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“The Adirondacks” conjure up images of hiking, canoeing, camping, Great Lodges, funny-looking outdoor patio furniture and, for some, real estate. Whether you are looking to get away from routine of city or suburban life and spend time in a deep-woods cabin, or searching for a second home from which you can hike in the summertime and ski in the winter months, or if you plan to relocate to one of the most beautiful regions in the country, you will find that Adirondack real estate is very desirable…and very precious.
Covering six million acres, The Adirondack Park is HUGE, which might lead you to believe there is virtually unlimited real estate potential up there. Fortunately, however, our government foresaw such a demand for property and development in the region, and created the New York Forest Preserve in 1892. The New York Forest Preserve in the Adirondack and Catskill Mountains today stands as one of the strongest protections of land in the world. Describing the “Forever Wild” concept, the preserve stipulates … “The lands of the State . . . shall be forever kept as wild forest lands. They shall not be leased, sold, or exchanged, nor shall the timber thereon be sold, removed or destroyed.” In fact, the Preserve worked so well in protecting the land that is was used as a model for the U.S. National Wilderness Act of 1964. The Preserve was strong, but remember that strong demand for desirable Adirondack real estate mentioned previously… land values increased, Adirondack towns and villages developed, and large tracts of land were retained in the private sector. This made the Preserve’s goal of protecting all of the Adirondack Park unfeasible. Today, the Preserve covers only half of the six-million acre Park. The Adirondacks now consist of a unique structure of private lands intermingled with publicly owned tracks of land. Private lands consist of small tracts around hamlets, large open spaces owned by timber industries, a few remaining wealthy estates, and recreation clubs. The Adirondack Mountains have always been popular and desirable places to buy real estate, but in the 1960’s the region became very accessible to a larger and demographically and economically more diverse segment of the Northeast U.S. population with the completion of interstate highway 87. New subdivisions and sales of private lands for second-home and seasonal housing development really took off after this point. Today's Adirondack Park is home to over 135,000 permanent residents
in 105 towns and villages, and host to over 200,000 seasonal homes.
This is where Adirondack Mountain history meets today’s real
estate market. You can find a simple rustic cabin or a grand family
compound facing a pristine lake, or a fancy ski condo. Any property
you find will be close to some part of the Adirondack Park that
remains protected and “Forever Wild”. |
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