Why move to Rye?  Check out this recent video, as the first of a series commemorating Rye’s 350th anniversary. Take a look here and let me know what you think…

* video by Tom Nycz- Courtesy of ryepatch.com.

Great weather is forecasted for 2010’s Rye House Tour tomorrow, organized for the 30th year by the Rye High School Parent Organization.  I will be working at a gracious Forest Avenue home showcasing Celebrity Chef Lulu Powers, along with my Co-Captain and tireless co-worker, Judy Jackson, and several generous volunteers.

Five homes will be featured on this year’s tour, including a “Certified LEED” (green) house with a boutique and Art Gallery, and lunch is available at Manursing Island Club for those viewing the tour. The tour runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday, May 21st. For full details on ticket options and prices, as well as a video “sneak peek”, visit the website at www.ryehousetour.com.

Tickets are available at most local real estate offices, including William Raveis Real Estate at 78 Purchase Street.

I’m not sure about you, but the holidays seem to have sprung up on me this year, and I am scrambling for some last minute (recession priced?) gifts. I thought I would share some of my favorite places in town to shop.

Purchase Street in Rye has some great shops that I visit time and again. For a special gift, visit Woodrow Jewelers, a longtime family business that specializes in quality jewelry with a focus on service.  Blush Beauty Bar, Oliviers or Wish are three great stores for hostess gifts for Holiday parties as well as fun treats for yourself (great candles at Blush!) Although not located on Purchase Street, Rye Beach Pharmacy at 464 Forest Avenue is so much more than a pharmacy and a great source for holiday gifts- Charlotte and all the lovely ladies behind the counter are more than happy to

There is a local Kohls, Modells, and other chains, but if you are looking for something special and would like some individualized attention, come see our local merchants.  If you are visiting for the first time, please let them know you first read about their store here! Happy Holidays to all of you!

For those of you with little ones, Sunday is a great day to explore Rye!  I have talked before about the great shops on Purchase Street, and the Rye Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring their annual Mistletoe Magic Family Festival from 12-3 this Sunday, November 29th. We will be there at  William Raveis Real Estate’s Dreamhouse along with several other local merchants with rides, games and crafts for young children. Live musical performances, food, farmer’s market, and lots of fun all around.

If you can’t make it Sunday, consider coming to town for dinner and shopping on Purchase Street for Candlelight Shopping on two consecutive Thursday evenings, December 3rd and December 10th, when many of the local merchants will be open until 10 p.m. Click here to learn more about upcoming holiday events throughout Westchester County, courtesy of Lohud.com.

I was flattered to have been invited to the Rye Harrison Rotary Sportsmanship luncheon this past Wednesday as the guest of the Honorable John L. Alfano, a longtime Rye City resident and City Judge and past Rye City Council Member. This annual luncheon is a joint meeting sponsored by the two Rotary Clubs prior to the Rye Harrison Varsity Football game each year. At the luncheon, the clubs invite as their guests the team captains and their families, coaches, school administrators, and this year featured Harrison resident Stuart Sternberg (formerly of Rye), principal owner of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, as the sportsmanship speaker. 

This year’s game will be held at Feeley Field in Harrison at 2 p.m. Saturday, October 17th. After the game, the Harrison team picks the Rye Sportsman and vice versa, at a meeting in which the student’s coach and parents are present.

What does the Rotary Club represent? According to the Rotary International website, their objective is to encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise, and foster:

The Rye Rotary Club offers scholarships to high school graduating seniors each year. They meet every Friday at Coveleigh Club in Rye, and their upcoming meeting will feature the candidates running in the local election this November.

Here is a brief recap of some upcoming events for October in the Rye Area:

• Saturday 10/17 Osborn Elementary School Children’s Carnival 10-3.
• Sat. 10/17 Annual Rye Harrison Varsity Football Game, Feeley Field, Harrison 2 pm
• Sat. 10/17  Rye Historical Society’s Annual Walking Tour of Rye’s Waterfront Park
• Sunday 10/18 Rye Recreation Halloween Window Painting on Purchase Street
• Friday & Sat 10/23-24, Rye Recreation Haunted Park, early evening

One of my favorite events. the Annual Rye Harrison Varsity Football Game, will be played at Feeley Field at 255 Union Avenue behind Harrison Avenue School.  This friendly competition started in 1929!

Please consider stopping by Rye Middle School from 10-2 this Saturday morning October 3rd to cheer on the RHS Crew team in their first ever Ergathon to raise funds for their Fall Season.  This co-ed team races representing RHS against public and private schools thoughout NY and CT.  RHS Crew receives no financial support from the Rye School district (despite our best efforts!) and my 17 year old son Colin has risen at 4:30 a.m. for the past 3 years to practice before school at Greenwich Water Club. This program would not be possible if it were not for the dedication of volunteer coach and parent Stan Nelson. Please consider stopping by and donating per mile or a flat amount, or just to cheer on the team and purchase some baked goods from our booth.

* The above article is excerpted in part from my October 2009 e-newsletter.

There is an award winning author on staff at the Washington Post named Anne Hull. A Pulitzer prize finalist, she has written some very insightful human interest stories that I admire. She certainly struck a nerve with an article last weekend chronicling a divorced working mother of three in Harrison in  Struggling on $300,000 a year.  I posted the article to my personal Facebook page, which immediately gathered a slew of comments, and several women in town have mentioned the article to me in the days since. The piece has registered over 1000 comments on the Washington Post site since it came out, according to the local Westchester paper which ran a story on the WP article in yesterday’s edition, Hardship in Harrison- or not? .

I am not going to judge the family portrayed in the story and although I have the greatest respect for Ms.Hull,  I do not think that our area was accurately represented in that particular story.  From a real estate perspective, Rye and Harrison both have a variety of housing stock, large and small, and many families live here not particularly for the house per se but for good schools, recreational opportunities, and strong sense of community. There are plenty of bungalows near the beach, as well as ranches and split levels intertwined between the “tear down” mega mansions that developed over recent years.

To me, this seems really a story more about divorce than the economy we are in right now in that it focused largely on maintaining a large home. Yes, it may take longer to sell a $2,500,000 home right now particularly if it is not priced right. But in such a desirable area, it will sell. As time passes, I have watched more of my female friends and neighbors deal with divorce and widowhood- with varying success- and it usually centers on whether or not to keep the masterpiece of assets, the family home. Some recent evidence suggests that the wiser decision may be to sell this primary asset. Kelly Lise Murray, a Nashville Real Estate Agent and Harvard trained Attorney, writes that the remaining spouse’s ability to maintain the home is often drastically overstated in her book, Divorce This House.

Single women homeowners represent the fastest growing segment of homebuyers and in some ways need more support to make the right decision. I’ve been interested in this topic for a long time; my first sale way back when was a townhouse purchase (thank you, Donna) for a woman who had sadly lost her husband in the 9/11 terrorist attack. Over the years I have sold co-ops and rented apartments for Rye Singles, and helped several local women negotiate their home sale following a divorce or separation. For this reason, I recently became a member of the  Women Homeowners Network and will be talking about this more in coming months.  If any of you single female readers have an opinion on this topic, I would love to hear from you (especially the Facebook ladies!).