Hamptons lower-end market heats up

The lower end of the Hamptons residential market is picking up, according to the most recent sales data on the region, with just seven of the 47 home sales made in the first week of the year breaking the $1 million mark, according to Long Island Real Estate Report. This denotes a sharp decline in $1 million-plus home sales, compared to sales made during the same week a year earlier, when a third of Hamptons home purchases were made on seven-figure properties. Although far fewer homes — 30 in total — were sold during the first week of 2009, the total transaction volume for that week was $12 million more than in the same week of 2010. This news comes as the number of lis pendens filings has skyrocketed in the region, with 10 times as many initial filings on defaulted mortgages made in the first week of 2010 compared to the same week a year earlier.