give the required addendum to mystified friends: it's next to Aspen. The downside? Telling people you spent hundreds of thousands of dollars for a beautiful vacation home in. Border town residents are confident enough not to have to carry around their pedigrees or their Louis Vuitton luggage. They bestow on their residents the joys of reverse snobbism. These towns offer easy access to ski slopes, beaches and trendy restaurants and clubs without necessarily demanding a six-figure down payment. But they may be comparative bargains for second-home buyers seeking access to chic enclaves without living in them. That's because they are border towns, notable mainly for the fame of their neighbors. And Cathedral City, Saugerties, Hampton Bays and Stuart. These are historic names that resonate with status, prestigious playgrounds for the select few, nestled in spectacular settings.
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