Aerial view of the Hamptons

Home sales below $1 million boosted the volume while decreasing the median price on the East End of Long Island, according to fourth-quarter 2011 market reports from Prudential Douglas Elliman and Brown Harris Stevens released today.

Sales in the fourth quarter were higher than expected, holding steady year-over-year, despite the fact that changes in tax rules produced an artificial uptick in the fourth quarter of 2010, Elliman’s Hamptons/North Fork sales report indicates (see chart). [more]

The $2 million to $3.5 million homebuyer disappeared from the Hamptons during the fourth quarter, pushing the median sales price down even as the number and dollar volume of home sales increased, according to a market report released today by East End residential brokerage Town and Country Real Estate.

There were 290 homes sold during the fourth quarter of 2011, a 9.4 percent year-over-year increase, at a median price of $787,500, down 16.2 percent from the prior-year quarter. [more]

From the November issue:
[more]

Source: Prudential Douglas Elliman

East End residential sales activity and prices grew by double digits in the third quarter of 2011, according to a report released today by Prudential Douglas Elliman, although the increase, as is often the case, was skewed by booming luxury sales and a slow market in the same period last year.

Compared to the third quarter of 2010, home sales in the Hamptons and North Fork jumped 14.7 percent, to 538 from 469, and the median price rose 12 percent, to $700,000 from $625,000, the report says. Following seasonal patterns, sales activity in the third quarter dropped 13.1 percent and the median sale price decreased 8.6 percent over the previous quarter.
[more]

Hamptons high-end home sales saw positive growth in the third quarter of 2011, according to a report by Hamptons brokerage Town & Country, with the upper categories monitored by the company for all Hampton markets combined realizing sizable gains of as much as 60 percent.

Sales in the Southampton area more than doubled from the third quarter of 2010 — to $41 million from $11.9 million — but Amagansett experienced the greatest year over year change in volume of home sales, from six in the third quarter of 2010 to 11 in the third quarter of 2011. Sales prices were also up in nine of the 14 areas surveyed. In East Hampton, the median home sales price was up 39.92 percent; in Montauk, it was up 27.34 percent and in East Hampton Village, the median price was up by a massive 155.26 percent — to $4.85 million in the third quarter from $1.9 million a year previous. — Katherine Clarke [more]

Douglas Heddings, president of Heddings Property Group, has defended a blog post he wrote late last month that called for overhauling the Hamptons market in an interview with Curbed. He wrote the post following his firm’s entrance into the Hamptons market earlier this year. In the blog post, titled “Hamptons Market Philosophy is Bass Ackwards,” he pointed to several problems he had identified in the market related to the collection of listings and accurate pricing. In his discussion with Curbed, Heddings said he was disappointed with the lack of constructive reaction to his post. [more]

Southampton village home sales prices have outperformed prices in all other Hamptons markets, hitting a median price of $2.995 million, according to a second-quarter, market-wide home sales report by Hamptons brokerage Town & Country released today (see report below).

For Southampton, that’s a 41 percent jump from $2.125 million in the second quarter of 2010. Of the total sales, there were six of $5 million or more compared to three such sales in second-quarter 2010. There was also a 135 percent gain in total sales volume for the town, to $144.4 million in 2011 from $61.5 million in the second quarter of 2010.

The other 10 markets monitored by Town & Country display different degrees of growth or stability. Amagansett posted a 24 percent gain in home sales and a nearly 13 percent increase in median price, to $1.875 million in the second quarter of 2011 from $1.66 million in the same period in 2010.

Westhampton experienced an 8 percent drop in home sales, to 54 from 59 home sales, but saw an increase in median price to $952,000 from $900,000.

Hamptons Bays is the only Hamptons market still struggling, according to the report. The number of home sales dropped to 34, from 36 in the second quarter of 2010. The median home sales price also dropped to $376,000 from $405,000. — Katherine Clarke
1310758066HamptonsQ2 2011 SalesReport-Site [more]

Fed up with the French Riviera, wealthy Russian buyers are descending on the Hamptons and they’re not afraid to pay the big bucks, according to the New York Post. “Russians are here big-time, and they don’t think much about dropping a million bucks to be in the Hamptons for the summer,” said one broker who has made several deals with Russian clients.

It is Russian renters, the Post said, who are setting the highest rates for summer in the East End of Long Island.

Russian billionaire bachelor Igor Sosin has rented a 12-bedroom mansion on Ox Pasture Lane in Southampton for $860,000 for July and August, sources said. The brokers were Victoria Logevisky and Erica Grossman of Prudential Douglas Elliman. [more]

Biggest east end firms chart

From the June issue: After edging past Corcoran in 2010, Prudential Douglas Elliman this year hung on to its title as the largest residential brokerage in the Hamptons. Over the past 12 months, Elliman’s total head count fell by one — giving it 319 agents. But that was still enough for the firm to maintain its position as the top residential real estate player in the Hamptons, according to The Real Deal’s annual ranking of the biggest East End firms by number of agents. (Meanwhile, the firm is facing challenges in the city. See “The trials of Douglas Elliman.”) Corcoran remained in the No. 2 spot with 312 agents, but closed the gap somewhat, with six more agents than it had at this time last year. (Corcoran executives said the company has more than that number of agents, because some do not appear on the firm’s website, which The Real Deal uses to tally head counts for all firms because it’s more up to date than state licensing filings.) [more]

Palm Beach

From the February issue: Filled with high fashion and high society, Palm Beach can seem like Manhattan but with palm trees. So it’s no surprise that New York-area real estate firms have gobbled up space there to compete for a constant stream of New Yorkers flying south to find second, third and fourth homes. Two of New York’s premier brokerages, Brown Harris Stevens and Corcoran, have operations there. Another with New York ties, Fite Shavell, formed two years ago and jumped to the top ranks of Palm Beach’s real estate world. Cofounder Wade Shavell opened the firm after helping launch Corcoran’s Palm Beach branch. He was joined by former Prudential Douglas Elliman CFO David Fite. [more]