But regardless of their ages or income levels, real estate professionals say, a growing number of buyers share a similar objective: they are looking for homes that express individuality.

''No cookie-cutter style for me, thank you,'' said Richard Schoetz, an insurance salesman who recently won a bidding war on a 1950's architect-designed Cape Cod home in Chappaqua that the listing agency described as ''eclectic.''

''This was certainly not your average box,'' said Mr. Schoetz, who purchased the three-bedroom brick-and-wood house with three dormers and a one-story wing on one side overlooking more than an acre of woods for $999,000. ''My wife and I wanted a place with personality and charm, something that didn't look like everyone else's house.''

The distinctiveness of the house with its open layout, many decks and unconventional building materials, including a glass wall in the master bedroom, proved attractive to others besides Mr. Schoetz. After multiple bids, it was sold within days at $60,000 more than the asking price, said Linda Schwarz, who listed it for Holmes & Kennedy's Chappaqua office. ''Most buyers don't want plain vanilla flavored houses anymore,'' Ms. Schwarz explained. ''The four-bedroom colonial may offer families lots of room, but it usually doesn't have much personality.''

A couple of reasons have been suggested for buyers' growing appetite for one-of-a-kind houses, Ms. Schwarz said. For several years, the inventory of available homes for sale in Westchester has been relatively low, and buyers took what they could get. Lately, however, buyers have been able to be somewhat more choosy as more new listings have been coming on the market. There were 5,065 homes listed in the second quarter of 2004 compared with 4,483 in the corresponding period of 2003, according to the Westchester Putnam Multiple Listing Service.

Greg Rand, a managing partner for Prudential Rand overseeing 16 offices in Westchester, Rockland and Orange Counties, detects a psychological element: a desire among buyers of all ages and in all price categories to find a sense of safe haven in a troubled world by acquiring and decorating a home that feels like one's own.

''That usually means the house is not part of a tract housing development,'' Mr. Rand said, noting that homes in neighborhoods established in the late 1920's are especially appealing to young families. ''Older houses in areas where a builder put up a colonial next door to a Tudor are particularly sought after, even if it entails upgrading the kitchen and bathrooms.''

But houses in older neighborhoods with tree canopies, personality and warmth often come at a higher price. ''Crazy as it might sound, $1 million to $2 million is only considered the upper middle of the market these days,'' Mr. Rand said.

The median sales price of a single-family home in the county soared to a record high of $660,000 in the second quarter of the current year, the first time the median exceeded $600,000. At the same time, the number of properties selling for $1 million or more jumped to 319, up 66 percent from 192 a year earlier, according to the Multiple Listing Service.

AT the market's highest reaches -- $2 million and more -- buyers are similarly looking for homes that reflect their individuality, and they tend to have the wherewithal to achieve that goal more easily than do other segments of the market, said Scott Hobbs, a builder who renovates old homes and builds new ones for $2 million to $10 million in Westchester and Connecticut.

While colonial-style houses still appeal to some buyers, Mr. Hobbs said, many customers want something different. Home styles that are finding favor in new-home developments include adaptations of the Shingle style house (with porches, gambrel roofs and large bay windows), the Queen Anne (with towers, turrets, wraparound porches and other fanciful details) and the Arts and Crafts house (which features exposed rafters and dormers).

Inside, buyers are spending extra for themed media rooms -- the vintage theater look is particularly popular these days, Mr. Hobbs said -- as well as for bathrooms for caring for pets and lap pools set in limestone or marble. ''As for kitchens,'' he added, ''islands are still popular, although they're getting to look more like continents these days.''

At the lower end of the market, too, buyers want to put their individual mark on a residence, said Martin Ginsburg, a principal of GDC Development in Hawthorne. ''Nobody wants what comes off the shelf anymore,'' said Mr. Ginsburg, who is selling duplexes and town houses at Riverbend in Peekskill for the high $200,000's to $700,000 and offering many options to buyers.

A report last month from the National Homebuilders Association, a trade group, said the drive to express one's individuality in a home is being prompted by a change in societal values -- by a growing perception of suburbia as homogeneous and boring. Today's buyers, the report says, ''are looking for charm and character.''

Mr. Schoetz, the buyer of the eclectic Cape in Chappaqua, articulated some of the different elements that are important to buyers like him. ''Especially in the world as it is today, we're looking for an environment that's warm and enveloping,'' he said. ''So community is very important to us, but so is having a place that belongs uniquely to us and says something about who we are as individuals. What previous generations considered to be the American Dream has changed.''

Published: 08 - 22 - 2004 , Late Edition - Final , Section 11 , Column 1 , Page 13