From left: Muffin Dowdle, broker at Ginnel Real Estate; Cathleen Smith, president of Coldwell Banker Residential
Brokerage, Connecticut/Westchester; Houlihan Lawrence CEO Chris Meyers; Chris Raveis, managing partner of William Raveis
Real Estate, Mortgage & Insurance; and Mark Nadler, president/principal broker of Prudential Centennial

From the December issue: Westchester may be the suburb that’s home to some of the area’s biggest local celebrities — from Bill and Hillary Clinton to Martha Stewart — but that hasn’t prevented market forces from taking hold of the real estate market there.

Just north of the city, the county has been struggling for the last few years and, like the market in the city, hasn’t fully rebounded yet.

In this month’s Q&A, The Real Deal talked to brokers and market analysts about everything from Westchester’s super-luxury market to the rental market to the foreclosure situation.

Our sources said that after several years of stagnation, there was finally an uptick in sales volume in the third quarter. But that improvement didn’t translate into prices, which are still down by as much as 10 percent from a year ago and by 30 to 40 percent from the boom. [more]

From left: Brooke Astor and 298 Scarborough Road in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.

The 64.5 acre Westchester County estate of Brooke Astor, known as Holly Hill, has sold for $6.45 million, according to a press release from Coldwell Banker Residential in Westchester, who represented the buyer.

The new owner intends to live in the circa-1927 stone mansion at 298 Scarborough Road, in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y., according to Tracy Isaacs of Coldwell, who represented the buyer. Isaacs described the buyer as “a family from the Westchester area who intend to restore it and live in it.” Officials and residents in the Westchester town 30 miles north of New York City were pleased that the sale was not to a developer intent on carving up the ample land.

The estate went on the market three years ago and was first listed at $12.9 million, as was previously reported. – Guelda Voien [more]