Today's Prudential Douglas Elliman Hamptons market report proffers up a bunch of new real estate numbers from the first quarter of 2010 to chew over—numbers that at first blush make the market almost seem superheated. Median sales prices up 34.6% to $908,500, versus last year's first quarter! Median sales prices for the top 10% of the market up nearly the same, 34.2%, to $5,484,934. And the report clocks 486 sales in the quarter, versus a paltry 201 in the dark days of early 2009. Not bad at all.
But of those sales, it's worth noting that 28 were above $5.5 million, a fact which helped inflate the overall numbers to some degree. Explains Miller-Samuel's Jonathan Miller, the report's creator, to Crain's, "You had a lot more high-end properties in the mix and that skewed the indicators." But: "I'd still characterize the housing prices in general as stable." And: "The market is better than it was last year in a big way, but whether it is sustainable remains to be seen." Takeaway: the high-end is definitely back, but whether the middle at bottom of the market can match that momentum remains to be seen. (Mr. Miller will drop by Curbed shortly to share more thoughts. Get excited, folks.)
· Q1 Hamptons and North Fork Market Report [PDE]
· Hamptons Home Sales
· A Home Run in the Hamptons [NYPost]
· Hamptons Home Prices Surge as Buyers Return to Luxury [Bloomberg]