By:  Benyamin Davidsons

Procrastinators may find themselves in luck with availability in the Hamptons for the summer.

As reported by Crain’s NY, the Hamptons frenzy seems to have cooled off and prices have fallen below the pandemic highs.  The average nightly rental rate for a Hamptons home is currently $970, down from $1,080 in 2022, as per data from vacation rental site StayMarquis.  Apparently, people are back to traveling to Europe and other destinations which were out of reach during the pandemic, leading to an excess of availability in Eastern Long Island.  “More properties are available to rent, there are better deals and landlords are more open to shorter stays.” said Jordan Flerx, a vice president at StayMarquis. “You can take advantage of properties that you would not have been able to shoot for in the past.”

The Hampton’s real estate market boomed during the pandemic, when Wall Street moguls and well-heeled executives opted to move full time to the Hamptons, while working remotely.  Availability for rental or purchase homes became difficult to find, with bidding wars and record high prices ensuing.  Now, however, the real estate market there has started to slow, with people traveling internationally again, and booking shorter stays in the Hamptons.   Homeowner there seem eager to negotiate on price and length of stay, with better deals available on last-minute summer rentals, which officially began on Memorial day.  “The glut of rental inventory still available has caused the scales of supply and demand to be tipped in favor of tenants,” according to Judi Desiderio, the CEO of Town & Country Real Estate.

In early April, it was first reported that home prices were dropping in the Hamptons.  The median home sale price in the Hamptons fell to $1.66 million in the first quarter of 2023 – a 7.6 percent decline compared to the previous year, when the median home sale price was $1.8 million, as per data released by Town & Country Real Estate in early April.  “The retreat began with interest rate hikes at an unprecedented pace, due to the highest inflation in four decades, not to mention a stock market that gave even a seasoned investor whiplash, while geopolitical tensions escalate and a ground war ensued, the likes of which we’ve not seen in decades,” Desiderio had said in a quarterly report.

The report indicated that the slowdown was not exclusive to the Hamptons, but rather that even the Hamptons was not exempt from the broad downturn.  “With all those negative influences, it comes as no surprise for buyers to take a pause,” Desiderio added.  All 12 Hamptons-area real estate markets tracked by Town & Country showed drops in the total number of home sales. The overall number of home sales fell 44 percent for the first quarter year-over-year.  The number of homes sold between $10 million and $19.99 million fell by 61 percent, per the report. For the most expensive category of homes tracked, which is $20 million and above, the number of homes sold fell by 55 percent.