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Using the Hamptons real estate market as a barometer, Wall Street is clearly in recovery mode. Over the last few months sales activity has picked up in the New York retreat, known as one of the country’s toniest addresses.
The number of sales jumped 22.9 percent in the fourth quarter from the previous quarter, a 55.4 percent increase from the same period a year earlier, according to the latest Prudential Douglas Elliman Hamptons Market Overview.
Of course, a year earlier Wall Street executives were groveling for bailouts and jumping out windows. Nevertheless, any sign that the wealthy are ready and willing again to snap up lavish estates is good news in the Hamptons 'hood--and all 'hoods like it.
Clearly, some people are spending their bonuses.
“During a recession, the second -home market is generally weak, but what we saw this past quarter was that sales in the Hamptons actually weathered quite strongly," Prudential Douglas Elliman chief executive Dottie Herman said in a press release. “And although prices are lower than they had been, our ten-year report shows us way ahead of where we were a decade ago.”
The media sales price is actually up 1.6 percent from a year earlier, settling in at about $700,000. But it wasn’t all good news for the caviar and champagne set: Homes stayed on the market an average of 175 days, compared to 150 last year.
There have also been some spectacular price drops. In December for example, a nine-acre Southampton estate was slashed $18 million.
“Price indicators were mixed, suggesting stabilizing prices due to the return of more normal sales activity levels, said Jonathan Miller, chief executive of Miller Samuel, the firm that prepared the report. “Purchasers have been taking advantage of newly found affordability with reduced prices and low mortgage rates.”
Even with a 13.8 percent drop in the last year, the average sales price in the area was up 135 percent in the decade, to $1.3 million.
