Real Estate Market’s Long, Cold Winter
(04/15/2009) The initial wave of first-quarter market reports from companies that operate on the East End indicate a harsh winter for the real estate business, which isn’t surprising, considering the overall economic climate and slumps in the national housing market.
Both Judi Desiderio of Town and Country Real Estate and George Simpson of Suffolk Research Services have published reports on sales activity in the first quarter of 2009.
Mr. Simpson’s report considers data he collected from East Hampton, Southampton, Riverhead, Southold, and Shelter Island, as well as aggregate totals for all five towns. He said that total dollar sales for the first quarter in the five towns dropped 62 percent since the same period last year, from $785 million to $298 million.
The number of houses sold also decreased significantly, from 506 to 256. The median price dropped from $665,000 in 2008 to $576,800 in the first quarter of this year.
In the first quarter of 2007, he said, there were $982 million in sales and 709 single-family homes sold. The median price was $690,000.
In the Town of East Hampton, the number of single-family units sold in the first quarter dropped from 160 in 2007 to 100 in 2008, and to 55 this year. The median price fell from $975,000 to $825,000.
Ms. Desiderio’s “Hamptons Market Report” examines data from hamlets and villages from Montauk to Westhampton Beach plus Shelter Island. In all of those markets combined, she saw total sales volume drop 79 percent, from $659 million in the first quarter of 2008 to $140 million in 2009.
The Villages of Southampton and East Hampton took the hardest hits, with sales volume dropping more than 95 percent in both areas. The price ranges that have been affected the most, she said, are on the high end, at $3.5 million and above.
Median prices also slacked off considerably, although the percentages did not plummet as much as the number of house sales or the total dollar amounts did. Once again, the villages showed the biggest drops. In East Hampton Village, where only three sales happened during the first quarter, all between $1 million and $1.99 million, the median price dropped 64 percent since the first quarter last year. In Southampton Village, the median price dropped by more than 70 percent.
Ms. Desiderio said in her release that “there hasn’t been a better time to buy a home since the beginning of my real estate career 27 years ago.” She also noted that median prices went up in Amagansett, Bridgehampton, Shelter Island, and Montauk.
According to Mr. Simpson, house prices have shown growth since 2003, considering data from all five East End towns. Six years ago, the first-quarter median price was $436,500. At $576,800 at the end of the first quarter this year, the median price was 32 percent higher.