Contemporary Catskills houses (thanks, Upstater!)

WP readers: We really, really dig the local blog Upstater, whose editor Lisa Selin Davis and her team of writers dish up daily doses of upstate life and droolalicious real estate. And apparently the feeling is mutual. We're delighted to announce that we're collaborating with Davis and crew to bring Watershed Post readers some of Upstater's favorite properties for rent or sale in the Catskills, on an ongoing basis. This month, Davis takes a look at contemporary houses. --Lissa Harris

110 Clinton Street, Oneonta

We've seen a few cool cubes over on Upstater, but this one has one serious advantage: price. It's $165,000, with three beds and one bath, steps from the SUNY campus in Oneonta. Built in 1970, it includes an artist's studio with a half-bath, and sits on 1.54 acres, which is a decent amount of land for something right in town.

Another plus: huge, cube-ish deck. Looks like the interior could use a bit of love and some creative decorating to warm it up, to make the inside as inviting as the outside. At that price, you'd have some money left for decor.

110 Clinton Street, Oneonta ($165,000, Chesser Realty) GMAP

112 Heinle Road, White Sulphur Springs

Contemporary? you ask. But it looks like a folk Victorian farmhouse.

Indeed it does, but this is what's called a "new old house," built in 2009 to fit in architecturally with the region but have all new fixin's inside. It sits on twelve-and-a-half acres and has some great features: Wrap-around porch, cathedral ceilings and a sauna.

We're not crazy about the tile floor (unless there's radiant heat beneath it), but it's not a dealbreaker. Three beds, three baths and 1,900 square feet. Taxes are $9,425 a year, which is a bit high for relatively reasonable Sullivan County, and the price is a bit high for the Liberty area, but we're chalking that up to the amount of land.

112 Heinle Road, White Sulphur Springs, $329,000. GMAP.

27 Riverpark Drive, New Paltz

As you all probably know, things get a little pricier when you head deep into Ulster County, and this modern home is on the New Paltz/Gardiner line. We've hardly seen anything like it, and we look at real estate a lot. For a cool half-a-million, you get a 2,738-square-foot three-bed, 2.5-bath home on the Wallkill River, with beautiful views and soaring wooden ceilings. Taxes are just about the same as the house above: $9,345, but there's significantly less land. One listing says it has a Frank Lloyd Wright feel. We're pretty sure he'd disagree with that (he famously designed places with very short entrances, since he was a petite fella), but it does look like it has a nice vibe, and a very inventively designed garden trellis.

27 Riverpark Drive, New Paltz. $500,000. GMAP.