More than 30 Corcoran Group East End agents descended upon the firm’s executive offices at 660 Madison Avenue last night, to put their available properties on display for prospective renters in one location (see photos above). For two hours prospective buyers went from station to station checking out listings throughout the Hamptons and Eastern Long Island, while being treated to a wine and cheese tasting.TRD

From the April issue: It is often said that the Hamptons market moves in lockstep with the stock market. And the upcoming season on the East End is shaping up to be no exception. As the stock market has made gains in the last year and, perhaps more important, shown some stability, the Hamptons market has followed suit.

“I think the latest wave of business we’re doing is very much tied to the increase of the stock market,” said Andrew Saunders, president of boutique brokerage Saunders & Associates.

In this month’s Q & A, The Real Deal spoke to East End brokers and firm heads, including Saunders, who said that sales activity has picked up recently and that the rental season started earlier and stronger than it has in the last few years.  [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]

At the Corcoran Group’s Southampton office, a managerial shift that might have seemed like an insult was actually a company “goal,” the people involved in the moves said.

Tim Davis, who spent four years as senior managing director at Corcoran’s Southampton office, following the firm’s acquisition of his former company, Allan M. Scheider Associates, has left his role, with an outsider, Philip O’Connell, replacing him. O’Connell, who has no prior brokerage experience, is an East End native and a real estate attorney. [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]

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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]