The Fern Hill Community currently consists of about forty residential properties in a rural, mostly wooded setting in Columbia County, New York, about halfway between the Hudson River and the foothills of the Berkshires. Minutes from the Harlemville Rd. exit on the Taconic State Parkway, the area is just two hours' drive north of New York City. The community lies within the towns of Austerlitz, Ghent and Hillsdale, New York. The local school district is Taconic Hills.

Property owners are mostly full-time residents, although nearly a third of properties are owned as second homes by downstate residents. Lot sizes range from two to seventeen acres. Amendments to the Fern Hill Covenants require a minimum lot size of five acres on all new development or subdivisions. Land use is governed by covenants for the benefit of all residents, as all landowners enjoy the use and share in the maintenance of common lands surrounding Maiden Lake. The covenants are administered by the Fern Hill Land Management Body, a governing board of at least seven residents each serving rolling two-year terms. Residents pay a modest annual sum as association dues. Much of the housing in the community is notable for being harmonious with its natural settings, environmentally sound, and architecturally interesting.

Attractions of the area include: Maiden Lake (a two acre pond, with surrounding common lands for hiking and cross-country skiing); Hawthorne Valley Farm (a biodynamic farm with a local store that distributes its products throughout lower New York and the Hudson Valley); and the Hawthorne Valley School (a Waldorf school closely tied to the biodynamic farm that shares the valley). Also located in Fern Hill is the Rudolf Steiner Library, which houses an extensive collection of writings related to anthroposophy and the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America.

From this area, the cities of Hudson, NY and Great Barrington, MA are about equidistant. The Taconic State Parkway, about a mile from the end of Fern Hill Rd., puts the area within an easy thirty minute drive of Albany, NY.