Hamptons Real Estate Now

In Southampton Town, unit sales, or the number of single-family homes sold, were down more than 33 percent in 2008, and dollar sales, or the amount of money spent to purchase single-family homes, was down 33 percent. The town posted a 42-percent drop in sales and a 51-percent loss in dollars spent in the fourth quarter, as compared to the fourth quarter of 2007.

In East Hampton Town, sales were down nearly 40 percent for the year and dollars spent were down 46 percent. Comparing fourth quarter to fourth quarter, East Hampton’s market suffered a nearly 32-percent loss in sales volume and 47-percent loss in the amount of money spent purchasing single-family homes.

Sales prices fell, too, but not quite as precipitously. In Southampton Town, the median price of a home fell 13.5 percent to just under $800,000, still above the $762,000 median price posted in 2006. The median price is the price at which there are an equal number of homes sold at higher and lower prices. In East Hampton, the median price dipped below $1 million, falling 9.5 percent to $995,000. Throughout the rest of the East End, prices fell by percentages in the single digits, except in Shelter Island, where the median price actually rose by 1.3 percent to $962,500.

The median price for the region slipped 12.6 percent from $740,000 to $650,000. The latest figure is much closer to the 2006 median, which was $660,000.

Suffolk Research Service Inc. is a real estate software and research company based in Hampton Bays.

Portions of this article appeared in The Southampton Press,January 16th,2009

Advertisement