Beacon
An old factory town remade by artists, with a long Main Street running from the river to the foot of Mount Beacon. Porch houses, Victorians on the hills, mill lofts by the creek, and the train.
Beacon guideNeighborhoods
Towns we know
We sell houses up and down both banks of the river, but these six are where we spend most of our days. Each has its own trains, taxes, housing stock and personality. Here's an honest introduction to each.
At a glance
| Town | County | Median sale price | Days on market | Train to NYC |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beacon | Dutchess | $689,000 | 21 | Metro-North, about 90 min |
| Cold Spring | Putnam | $915,000 | 34 | Metro-North, about 70 min |
| Kingston | Ulster | $449,000 | 27 | None; bus, or Amtrak at Rhinecliff |
| Rhinebeck | Dutchess | $1,050,000 | 41 | Amtrak at Rhinecliff |
| New Paltz | Ulster | $565,000 | 30 | None; bus, or Metro-North at Poughkeepsie |
| Hudson | Columbia | $735,000 | 38 | Amtrak, about 2 hours |
Medians and days on market from our Q3 2025 market report. Train times are typical.
The six towns
Cold Spring
A small, walkable 19th-century village in the Highlands, with Main Street sloping down to the river and some of the best hiking in the state behind it. Limited supply, high prices.
Cold Spring guide
Kingston
New York's first capital and the valley's best value: Dutch stone houses Uptown, studios in Midtown, two-families and a working waterfront in the Rondout.
Kingston guide
Rhinebeck
A polished historic village at a crossroads, ringed by estates, horse farms and orchards. Amtrak at Rhinecliff, and the county fair every August.
Rhinebeck guide
New Paltz
A college town under the white cliffs of the Gunks, with a rail trail through the middle, stone houses from the 1700s and orchards all around.
New Paltz guide
Hudson
A small river city with one long, extraordinary street of Federal and Italianate buildings, antiques, galleries and restaurants, and Amtrak at the bottom of the hill.
Hudson guideAnd the places in between
Our agents also sell regularly in Garrison and Nelsonville near Cold Spring; Fishkill and Wappingers near Beacon; Saugerties, Woodstock, Hurley, Stone Ridge and Marbletown around Kingston; Red Hook, Tivoli and Hyde Park near Rhinebeck; Gardiner, Highland and Rosendale near New Paltz; and Claverack, Ghent and Germantown around Hudson. We don't write guides for every one of them, but we know the roads. Ask.
How to choose? Start with how often you'll go to the city, then how much house and land you want, then how much you're willing to spend on taxes. Our page on moving up from New York City goes through it.
Our town guides describe places, housing and getting around. We don't steer buyers toward or away from any neighborhood, and we describe school districts only in general terms. For school information, contact the district directly. See our Fair Housing Notice.