REAL ESTATE

INSIDE STORIES BEHIND AREA REAL ESTATE DEALS

Buying the Farm?
Why keep a 3.8-acre farm stand (included in a 7.6-acre parcel) when the land could be sold for $11 million? That's the issue facing owner Jim Hopping. He has leased the land to local farmers Jim and Jennifer Pike for 20 years. In total, they farm about 65 acres locally and sell the produce at the above-mentioned farm stand on Sagg Main Street, one of the most popular in the area. The 7.6 acres was listed with Brown Harris Stevens for $11 million with 50 percent held as an agricultural reserve. With a four-lot subdivision of the 3.8-acre farm stand land, each parcel would be slightly under an acre. That means a prospective developer would be paying $2.25 million for each lot. Over 1,000 locals have signed a petition to keep the property as is. The Peconic Land Trust is considering a possible acquisition, and many clients have offered to contribute to a fund to keep things as they are.

Mortgage Mania
Ever wonder how some people afford those $10-20-plus million East End "cottages"? Readers of this column may or may not be surprised to learn that even hedgies and heiresses sometimes take out mortgages—of the more than $10 million variety. (No, it's not for tax purposes. The cut-off for tax-free mortgages is a modest $1 million.)

Big-ticket homeowners take out such hefty mortgages because, with interest rates at around six percent, they believe their money is better off in hedge funds and other investments that—for now—can still bring in double and triple that amount. (At press time, the Dow Jones industrial average broke a record and rose above the 14,000 level for the first time.)

The good news for the economy is that these buyers are a good bet for the banks. They are usually buying their homes to live in, instead of for investment purposes.