Hamptons Home Contracts Fall But North Fork Listings Rise

Twenty-eight months in a row.

The Hamptons’ streak of year-over-year declines in contract signings for home purchases grew longer in October, according to Miller Samuel’s monthly report for Douglas Elliman.

Contract signings on the North Fork have also declined since Labor Day, as listings in Long Island’s weekend-home markets remain low.

“There just isn’t product to sell,” report author Jonathan Miller said. “The market is still stuck, and that’s challenging transaction volume on top of interest rates reducing affordability.”

In the Hamptons, new signed contracts dropped from 84 to 52, a 38 percent year-over-year decline. New signed contracts in the North Fork were steady, dipping from 26 to 25.

“There’s really no break in the trend here, unlike some of our other markets,” Miller said.

Given the lack of inventory, buyers on the East End are quick to scoop up fairly priced homes when they hit the market, said Todd Bourgard, the head of Elliman’s brokerage activity in the Hamptons and North Fork.

“Patient buyers are waiting in the wings,” Bourgard said. “When a buyer sees something they like, they’re jumping on it.”

In the Hamptons, new signed contracts dropped 28 percent from September to October, while new listings fell by 5 percent in the same period.

The North Fork saw similar declines in new signed contracts, which fell 11 percent month-over-month.

But for the first time in three months, the North Fork saw a significant expansion in new listings, up 24 percent from the previous period.

“We’re seeing [inventory] begin to loosen up a bit,” Bourgard said.

Miller added that while other locations are seeing the high end of the market outperform the rest of it, that’s not the case in the Hamptons or the North Fork.

“It just shows you the lack of supply across the board, and it has continued,” the appraiser said.

While new listings declined slightly year-over-year in the Hamptons — from 128 to 125 — the number of homes hitting the market in the North Fork almost doubled, from 25 last October to 46 last month.