EAST HAMPTON, NY- Brace yourself! I’ve been warning that the Fourth Quarter Home Sales Report was going to be bad...well it certainly was. In my three decades of reporting on the Hamptons Real Estate statistics, this is the first time we’ve experienced such declines without the catalyst of a financial crisis such as the ‘87 crash or when Bear & Lehman fell. In fact, we’ve never seen our markets decline while the Dow soars! Let’s dig deeper into the numbers and define these figures.
Ten of the 12 markets monitored by TOWN & COUNTRY declined. The worst drop was in Sag Harbor Village — down 71%! Keep in mind this is a small surface area with very few trades, so the statistical drop of 71% was a result of six sales compared to 21 in the Fourth Quarter of 2019 vs. 2018. Conversely Sag Harbor Village Median Home Sales Price rose nearly 51% to $2.26 million from $1.5 million year over year. Fewer sales at higher prices.
Shelter Island was the only market to experience an increase in the Number of Home Sales - a whopping +63% logging 13 trades in the Fourth Quarter 2019 vs. eight same quarter 2018. This increase pushed the Total Home Sales Volume for Shelter Island up 53% to $15.3 million.
Bridgehampton (which includes Water Mill and Sagaponack) saw very little changes year over year. The same Number of Home Sales with a slight up-tick in Total Home Sales Volume (+6.2%) and a -3.36% in Median Home Sales Price. While these seem lackluster, Bridgehampton (which includes Water Mill and Sagaponack) tallied the greatest Total Home Sales Volume of $163,831,473!
Southampton Area (which includes North Sea) docked the greatest increase in Median Home Sales Price Fourth Quarter 2019, more than double that of 2018, to $1.76 million.
Southampton Village had the second largest increase in Total Home Sales Volume (+40%) in 2019, to $124,288,000, while the Number of Home Sales and Median Home Sales Price changed very little year over year. Two of the three home sales over $20 million for the Fourth Quarter 2019 were in Southampton Village — 950 Meadow Lane for $29.875 million and 412 First Neck Lane for $22 million.
East Hampton Village remains one of our crown jewels with a Median Home Sales Price of $4.625 million for the Fourth Quarter 2019 - a slight up-tick from 2018’s $4,569,240. But the Number of Home Sales were half that of the year before and the Total Home Sales Volume sank 42%.
Montauk traded 56% fewer homes. While the Total Home Sales Volume declined 26%, the Median Home Sales Price shot up nearly 36% to $1,562,500. This could be more of an inventory problem than an interest issue.
Looking at all Hamptons Markets combined and the view of the last three months of 2019 shows a considerable pull back in-home sales (-44%), yet the Median Home Sales Price increased 23.26%. The ultra-high end ($20 million plus) shot up 200% year over year.
In my professional opinion this was the bottom for this market cycle! Keep in mind these figures reflect deals that were negotiated and put in contract three months or more before the close and recording.
All eight TOWN & COUNTRY offices experienced the busiest December and January we have seen in over a decade. This tells me we are now bouncing off that bottom. Obviously, time to jump in and secure your piece of East End dirt!
To view all reports visit http://www.townandcountryhamptons.com/market-reports