Real Estate

John Candy and his fictitious family of characters were dealt a lousy hand on their summer rental, but your chances are significantly better. Why? Because according to a new Hamptons/North Fork market study from Miller Samuel and Prudential Douglas Elliman, next summer is going to be a season for renters.

As Oliver Haydock of the New York Observer reports, sales of Hamptons homes has dropped nearly 30 percent annually. In an interesting turn, the South Fork has been hit much harder than the North Fork. The median home sales price in the Hamptons fell 19.4 percent since the third quarter of 2007. In tangible numbers, that’s a drop from $1,030,000 to $830,000.

Three big stats are leading some to believe that a downturn will be pulling into the driveway and settling in for an unwelcome stay in the near future. Sales are down, inventory is up, and homes are taking longer to sell, which is never a welcome trifecta.

For those in the real estate game: cheer up, nothing lasts forever. And to those looking for a 2009 summer getaway, the Hamptons will be for rent, start packing!

Apparently lightning can strike twice, or at least as far as the price point on Hamptons real estate. For anyone who missed the opportunity to buy the $65 million spread on Gin Lane this spring, a pedigreed Ox Pasture estate “Linden” hits the market at $67.5 million.

“Architecture against death,” is one of the missions of the Bioscleave House in East Hampton, an innovative, interactive, compact living space that is the antidote to the soulless Hamptons McMansions. As artist-architect-poet designer Madeleine Gins says, “In this house you aren’t buying space, you’re buying time.”

You know times are tough when real estate agents are taking waitress jobs, albeit on Shelter Island so they don’t run into their clients while offering them the short ribs. The figures are out to prove that the Gucci belt is tightening as sales slow down. Suffolk Research Service Inc. released the first quarter figures for 2008 and present some statistics that, while sobering, are certainly not doom and gloom

Like any expensive hamlet with both blue blood and blue collar roots, the Hamptons have seen the spectrum of wealth including old and new money. Descendants of old fashioned industrialists have given way in the recent buying boom to Wall Street masters of the universe and hedge fund managers who may be completely self-made. While Southampton may have had the reputation of being old money, and East Hampton that of being new money, the lines have been blurred.

A new listing in Westhampton Beach is making the upper echelon stand up, take notice and even consider crossing the Shinnecock canal -- a $39 million historic estate. “Where else can you find 10 acres on the water in a Stanford White era home with 16,000 square feet?” asks exclusive agent Marcia Altman with Brown Harris Stevens. At a recent open house for a few select brokers there was one word whispered about, “Gatsby.” West Egg has clearly arrived.

A proposed subdivision in Bridgehampton to be called “Vintage Vines,” near Channing Daughters Vineyards, has set competing interests against one another. In one corner are former Southampton Town Councilman Dennis Suskind
and his partner who are looking to develop the land as a business
venture. In another corner we have the environmental interests of this
aquifer protection district including the endangered tiger salamander. But also tossed into the ring is the Hamptons working class which is hoping for affordable housing.

While stately Southampton has held the spotlight for high-priced properties, East Hampton has seemed (aside from the record-setting $103 million Further Lane sale) to be Southampton’s more affordable kissing cousin. So, sure, she doesn’t have her own private helipad, but heck she’s got her own airport, not to mention Martha Stewart, Donny Deutsch, and a Broadway show about one of her most famous properties, “Grey Gardens.” And while beachfront property is going for a dollar a grain of sand in Southampton Town, they have suffered far worse erosion than East Hampton, which has maintained its jetties to protect its beaches.

We’ve heard about the stimulus package and a potential national tax rebate, but how about a little help closer to home. Here’s a deadline you’ll want to know about. Do you own your own home in the Hamptons? Is it your primary residence? If you’re looking for a potential tax reduction, the deadline for applying for the STAR program is March 1, 2008. STAR stands for the New York State School Tax Relief Program, which was instituted in 1997.

The dirtiest word in the real estate business is now being bandied about here in the Hamptons: foreclosure. As much as we'd like to dismiss this the idle ravings of some out-of-it blogger, the news comes from Crain's, an actual reputable publication. By the numbers, we're looking at about 40 foreclosures in East Hampton and a similar number in Southampton. Click thru at the risk of your own sanity/depression.

Foreclosures Come to the Hamptons [Crain's]