Chic is one way to describe Sagaponack, where rocker Billy Joel and author-wife Katie Lee recently bought two new homes next to each other. In 2006, the community topped Forbes.com's annual list of the most expensive ZIP codes in the country. (The median price in 2005 was nearly $2.8 million.)

This community, which incorporated as a village in September 2005, is largely residential. One might consider the Sagaponack General Store and attached post office on Sagg Main Road as the village center.

"If you blink, you'll miss it," says Noel Love of Brown Harris Stevens in Southampton, noting the vintage one-room school house, still in use, is down the road.

The area has some working farms and horse farms, says Janet Hummel, broker and managing partner of Town & Country Real Estate in Bridgehampton, adding Sagaponack is popular in the riding community. She says the hot architectural look is cottage style. The price breakdown, says Robert Bulanda of Prudential Douglas Elliman in Sag Harbor, is from $600,000 to $2.5 million to enter; midrange to $10 million; then, the sky's the limit.

New construction: There's plenty, as speculation business still thrives, though sales may take a bit longer, Love says.

Rentals: From $10,000 to $1 million for the season (to Labor Day). A two-week rental on South Main Street fetched $250,000, while a one-week rental on the ocean after the summer season went for $65,000.

Shopping: If the Sagapon-ack General Store doesn't have it, the next closest stop is Bridgehampton, 2 miles away.