During her childhood, Christie Lee Verschoor often visited her grandmother’s house on Rye Beach Avenue.
There, a stone’s throw from Playland Beach, she played and built memories. So, she was thrilled in 2012 when she was able to buy that house from her parents, who had inherited it from her grandmother.
Without a real estate broker, she paid a “family price” in what she described as a fairly straightforward transaction. If it were not for her grandmother, she said, she never would have been able to afford a semi-waterfront property in Rye.
In a city where inventory is low and prices are high, that is no small perk. Many families have taken advantage of the “family price” to return to Rye, where the median home price has risen to $2.3 million, according to Redfin.com.
While there are no statistics showing how many homes in Rye pass from one generation to another, such arrangements do not seem uncommon.
Annie Canton bought her childhood home on Wappanocca Avenue from her parents at fair market value in 2020 after she and her husband had sold their house in New Jersey on a whim, itching to be closer to family.
Canton, who was five months pregnant at the time, initially moved into her parent’s home with them. Soon a condo on North Street that her parents had been eyeing opened up and, Canton said, “the stars aligned.” Her parents moved to North Street, and she bought their house.
Though she moved in for pragmatic reasons, she wasn’t expecting the surge of nostalgia she felt.
“I didn’t think I would be sentimental about it, but the longer we lived there and the more kids we had, the more I realized I had grown attached to it,” she said.
They didn’t renovate the home, but redecorated in ways to make it their own, adding new drapes and wallpaper. Her brother began to joke that she had taken on the persona of their mother while living there.
Canton carried on her mother’s tradition of hosting Christmas. And she often would gaze out at the linden tree they had planted when she was a child, which had grown to more than 10 feet. It was the same linden tree she had gotten engaged under.
When they had more children (five in all) they decided in 2024 to sell the house. The decision, she said, was “much harder than I originally had anticipated.”
If price and practicality are two reasons for buying a home within the family, another clearly is that sense of nostalgia.
Vanderschoor has many fond memories of playing in the house as a child, and though she did some renovations, it was important to her to keep some things the same.
“The floors are original to the house, and the smell is still the same,” she said. “This is not an old lady smell, it is a scent that is just part of the home.”
Verschoor’s great-grandmother had been so enamored of Rye back in the 1920s that she didn’t buy just one home in Rye — she bought an entire block of them, seven in all. Four of the original Rye Beach Avenue homes (three were sold off), now house the fourth generation of Vanderschoor’s family.
She loves living in Rye and considers herself lucky to occupy one of the houses today. She also loves that many of her neighbors are family.
“My great-grandmother had a vision of our whole family living on this block for generations to come, and her vision has for the most part come true,” Vanderschoor said. Today, her Aunt Sheila, Uncle Pete, and Uncle Bob are all her neighbors.
Mary Stetson, of Stetson Real Estate, said that buying a family home can come with many bonuses, but she also cautioned that when buying within the family, some things also may be overlooked, like home inspections and landscaping.
“I highly recommend that you have the home professionally inspected either by a licensed home inspector that typically inspects resales or a home maintenance company such as Rafter,” she said. “Water tightness is paramount. Did you know that cast iron drain pipes installed in the 1950s are now rotting and can create slow leaks behind your walls? Fix the water issues before you move in. Next up are electricity, heating, ventilation and air conditioning, and the hot water heater. Make sure these are in good shape and change the filters. Then, get a good assessment of your insulation and windows. After many years, trees may need trimming, foundation plants may be so overgrown that they need to be replaced.”
Lindy Smalt Gould bought her 2,000-square-foot red brick colonial 46 Oakwood Ave. from her parents at fair market value in 2022. They had inherited the house from her grandmother.
Gould did not use a broker. While there were “plenty of logistics to work out,” she said, “everyone in the family was very supportive of me buying the home and keeping it in the family, so it wasn’t a difficult process.”
Gould had grown up next door to the house she now lives in, and had spent a lot of time in both homes. “The driveways were paved, so it was almost one property,” she said, adding that her own mom, Ruth, now lives in Florida.
She likes to think that her grandmother would approve of the home today.
“Although we did a lot of cosmetic upgrades, such as installing overhead lighting, adding built-ins, removing the heavy drapes, etc., there are still many things that remind me of my grandmother today,” she said. And those memories may be what give the home its greatest appeal.
Gould said she is unlikely to sell the home and hopes that it stays in the family for generations to come.
“The nostalgia of this home is deeply meaningful to me,” Gould said. “There’s a profound sense of belonging in these walls. In the whirlwind of daily life — between work and parenting — there’s something incredibly grounding about making lunch for my kids in the same kitchen where my grandmother chose the cabinets in the 1960s, which we still have, now painted and updated with modern hardware. This house allows me to see the full arc of life all at once. Babies, teenagers, adults, elders — we’ve all moved through this space.”
