Homes in New York’s Hamptons have never been more expensive—because they’ve rarely been this tough to come by.
First quarter home sales in the Long Island vacation towns plunged 57% to their lowest level in 14 years, according to a report today by appraiser Miller Samuel and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate. A scarcity of listings left motivated buyers empty-handed, while those who were willing to pay a greater premium closed deals, pushing average home prices in the area to $3.08 million–a new
record.
Key Takeaways
- First quarter home sales in the Long Island vacation towns plunged 57% to their lowest level in 14 years
- Average home prices in the area to $3.08 million—a new record.
- For the priciest 10% of homes in the Hamptons market—those that sold for $8.5 million or higher—buyers agreed to pay more than the asking price for 14% of all deals that closed.
“Right now we have far less inventory than we do buyers,” said Todd Bourgard, chief executive officer of Douglas Elliman Real Estate’s Hamptons and Long Island regional offices. “The buyers are plentiful.”
There were 171 completed home and condo sales in the Hamptons in the three-month period ending March 31, the firms said. While the number of properties listed for sale climbed 33% from a year ago, the available inventory at the end of the quarter—894 homes and condos—still marks the fourth lowest quarterly supply in data going back to 2006, said Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel.
“Inventory hadn’t piled to the sky when the market started to slow,” Miller said. “It has remained relatively low.”
Buyers seeking a home in the Hamptons were willing to overpay if it meant fending off competitors. For the priciest 10% of homes in the Hamptons market—those that sold for $8.5 million or higher—buyers agreed to pay more than the asking price for 14% of all deals that closed in the quarter, Miller said. That’s the same share of luxury homes that sold in bidding wars a year ago.
In the overall market, across all price points, 11% of sales involved a bidding war, where the buyer overpaid, Miller said.
“The pivot in rates over the past year hasn’t dampened demand,” Miller said
Single-family homes spent an average of 111 days on the market—up from just 88 days a year ago, the firms said. Condos, however, sped up their sales pace. It took an average of 139 days to sell a condominium in the first quarter, compared with 150 days last year.
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