“If you’re thinking of relocating to Ithaca, I look forward to sharing the wonders of the place with you. If you’re already here, aren’t you the lucky ones?!” Peggy Haine enjoys introducing newcomers to her adopted home in the remarkable Finger Lakes area. Fleeing Brooklyn to study at Cornell years ago, she fell in love with the region’s natural beauty, vast cultural opportunities, and small-town friendliness.

Her many careers -- as award-winning writer, associate director of Cornell University’s Office of Communication Strategies, director of its Summer College programs for high school students, and grants-and-contracts administrator, among others, her service on the City of Ithaca’s Common Council, on its Board of Zoning Appeals and in its Planning Department have prepared her well to help you navigate both home-buying and home-selling processes in this area. In addition to her work in real estate, Haine is active with the Ithaca Rotary Club, the History Center in Tompkins County, the annual Brooklynites-in-Ithaca Reunion, and the Friends of the Library Book Sale. She is a trustee of the Ulysses Philomathic Library and has also served on other local boards: the Hangar Theatre, the Hector Jazz Festival, Suicide Prevention and Crisis Service, the Sciencenter, and the DeWitt Historical Society (now the History Center in Tompkins County) among them.

A former “red hot mama” on the Mississippi steamboat Delta Queen, she also traveled and performed with the Lowdown Alligator Jass Band for many years, and now plays Baroque music for harpsichord and recorders. Haine and spouse Peter Hoover enjoy the area’s music scene when they’re not busy restoring their 1835-era Greek revival farmhouse, writing restaurant reviews for the Ithaca Times, making wine and hard cider, and tending a heritage cider-apple orchard. The pair co-edited the Finger Lakes Wine Gazette for a decade, deepening their knowledge of the area’s wineries, restaurants, and producers of cheeses, ciders, and other farm products, knowledge she’ll be happy to share with you.