The “Hamptons Middle” Remains Desirable

“Overall, we’re seeing great improvement with year-to-date volume, up more than 10 percent over 3Q 2016,” remarked Carl Benincasa, Regional Vice President of Sales for the Hamptons at Douglas Elliman Real Estate, about The Elliman Report: Hamptons 3Q17. “While indicators point to a soft high-end market, Elliman has been able to boost overall performance with double-digit gains in both sales price and closings in mid-tier listings such as condos, along with a historically high presence in the high-end market, this year claiming the bulk of the top sales in the region.”

This marks the ninth consecutive quarter where inventory declined in the overall market. However, while inventory is disappearing, the “Hamptons middle” ($1 million to $5 million) was the only segment that saw a sales gain. While bidding wars for the overall market increased, that was not the case for the luxury market, but Q3 was the quickest condo marketing time ever recorded.

“Q4 promises to bring more good news with one of our biggest deals having already closed in the quarter and more top-ten-level deals in contract,” he noted.

The median sales price in the Hamptons grew 7.9 percent to $890,000, while the average sales price dropped 4 percent to $1,675,998. Properties were on the market for a shorter period of time, from 142 to 132 days and listing inventory declined by 4.4 percent to 1,465.

“The luxury market has seen rising absorption rates and increasing inventory compared with the mid-tier market which has seen close to a 30-percent drop in absorption rate and a 30-percent increase in average sales price,” Benincasa said. “This indicates that Hamptons buyers are showing more interest in smaller, more manageable homes.”

But, Benincasa believes there’s still plenty of sales in the luxury market to be seen. “The market however still seems to have plenty of opportunity for the high end, with more than ten sales over $20 million before the end of Q3,” he concluded.