Roxana Poenar 
The second quarter of 2017 saw residential sales in the Hamptons reach a new high, and more so in the upper-end segment. According to a Q2 report from Douglas Elliman, and The Real Deal, residential sales in the Hamptons are starting to get back on track after a less than fruitful 2016, but prices are still nowhere near their pre-Lehman Brothers levels.
The sales growth is more visible at the high end of the market, where sales jumped almost 23 percent from last year. The number of sales above $5 million climbed 46 percent, while those in the $1 million and $5 million range rose 29 percent compared to the previous year. Sales under $1 million were also on the rise with an increase of 15 percent year-over-year.
The Market Starts Moving Faster
Resale inventory dropped for the eighth-consecutive quarter, by 4.1 percent year-over-year. As for the luxury end of the market – $3.9 million and above – inventory dropped 10.7 percent, as detailed by TRD.
Furthermore, with listing inventory declining, the absorption rate increased 22 percent year-over-year. Consequently, the time it takes for all inventory to sell at the current rate fell from 8.2 months in Q2 2016 to 6.4 months in Q2 2017, per the report.
Jonathan Miller, CEO of appraisal firm Miller Samuel, told TRD that this doesn’t imply that the market is in a frenzy. “We’re just approaching the records that were set a decade ago,” said Miller. He added that “there is a perception that we broke the record a long time ago, like we did in Manhattan. We haven’t.”
Reuters also reported a surge in residential sales in the Hamptons. The publication attributes the upswing to a buoyant stock market. Judi Desiderio, chief executive of Town & Country in East Hampton, told Reuters that “When the market does well, we’re going to do well,” and thus her outlook for the next months is a positive one.
“I’m predicting that the rest of the year, especially the third quarter, we’re going to see activity in all markets, as opposed to just the high end,” said Desiderio.
