Angela Lanuto is a top-selling Hudson Valley real estate agent. Last week, she showed a 35-acre California ranch style home in Salt Point to New York City-based real estate broker Irene Guanill, who traveled to Dutchess County to scout Hudson valley properties for her New York clients.

"The peacefulness. You're definitely not hearing sirens or fire trucks," said Lanuto.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Lanuto has seen a uptick in interest from New York City buyers looking to relocate to the Hudson Valley. A major draw for city dweller buyers: The beautiful natural backdrop of the Hudson Valley.

"The natural light that comes in even on a cloudy day is something that buyers are attracted to," said real estate broker Irene Guanill. "Yes, you're absolutely right. I mean this is truly Hudson Valley living at its' finest, especially given you 90 mins from Manhattan," she said.

With many city buyers working from home, many are realizing they can keep their New York City jobs, but work remotely from the Hudson Valley.

"People started to re-evaluate how long COVID's going to last," said Guanill. "Now we're going into flu season and COVID is creeping up again, so I find in the last month more and more, people are contacting me to come up to the suburbs."

With demand high and inventory low, homes in the region are increasing in price, but for Guanill’s buyers, the $1.6 million price tag of one home complete with its own regulation-sized baseball field is a good deal.

"You have to understand. They're already paying this price for maybe 300-500 square feet, so to come up here, this is really opportunity knocks. 'So you mean I can have a real house with real square footage and real land and not be stuck to the noise and the pollution?' So yes this is the place to be," said Guanill.

Rhinebeck is a hotspot town for many New York City buyers.

"Rhinebeck is adorable. Just such a quaint town, it’s a Hudson River town," said Lanuto. "It's really nicely centrally located if you want to get down to the city, you still can. It's easy and you don’t feel completely separated from society. You're not like in the middle of the woods you still have that country feel like we saw with the house in Salt Point that was about 20 mins from Rhinebeck."

Lanuto said when COVID-19 ravaged New York City this spring, many city dwellers started to look to the Hudson Valley.

"We started to see that demand increase. A reason being people didn’t want to be stuck in their condos. They didn’t want to be stuck having to not be able to go outside, especially with their kids," said Lanuto. "So they said 'where are we going to go?' So it almost became an escape."