Hamptons home sale prices skyrocket to record high

The high prices that have long defined the privilege of Hamptons living have gotten even higher.

The East End just posted its highest average sales price on record.

That’s according to a Thursday-released Hamptons market report from residential brokerage Brown Harris Stevens, which found that the average sales price in the tony East End jumped 38% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2022 to a record $3.17 million. Meanwhile, the median price for sold property — which the report says is used to measure the middle of the market — climbed 21.1% to $1.69 million during that same time.

This update comes more than two years after the arrival of COVID in New York, when a number of deep-pocketed city residents fled east out of concern for the virus — turning the traditional summer-home market into a year-round one — and stayed there for work-from-home flexibility.

Since around that time, there have been nearly 18 months of record-high numbers of Hamptons sales, which have led to a historically low inventory of homes to buy — and the report notes a significant fall in transactions year-over-year. (Meanwhile, the rental market hasn’t proven to be a walk in the park, either.)

A number of wealthy New Yorkers headed east during the worst of COVID in 2020, driving up prices in the process.
A number of wealthy New Yorkers headed east during the worst of COVID in 2020, driving up prices in the process.
Getty Images/iStockphoto

The number of sales in the first quarter fell by 31.6% year-over-year to 268 from the 392 tallied in the first quarter of 2021. That 268 total remains nearly on the same level as the 278 deals recorded in the first quarter of 2020.

All the while, the total dollar volume of home sales reached $852 million in 2022’s first quarter. That’s down 5.6% from $902 million in the same quarter of 2021 due to fewer sales, but nearly 23% above the $695 million recorded in 2020 when there was approximately the same number of sales.

A lack of inventory, fewer sales and big dollars spent together mean that demand for a Hamptons home remains strong, the report adds. But buyers seem to be attracted to one area in particular: East Hampton.

That neck of the Hamptons — inclusive of East Hampton, East Hampton Village and Wainscott — saw 28.7% of all sales, a total of 77, in the first quarter. In dollar figures, that’s a $278 million homebuyers shelled out, or 32.6% of the total dollar volume.

Only second to it: Southampton — including Southampton Village and Water Mill — which saw $142 million in 54 sales during that three-month period.