With cold weather already settling in, A-listers and influencers who call New York City home are heading north to Beacon and the Catskills—turning these upstate towns into the ultimate winter hotspots.
Celebrities and influencers have have been heading over to for an upstate New York escape in winter’s hotspots—and their appeal is easy to picture as the cold weather approaches.
Between Beacon’s waterfall-side boutique hotel and the Catskills’ mountain lodges with private soaking tubs, the destinations offer plenty of reasons to leave the city behind for a few days. For some visitors, a weekend away becomes the inspiration for something more permanent.
But what does it cost to buy a place in these coveted retreats, and how much attention are they attracting from New York home shoppers?
The Stars Heading Upstate
The Catskills have drawn Hollywood actors, reality stars, and influencers for vacations, weddings, and a quieter place to call home.
Olivia Wilde and Rami Malek have both stayed at a mountain lodge in Hunter. Jennifer Grey, Ali Wentworth, Olivia Rodrigo, and George Stephanopoulos also headed to the region in 2024 to celebrate the wedding of Schuyler Fox, the daughter of Michael J. Fox and Tracy Pollan.
That same summer, YouTube star Ethan Dolan and influencer Kristina Alice chose the Catskills for their own wedding. Alice later shared photographs from the celebration on Instagram, giving followers a glimpse of their romantic setting.
The fashion crowd has embraced the area, too. Vogue editor Naomi Elizée and Anthony Blue Jr. married in a meadow in Tannersville after welcoming guests for a weekend of festivities.
For Amanda Seyfried, the Catskills offered a place to put down roots. The actress purchased a 1930s farm in 2013 while looking for a retreat from Hollywood, and the property became her main residence.
Across the Hudson, Beacon draws visitors with contemporary art, vintage shops, and an easy trip from New York City. Model and creator Bri Scalesse documented a visit that included Dia Beacon and vintage shopping—an itinerary that works for a day trip or a longer weekend.
What it costs to buy a place Upstate
According to Realtor.com® data, the median asking price in Beacon was $700,000 in September 2026. In Woodstock, a town included in the Catskills analysis, the median asking price was $968,750 in October.
Those figures offer snapshots of two individual markets. The broader home-search analysis covers all of Dutchess County, where Beacon is located, and five Catskills counties.
According to Realtor.com data, the Catskills accounted for 1.17% of all listing views from the New York City metro in the third quarter of 2026, up from 1.03% a year earlier.
Dutchess County’s share rose from 0.53% to 0.58%, giving the Catskills roughly twice its share of NYC-area browsing.
Both destinations gained a bigger share of a shrinking pool of views. NYC-metro views of Catskills listings fell about 28% year over year, while views of Dutchess County listings declined about 31%. NYC-area views across all listings fell more sharply, by about 37%.
New York remained the largest source of listing views for both destinations, even as shoppers elsewhere accounted for more of their audience. NYC-metro shoppers generated 37.5% of Catskills listing views, down from 42.3% a year earlier. In Dutchess County, their share slipped from 43.3% to 39.8%.
Does winter buzz translate into home shopping?
“Winter getaway buzz hasn’t translated into a winter surge in home shopping,” says Realtor.com senior economist Hannah Jones.
“Interest in the Catskills and Beacon follows normal seasonal patterns, but both places hold on to the attention of New York–area shoppers better than most markets, and they’re taking up a growing share of what those shoppers look at. At the same time, New York–area shoppers make up a smaller share of the audience for each destination than they did a year ago.”
According to Realtor.com data, NYC-metro listing views fell 21% to 25% in the Catskills and 19% to 25% in Dutchess County between the third and fourth quarters over the three years analyzed. Those declines were broadly in line with the national seasonal slowdown.
NYC-area views across all listings fell more sharply, by 30% to 37%, allowing both destinations to capture a larger share of attention heading into the holidays. In 2025, for example, the Catskills’ share of NYC-metro browsing rose from 1.03% in the third quarter to 1.23% in the fourth.
From the fourth quarter to the first, NYC-metro views fell by 2%, 8%, and 15% in the Catskills and by 6%, 5%, and 16% in Dutchess County across the three winters studied. Over those same periods, NYC-metro views across all listings rose by 2% to 10%.
For buyers picturing a winter retreat, the figures show that home browsing in these destinations slows after the holidays, even as New Yorkers’ searches pick up elsewhere.
