An ongoing $26 million project to extend the Hamptons beachfront and protect homes against future storms is already boosting real estate prices in the area.
About 3 million cubic yards of sand is helping to expand the beachfront toward the sea at an average of 75 feet to 100 feet in towns such as Sagaponack, Southampton and Water Mill. Homeowners in a beach erosion control taxation district pay for the project over the course of a decade, the New York Times reported.
Brokers say that this will boost buyers’ confidence and lift prices even higher. At the moment, there are 10 oceanfront listings in those towns, one of which is a Bridgehampton home asking $29 million.
Corcoran Group associate broker Gary DePersia hiked up the listing price of a three-bedroom cottage on the ocean in Water Mill in August, to $9 million from $8.5 million. He immediately received several offers and, in four months, it was in contract.
The project “will stabilize the beach, enhance the aesthetics and add value to every house that is on the ocean,” DePersia told the Times. [NYT] — Mark Maurer