OFFERED:

01/05/1998 at 12:00 AM EST

The spacious 1908 house that inspired the 1975 novel "Ragtime" (and the subsequent movie and Broadway musical), in New Rochelle, N.Y., by its owner, the novel's author, E.L. Doctorow, for $695,000. The reason for the sale? E.L. and the wife are suffering from the empty-nest syndrome -- and, besides, they have two other houses.