Home prices in New York’s Hamptons,
the beachside retreat of financiers and celebrities, declined 13
percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier as buyers
opted for less-expensive properties.
The median price of homes that sold in the three months
ended Dec. 31 fell to $780,000 from $900,000 in the fourth
quarter of 2010, appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and broker
Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate said in a report today.
A surge in purchases of properties for $5 million and above
skewed the median price at the end of 2010 as sellers rushed to
complete deals amid concern that capital-gains taxes for top
earners would rise last year, according to Jonathan Miller,
president of New York-based Miller Samuel. The number of sales
in the fourth quarter, usually a slower period for Long Island’s
East End, was little changed from a year earlier at 406.
“The combination of low interest rates and buyers being
more confident about the Hamptons resulted in stable sales
activity rather than a seasonal falloff,” Miller said in an
interview.
The number of Hamptons properties listed for sale dropped
28 percent in the quarter to 1,165, even as houses lingered on
the market longer, according to Miller Samuel and Prudential.
Homes took an average of 206 days to sell, up 21 percent from a
year earlier.
The slump in prices came as homes priced below $1 million
accounted for the majority of sales, according to Gregory Heym,
chief economist for brokerage Brown Harris Stevens, which also
released a report on the Hamptons today.
‘Jumping In’
Sixty percent of deals in the fourth quarter were for less
than $1 million, compared with 53 percent a year earlier, Heym
said. The median price fell 13 percent to $842,500, while the
number of sales climbed 3 percent to 298, according to Brown
Harris.
“People are jumping in because they’re getting lower
prices at good mortgage rates,” Heym said.
The average rate for a 30-year fixed U.S. home loan dropped
below 4 percent in October for the first time in Freddie Mac
records dating to 1971. The rate was 4 percent or lower for all
but three weeks in the fourth quarter, according to the McLean
Virginia-based mortgage financier.
A third report on the Hamptons issued this week also showed
a price decline. Town Country Real Estate said the fourth-
quarter median was $787,500, a 16 percent decrease from a year
earlier. Deals climbed 9.4 percent to 290, according to the
brokerage.
Hamptons homes have recovered more than half their value
after tumbling 39 percent from the peak in the second quarter of
2007, when the median price was $1.1 million, Miller said.
The fourth quarter’s 13 percent decrease means cheaper
properties are changing hands, not that values in the beachfront
towns are slipping, he said.
“If you owned a home a year ago, chances are that home
today would be worth about the same,” Miller said.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Oshrat Carmiel in New York at
ocarmiel1@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Daniel Taub at
dtaub@bloomberg.net