The East End residential real estate market completely collapsed in the first
quarter of 2011, according to a Prudential Douglas Elliman market report released
today, but the report’s preparer said the numbers were an anomaly created by
fear surrounding the possible expiration of the so-called “Bush tax cuts” this past
December. (President Barack Obama eventually extended the cuts for two years in late December.)
Jonathan Miller, president and CEO of Miller Samuel and the compiler of the report,
said that buyers who feared Bush tax cuts would expire in 2010
moved early on their East End purchases, thereby inflating last quarter’s sales
numbers and depressing statistics for the first three months of this year.
The combination set the first-quarter report up for drastic declines. [more]

From left: Corcoran’s Rick Hoffman and appraiser Jonathan Miller While sales activity in the East End residential market in the fourth quarter of 2010 increased, prices remained flat and inventory lagged, according to the latest report released today by the Corcoran Group. The number of sales jumped 52 percent, to 2,266 units, while sales volume climbed 53 percent, to $3.1 billion; average prices, however, rose just 1 percent, to $1.3 million, and median prices increased 6 percent to $721,000. “I think that it reflects a great increase in activity in number of home sales and the dollar value of the homes sold,” said Rick Hoffman, Corcoran’s senior regional vice president of the East End. “Houses that are selling are those that are well-priced and those that people have made reductions on.” [more]

The real estate market on the Eastern End of Long Island — led by the
Hamptons — is demonstrating a remarkable turnaround, with sales up 90
percent from this time last year, according to a market report released
today by Prudential Douglas Elliman.”I
don’t think anybody expected the improvement in the market to be as
rapid as it has been,” said appraiser Jonathan Miller, president of
Miller Samuel and the author of the Elliman report. “That says a lot
about the product. The Hamptons is a sought-after location — it wasn’t
just a bubble.” The number of sales on the East End, which
includes the North and South forks and Shelter Island, leaped to 582 in
the second quarter of 2010, the report says, up from only 307 in the same period last year. [more]

From the May issue: From the splashy beaches of the Hamptons to the rolling hills of the Berkshires, the vacation home markets popular with New Yorkers have been hit hard by the downturn.

But as the 2010 summer season gears up, reports indicate that things are turning around as the economy stabilizes and the threat of rising interest rates brings more buyers out of the woodwork.

This month, The Real Deal examined eight vacation home markets around the region. Of those, the South Fork of Long Island and Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., show the sharpest recent rebounds in sales.

Rental figures are harder to come by, but anecdotally brokers across the eight markets said early leasing is up this year, while prices in most places are still below peak. This means last year’s rock-bottom deals will be harder to come by in low-inventory places like Fire Island, which brokers said they expect to be fully booked. However, in other areas, like the Berkshires, there are more rentals available as for-sale listings languish on the market.

In general, the tea leaves indicate that this summer might be the last to make that unbelievable deal. Below is a rundown of the region. [more]

Sales activity appears back to normal on the East End of Long Island.
According to the Corcoran Group’s quarterly market report, released today, there were 466 residential sales recorded in the Hamptons and on Shelter Island last quarter, compared to 208 during the first quarter of 2009 and 413 during the first quarter of 2008 (click here to see full report).
In the more dressed-down North Fork market bordering the Long Island Sound, 108 sales of residential property were recorded with the county last quarter, compared to 61 during the first quarter of 2009, and 109 during the first quarter of 2008.
Corcoran’s report includes all sales in the nearly two dozen East End towns the company is active in, but unlike most reports Corcoran’s counts the sales recorded during that quarter versus the sales that actually closed during that quarter. Since the Suffolk County Clerk is so slow to record closed sales, often waiting two to four weeks, Corcoran’s approach allows the company to get its report out sooner than its competitors, however many of the sales were closed in the prior quarter. [more]

Word has broken that the 1.9 acres of vacant land neighboring Paul McCartney’s Amagansett home has been purchased. The tree-heavy lot closed for $900,000 two months ago, under the vague alias “Amagansett Real Estate Investment Corp.”

From the December issue: Times are tough, but don’t skimp on the tip. That’s the message from
Judi Desiderio, CEO of Town & Country Real Estate on the East End
of Long Island, to her brokers.
“We will still be sending gift bags to all our ancillary service
providers,” she said. That means people who open lobby doors and
deliver the mail.
But tips from New York brokers were certainly more plentiful during the boom.
“Tips for the 2009 holiday season will be in modified form,” said
Halstead Property broker Jill Sloane. “However, the doormen and
superintendents really appreciate gifts, so it’s important to keep up
with tips even though you may have made less money this year,” she
added.

The residential real estate market on Long Island’s East End is looking
better, although the end of the slump is still not in sight. There were 459 homes sales in the Hamptons and North Fork together in the third quarter, a 29.3 percent leap from 355 in the same quarter of last year, and 49.5 percent more than last quarter, according to a quarterly report by Prudential Douglas Elliman (see full report after the jump). Thanks to this spike in activity, the region saw a respite from the steep price declines it’s seen for the past two years. The average sales price of a home on the East End grew 1.3 percent to $1.34 million, from $1.32 million in the third quarter of 2008, and increased 4.3 percent from the second quarter. The median price was $700,000, 4 percent less than the prior-year quarter but 2.9 percent more than the last quarter. “The worst is over,” said appraiser Jonathan Miller, CEO of Miller Samuel and the preparer of the report. “After a precipitous drop in the first couple quarters, we saw prices move sideways, and even a little uptick in the summer.” That doesn’t mean there won’t be further price declines, he said, thanks to the tenuous state of the economy and still-rising unemployment. [more]

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One month after closing two East End offices, Corcoran is now consolidating its two Main Street offices in East Hampton, according to a Corcoran spokesperson. All of Corcoran’s Main Street agents are working in the 20 Main Street office while the 51 Main Street office is renovated. They will move to 51 Main Street by Memorial Day if construction remains on track, the spokesperson said.
[more]