North Fork mansion on Peconic Bay sells for record $11.2 million

A Cutchogue mansion sold for $11.2 million last week, setting a record for the most expensive single-family home sold on a single lot on the North Fork, in what experts say is a sign of the strength of the region's luxury market.

The 7,500-square-foot shingle-sided mansion formerly belonged to the late art dealer Barbara Gladstone, who represented artists including Robert Rauschenberg, Keith Haring and Elizabeth Murray, according to the real estate agents involved in the transaction.

The six-bedroom house sits on 1.2 acres and has 140 feet of frontage on Peconic Bay with its own private beach.

"This sale was really driven by the quality of the beach," said Bridget Elkin, a real estate agent at Compass in Southold, who listed the property with her husband, Eric Elkin. 

The deal eclipses the previous record for a single-lot North Fork home set last year, when a bayfront Mattituck home on 3.2 acres sold for $10 million, according to OneKey MLS data. Other North Fork homes that sold for more were located on multiple lots and carried potential for other types of development, Bridget Elkin said.  

While top North Fork deals still sell for a fraction of the priciest oceanfront Hamptons estates, there have been a handful of sales for eye-popping sums on the North Fork in the past year that would have been hard to fathom decades ago in the region known for its farmland and wineries. The Elkins sold another house in Cutchogue with a private beach in June for $8 million. 

For the Elkins, the record-breaking sale felt inevitable given the low supply of available homes on the North Fork and the demand from buyers. But first a well-maintained, thoughtfully designed bayfront estate needed to hit the market, Bridget Elkin said. 

"We've actually had the potential in our market to have a sale like this [for] the past three years," Bridget Elkin said. "We just haven't had a home that could justify it."

The Cutchogue sale, which closed Thursday, has not yet been recorded in Suffolk property records, which show the home last sold to an LLC tied to Gladstone in 2012 for $5.5 million.

While the deal represents the top sliver of the market, the typical home on the North Fork now sells for about $1 million, data from Douglas Elliman and appraisal firm Miller Samuel show. The median price was $1,045,000 in the third quarter this year, which was up 4.5% from a year ago.

Significant price growth in the Hamptons and a booming year for Wall Street have both contributed to rising prices on the North Fork, said Jonathan Miller, CEO of Manhattan appraisal firm Miller Samuel, which publishes market reports tracking sales on the North Fork.

For waterfront homeowners on the North Fork, the latest eight-figure deals will serve as helpful comparison points in future negotiations with buyers, he said.

"When there's an increased frequency of $10 million transactions, I think that'll end up pulling lower-price properties higher," Miller said. "[It's] partly because of the lack of supply and partly because there's evidence higher prices are supported in the current market."

The median price on the North Fork has risen 66% since the third quarter of 2019, the last comparable period before the COVID-19 pandemic supercharged demand for East End homes.

Just a decade ago, buyers could purchase waterfront property on the North Fork for around $1 million, said Kristy Naddell, an associate broker at Douglas Elliman in Cutchogue, who represented the  unidentified buyer in the record-breaking sale. But now homes selling at that price point often need substantial upgrades, she said. 

That's because luxury buyers have taken notice of the North Fork's vineyards, beaches and laid-back nature, which some prefer to the Hamptons, she said.

"Setting a new price record isn’t just a milestone for this property," Naddell said in a statement. "It’s a reflection of where the market is headed." 

By Jonathan LaMantia

jonathan.lamantia@newsday.com@jonlamantia

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.