An oceanfront residence is seen in East Hampton, New York.
Jeffrey Basinger | Reuters
According to a new report, home prices in the Hamptons hit new records as wealthy New Yorkers fled the city’s Covid-19 trouble over the beach.
According to a report by Miller Samuel and Douglas Elliman, the median price of a single-family home in the Hamptons reached $ 1.1 million in the second quarter, setting a new record and a 25% increase from the second quarter of last year. The average sale price reached $ 2.1 million, as the sale of several eight-figure mansions raised the average.
The rebound in the Hamptons, after nearly two years of weakness in 2018 and 2019, shows how the coronavirus is remaking the real estate landscape as the wealthy and wealthy flee from big cities to suburbs and vacation communities. While the Hamptons have long been Manhattan’s elite summer playground, runners say the current wave of shoppers is shopping to make the Hamptons their primary home, and that they only occasionally return to town to meetings or events.
“It’s not about people who spend the week, or people who just arrived from Memorial Day through Labor Day,” said Gary DePersia, one of the top runners in the Hamptons with Corcoran. “They plan to be here full time while it lasts.”
DePersia said it recently sold a house for $ 10 million after a bidding war, to a buyer who was moving from New York City. “The buyer said he no longer needs to be in the city as much because he can do a lot through technology,” he said.
Overall sales in the Hamptons fell slightly in the second quarter, by 15% compared to last year, as brokers were prohibited from displaying homes for much of the quarter. But the decline was much less than in Manhattan, where second-quarter sales fell 54%. When the blockade ended in June, sales in the Hamptons exploded. The signed contracts almost doubled in June, according to Jonathan Miller, Miller Samuel’s CEO.
In addition to the appeal of the Hamptons, many of Manhattan’s best restaurants, art galleries, shops, and luxury brands have opened outposts there to follow wealthy shoppers. That gave full-time residents more to see and do, and took even more business out of New York City.
Miller said that even after a vaccination, many wealthy families will spend less time in the city, so they are improving or buying more homes year-round in the Hamptons.
“I call it ‘co-primary’ residences,” he said. “It’s not just about using the Hamptons for occasional summers and weekends. It is the same as your Manhattan residence.”
The strong quarter also shows how Covid-19 has been a windfall for suburbs and beach communities like the Hamptons, which have lagged behind in the housing rebound after the financial crisis. The Hamptons saw seven consecutive quarters of declining sales in 2018 and 2019, and the median sale price of a single-family home dropped to $ 812,500 in 2018.
The declines led to comments on social media and news that the Hamptons were “dead” as a symbol of status and the property market.
“This has given the Hamptons a new lease on life,” said Miller. “The pandemic may have started the trend, but it’s the technology and the acceptance of working from home now that will make it last longer.”
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