Listings up in Hamptons, down on North Fork

Like a celebrity couple, the vacation home markets on Long Island’s East End are going their separate ways. 

While the Hamptons is shaping up for a livelier fall, the North Fork appears to be taking a step back, according to Miller Samuel’s monthly residential snapshot for Douglas Elliman.

“In the short term, the Hamptons seems to be entering fall with a bit more momentum than the North Fork,” report author Jonathan Miller said. 

The Hamptons welcomed a boost in inventory last month, as is typical in September, with new listings up a modest 4 percent from August to September. New signed contracts saw an even slighter uptick, increasing just 1.4 percent month-over-month. 

But on the North Fork, new listings declined 12 percent and signed contracts were down 18 percent from August.

“The market there is a little choppy,” Miller said.

He added that while the North Fork suffered monthly declines, it experienced a stronger summer overall than did the Hamptons, as more new listings hit the market.

“The North Fork in a general sense is doing a little bit better,” he said. “Inventory has been expanding for most of the summer and has enabled more sales activity.”

On a year-over-year basis, North Fork contract signings in September were also down, falling 13 percent, following two months of annual upticks. The number of new listings remained unchanged from a year ago.

In the much larger Hamptons market, new signed contracts dropped for the 28th consecutive month, down 24 percent from September 2022. But new listings increased 4 percent year-over-year, marking the second uptick in the last three months.

The Hamptons market saw the most growth in homes priced between $2 million and $5 million, with new signed contracts up 9 percent year-over-year and new listings up 15 percent.

Miller referred to this segment of the market as the “sweet spot.” He added, “that seems to be where the action was.”

Despite more homes hitting the market in the Hamptons, Miller said inventory remains constrained Out East.

Sellers are still holding on to their properties, given the “uncertainty in the economy,” Miller said, adding that “the Fed pivoted a year and a half ago to break the economy with a baseball bat.”

The Federal Reserve aggressively raised interest rates to bring down inflation, which doused the housing market but has yet to trigger a recession.

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