Get your own private island, complete with a picture-perfect house, and still be able to catch a Metro-North train into the city.
The ultimate vacation home, near New Haven, Connecticut, has just gone on the market for a fraction of the cost of a Hamptons estate.
The 2,038 square-foot home sits on Belden Island, a 1-acre piece of land in the middle of Long Island Sound that is part of the Thimble Islands, off the coast of Branford, Conn.
The island has its own sandy beach and private dock and is serviced by a ferry that stops just a short ride from a nearby Amtrak and Metro-North train station.
“The mainland town or village is called Stony Creek, and it is a charming fairy-tale location to begin with. Then you leave the shore and you head out into the Thimble Islands, and each one is different, but they all have a common history,” the listing agent, Margaret Muir, told Realtor.com.
On the market for $1,295,000, the house has four bedrooms, two bathrooms and includes all the furnishings, as well as 2 acres of deeded shellfish beds, which have been rented out to people who harvest the oysters, Muir said.
“It’s a seasonal house as it is. At the end of the season, you would drain the pipes and close it up, and look forward to the next spring,” Muir said. “The house itself looks like it’s out of a storybook,” she adds. “It’s really very charming and sweet. You feel like you’re stepping back in time.”