A typical three-bedroom town house commands about 8 million euros (about $10.5 million, at $1.31 to the euro).
With its large front porch overlooking the river and its historic presence, the house commanded slightly under $2 million about three years ago when the couple bought it.
The Zerrieses' house commands a view of the harbor and the lighthouse about a quarter-mile away, but it also sits in the belly of its blast, which at its source is said to reach 120 decibels, or roughly the equivalent of a commercial plane at takeoff.
Six-bedroom houses command higher prices than modest apartments, and help builders quickly recoup their costs.
— A decade ago, this suburb in southern Westchester County, where well-kept 1920s Tudor and colonial houses command some of the highest prices in the county, was home to a blighted industrial area bordering the Bronx to the south and Mount Vernon to the west.
According to Richard Nagel, owner of Re/Max Elite in neighboring Long Branch, waterfront housing commands a premium of at least $300,000 over homes just a couple of blocks inland.
That was when the Sloan-Kettering CanceRyeesearcampustitute sold a Rye campus, with 41 park-like acres, to a company that has built 38 large houses, commanding prices up to $1.5 million, on the property.
"But they don't know if they will have it next year, so they don't want the responsibility of owning or maintaining the property, and they don't want the continued overhead that kind of house would command".
That's the annual rent a house would command, minus property taxes, insurance, maintenance costs, losses from occasional vacancies and any fees paid to property managers.
