The number of Hamptons homes that sold during the first three months in 2019 fell nearly 20 percent when compared to the same time in 2018, the lowest mark in seven years and a sign of a general downturn in the market, according to first quarter data released by Douglas Elliman. The number of home sales has been steadily declining since the end of 2017, while inventory has risen sharply during the past two quarters. The past few months saw inventory spike 87.8 percent, to 2,407, compared with the same time a year ago. The median sales price dropped 5.5 percent year-over-year, to $850,000, but nearly 15 percent from the $995,00 it hit during the fourth quarter of 2018. The average sales price dipped a little more than 3 percent, to almost $1.63 million, from the same time in 2018. There are, however, some bright spots.
“The Hamptons market is skewing to the low end, with high sales activity [below $1 million] and the lowest number of sales at or above $10 million in six years,” said a statement from Elliman’s Hamptons vice president Carl Benincasa. “With a sharp rise in listing inventory, buyers are going to have more options as we head into the spring and summer… we may see some pent-up demand start to affect sales in the coming quarters.” Hamptons homes are also moving quicker, spending about 10 percent fewer days on the market than they would have at the beginning of 2018 and nearly 30 percent fewer days than they did at the end of 2019. In the luxury market, where the Hamptons have had some of the priciest home sales in the country, the median sales price rose 18.2 percent year-over-year, to $6.56 million, a metric that was still 16.4 percent lower than the end of 2018. Luxury inventory also swelled to 869, a 77.7 percent increase from the fourth quarter of 2018 and a whopping 191.6 percent rise from the first quarter of last year. [Douglas Elliman]