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The future of the Hamptons is uncertain as prices plummet and luxury buyers head north

The Hudson Valley and Catskills are growing more popular with second home buyers.

East Hampton is located on the eastern end of the South Shore of Long Island.
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The various hamlets of Long Island's East End are certainly still a haven for celebrities and Wall Streeters, as well as an older set of travelers, but there are some signs that the attention of potential second-home buyers could be shifting north.

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While the luxury market in the Hamptons does appear to be softening, another destination with easy access to New York City has been growing in popularity.

The Hudson Valley is often broadly defined as the area stretching north from New York City along the Hudson River to Albany. Divided into three regions — lower, mid, and upper — the Hudson Valley is known for its charming towns, old-money estates, and proximity to the Catskill Mountains. Metro-North and Amtrak trains provide relatively easy access to these communities, each of which has their own unique personalities.

According to a fourth-quarter report from Heather Croner Real Estate of Sotheby's, Hudson Valley's luxury real estate market accelerated significantly at the end of 2016. Though median prices remained steady at around $1 million, the rate at which properties changed hands grew rapidly through the second half of the year.

"We're cautiously optimistic that the momentum generated in the second half of the year will carry forward into 2017," the report reads.

"The fourth quarter was very busy, and this quarter is too," Heather Croner told Business Insider.

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Richard Ellis, owner of Ellis Sotheby's International Realty in Nyack, New York, said that he has witnessed a growing trend of New Yorkers buying property in the Hudson Valley over the last few years. Many vacation home buyers he has done business with work in finance, have their primary residences in Downtown Manhattan or Brooklyn, and are in their mid-30s to 50s.

He has even worked with some clients who were specifically looking to trade in their Hamptons home for a quieter spot in the Hudson Valley.

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"The Hudson Valley is a special place — it's got everything that NYC is missing (grass! space! quiet!) with pockets of crazy energy and entrepreneurial spirit," he told Business Insider. "Once we started spending a lot of time up there, we started realizing how many other friends of ours were also in the process of finding a way to call the Hudson Valley home, at least part-time."

"In Kingston, we've found friends within the strong community of makers and do'ers — some who work in tech, some who are writers and artists, some who have opened small shops or other local business — and many of these folks were involved in helping us build Kingston Stockade FC."

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Taken as a whole, the newest generation of travelers seem to value real-life experiences over luxury goods. And with lots of space to hike and interact with nature, the Catskills and Hudson Valley could be attracting adventure-seeking tourists on that point alone.

According to an analysis by vacation rental site HomeAway, New York City-based travelers are becoming more and more interested in the Hudson Valley as a vacation destination. Searches of rentable properties in the Hudson Valley by New Yorkers grew 121% between 2015 and 2016, according to HomeAway's analysis.

In comparison, search inquiries of the Hamptons grew just 35% in the same period, though the Hamptons continue to be more popular overall.

Location-intelligence company Foursquare analyzed weekend foot traffic and came to a similar conclusion, though it focused its study specifically on young travelers. According to the findings, which were first reported in Yahoo Finance, New York-based travelers between the ages of 20 and 24 "increased their trips to the Hudson Valley and Catskills by nearly 55% in the summer of 2016 compared to the same time in 2012. During that same period, this same group decreased excursions to the Hamptons by nearly 46%."

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New Yorkers venturing to the Hudson Valley and the Catskills can take advantage of a wide range of activities, from hiking in the Mohonk Preserve, to touring the art galleries of Kingston, to exploring the old-money estates where the Vanderbilts and Roosevelts once lived in Hyde Park.

Plus, the close proximity of the Culinary Institute of America means that there are plenty of excellent restaurants — many of which place an emphasis on farm-to-table ingredients — for both visitors and new second-home owners to enjoy. The towns of Hudson and Rhinebeck are especially popular destinations with the foodie crowd.

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