Hamptons real estate remains in high demand, breaking more records in the fourth quarter of 2020.- Home sales hit a record high with 803 deals closed, about double the year prior.
- Buyers of luxury properties had little inventory to choose from, which led to bidding wars.
Hamptons home sales have hit yet another record high, according to a new report from Douglas Elliman Real Estate and Miller Samuel.
Real-estate deals in the ritzy oceanfront stretch east of
In the fourth quarter of 2020, 803 deals were closed - an increase of more than 100% from 2019's fourth quarter.
The median sales price soared to $1.4 million. Bidding wars also hit a high in nearly five years of tracking.
Houses were snatched up quickly: They lingered on the market for less time from listing to sale compared with the same period in 2019. Properties stayed on the market for 139 days, a 14.2% decrease from the third quarter of 2020.
The Hamptons saw a pandemic exodus from NYC
When the pandemic hit New York, some wealthy New Yorkers abandoned their ritzy apartments and decamped to the Hamptons (where some bypassed mail forwarding altogether and hired limos to hand deliver any correspondence they received).
From March 1 to May 1, 420,000 New Yorkers left the city. And, as Insider's Hillary Hoffower reported, the Hamptons became the spot du jour for New York's older elites, while the more newly affluent made a beeline for the trendy Hudson Valley.
As Insider's Dominic-Madori Davis reported, the Hamptons became even bougier in summer 2020, as high-end businesses followed those fleeing the city. Those in the "upper middle-class" found themselves priced out of rentals.
When Labor Day rolled around, the usual suspects weren't quite prepared to return to New York City. Instead of the usual return to urban life, more people were sticking around indefinitely - and becoming homeowners.
Luxury listings are especially in demand
About 10% of the Hamptons sales closed in the fourth quarter of 2020 - 81 - were considered "luxury."
Prices of such homes increased, too: The median sales price increased to $6 million from $5.8 million from the third quarter, and the average price sales price came in around $8.8 million, a $1.1 million increase from the third quarter.
A clear indicator of demand for pricey properties is the number of homes for sale. One measure of this is months of supply, calculated by the National Association of Realtors as the "number of months it would take for the current inventory of homes on the market to sell given the current sales pace.
In 2019, there were 37.2 months of supply. In the third quarter of 2020, there were 31 months of supply.
But the fourth quarter of 2020, there were 0 months of supply - meaning that homes are essentially getting snatched up as soon as they hit the market.