Hamptons median home price soars to $2.4 million in first quarter

The median price of a Hamptons home jumped 18.3% to a record $2.4 million in the first quarter of the year, compared with the same stretch of 2025, according to a new report released Thursday.

Severe winter weather contributed to a below-average number of closings, but the sales that did happen were clustered on the high end of the market, said Jonathan Miller, an appraiser and CEO of Miller Samuel in Manhattan, who published the report.

Miller said a strong year for Wall Street helped push prices higher in the Hamptons. The average bonus on Wall Street climbed to a record $246,900 last year, with firms' profits increasing more than 30% to $65.1 billion, Newsday reported last month.

More than 1 in 5 homes sold for $5 million or more during the first quarter. The share of sales at or above that price point, at 21.2%, was a record for the South Fork.

"There was a tremendous shift in the mix toward higher-end properties in the Hamptons," he said.

Prices rose faster in the Hamptons than elsewhere on Long Island. On the North Fork, the median price rose 5.8% to $999,999, the report showed. That was shy of the record price of nearly $1.1 million in the second quarter of 2025.

On Long Island, excluding the East End, the median price rose 4.7% during the first quarter, compared with the same stretch a year ago, increasing to $738,444. OneKey MLS, the multiple listing service covering Long Island, reported a similar moderate increase in prices in its March report released earlier this week.

Despite the strong performance at the top of the market in the Hamptons, there were only 292 sales during the first quarter, down about 31% year over year. The number of deals also was down nearly 17% compared with the average number of closings that have occurred during the past decade. The data reflects sales of one- to three-family homes and condos, according to the report.

Meanwhile, the number of homes on the market at the end of March in the Hamptons, at 1,037, was down about 10% from the same time a year ago.

"The market is underperforming, and I think that's largely because of the lack of inventory," Miller said.

Paul Brennan, an associate broker at Douglas Elliman Real Estate in Bridgehampton, believes many homeowners who would like to upgrade or downsize in the Hamptons don't like the selection or the current prices.

"Much of it is because there's nowhere to go," Brennan said. "There's just not a lot of inventory to go to, and it's going to cost you more money."

Options are particularly limited for buyers searching for properties under $1 million. Those sales represented a record low 13% of all deals in the first quarter, the data showed.

Judi Desiderio, managing partner at William Raveis, said this reflects how rare it is for homes at that price point to hit the market in the region. Her brokerage published a separate report earlier this month that found Hampton Bays was the lone area with a median price below $1 million — at $977,000 — in the first quarter. The report differs from Miller's in that it reflects only single-family home sales.

"You can't buy a house in East Hampton for under $1 million and if you can find one, God bless, and roll up your sleeves, you're going to be doing some work," she said.

Several East End towns have looked to encourage more affordable housing, acknowledging that the soaring cost of housing is pricing out the region's workforce. Those efforts include new construction, zoning changes and measures that encourage accessory apartments.

"We scratch our head all the time about where the cops, firemen, [and] the nurses are going to live," Desiderio said. "Obviously, the municipalities are figuring out they need to step in."