Long Island home sales and prices surged in the fourth quarter, with demand particularly strong in the Hamptons and the North Fork.
In the Hamptons, the median home sale price was $1.4 million, nearly 55 percent higher year-over-year, according to the latest Douglas Elliman report. The median sales price marked a record high for the second straight quarter, after 15 years of tracking the totals.
The number of transactions in the Hamptons also rose, to 803 homes, according to the report. That, too, marked the highest quarterly total in 15 years.
“The suburbs are having their moment,” said appraiser Jonathan Miller, who authors the Elliman report. That moment has continued since the pandemic’s early months, when New Yorkers with the means began scooping up homes outside the city.
In the North Fork, median and average sales price also set new records of $805,000 and $1 million respectively. The 291 homes that sold marked the largest total since at least 2006.
Long Island — including Nassau and Suffolk counties but excluding the Hamptons and North Fork — had 9,942 home sales from October through December. That was a big jump from the 7,611 homes that sold over the same period in 2019. The median price of a home that sold in that area was $525,000.
The record-breaking number of transactions for the quarter have depleted inventory, contributing to rising prices and bidding wars, Miller said. But he cautioned that neither were sustainable.
“It’s predicated on record low mortgage rates, the direction of the economy, how quickly [the vaccine is] widely adopted and when companies begin calling back employees to their offices,” he said. “On top of it, we’re just not seeing inventory able to keep up with demand.”
Listing inventory fell across the areas excluding the Hamptons and North Fork to 6,450 in Q4, the report showed. That’s a 28 percent year-over-year dip.
In the North Fork, listings plummeted 61 percent, from 350 to 136. In the Hamptons, listings slid from 1,919 to 1,745.
In the Hamptons, 19 percent of homes sales in the quarter closed at prices above final asking, Miller said.
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