Hamptons slips in ranking of priciest U.S. ZIP codes
Six ZIP codes in the Hamptons appeared on PropertyShark's list of the 10 priciest ZIP codes in New York. Credit: PropertyShark/Mihály Maksai
Nine areas on Long Island have been among the 100 most expensive places to buy a home in the United States this year, but several areas of the Hamptons ranked lower than they had in the past, according to ZIP code-based data released this week by PropertyShark, which offers homebuyers and real estate agents access to property records.
Sagaponack, the village in the Town of Southampton, had the highest prices on Long Island, ranking No. 3 nationwide with a median sale price of $5 million this year through Oct. 22. It slipped from second place,, where it had been for three straight years, even as the median home price in the village increased by nearly one-third in the past year.
The most expensive locales to buy a home were Atherton, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area, with a median sale price of nearly $7.5 million and Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood, where prices reached $5.5 million.
Six other ZIP codes on the South Fork made the list: No. 13 Water Mill with a median price of nearly $3.75 million; No. 31 Bridgehampton at about $2.96 million; No. 34 Wainscott at $2.75 million; No. 37 Amagansett at nearly $2.65 million; No. 38 Quogue at about $2.59 million; and No. 69 Sag Harbor at $1.9 million.
In Nassau, Old Westbury, ranked No. 62, with a median price of $1.95 million, and Manhasset, was No. 96 with a median price of nearly $1.65 million. Mill Neck, on the Island’s North Shore, fell off the list after appearing in 2020.
Despite areas, such as Bridgehampton and Wainscott sliding down the list, from No. 7 and No. 17 respectively in 2020, the Hamptons market has continued to see prices appreciate. The median home price across the Hamptons was $1.3 million in the third quarter, which was 8.3% higher than in the same period a year earlier, according to data from brokerage Douglas Elliman and appraisal firm Miller Samuel. That price is more than 50% higher than the median in the same period two years ago.
There was an initial rush to buy move-in-ready homes when the pandemic first hit, said Joseph De Sane, a real estate broker and managing director of Bespoke Real Estate in Water Mill, which specializes in listings of $10 million or more. When the supply of those homes was depleted, buyers sought out properties that needed renovations or vacant land for home building. The pace of sales has largely prevented the supply of homes from returning to normal levels, De Sane said.
"I thought that by now we would start to see a retreat, and that has not been the case, largely due to having so much pent-up demand for properties," he said.
Bespoke was the listing agency for the $105 million sale in October of a 12-bedroom, 20,000-square-foot house on 42 acres in Water Mill that had been built by the grandson of Henry Ford. The final asking price for the property had been $145 million.
Expensive homes tend to take more time to sell, but the average time on the market fell more than 40% to 96 days in the third quarter, according to the report from Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel.
Jonathan LaMantia covers residential real estate and other business news on Long Island. He previously covered the business of health care for Crain's New York Business.
