Wall Street crisis evident in Hamptons pricing

The New York Times’ Key Magazine looks at how the Hamptons market has
changed in the wake of the financial crisis. The bursting of the
housing bubble in other parts of the country did
not, at first, cause much worry in the Hamptons, where homes were
still selling for an average cost of over $2 million. But as Wall
Street has collapsed and the wealthy have been hurt by the Madoff scheme, the Hamptons real estate market has declined. Average sale
prices have declined by about 10 percent following the collapse of
Wall Street. As The Real Deal has reported,
the number of sales fell in East Hampton by 25 percent, in
Bridgehampton by 39 percent, in
Southampton by 45 percent and in Montauk by 47 percent in 2008.