What Wall Street Bloodbath? Price of high-end Hamptons pads soars 35%

Robust luxury sales lift average prices in summer-home central for the city's elite by over 9% according to Crain’s New York. Home prices in the Hamptons ended the first quarter up from year-earlier levels, according to two out of three market reports released Thursday.   The median sales price hit $780,000 in the first quarter, up 11.6%, while the average rose 9.1% to $1.72 million, according to a report by Prudential Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel Inc. Similarly, a Brown Harris Stevens report found that the median price rose 5% to $815,000, while the average rose 7% to $1.4 million.

“The Hamptons market has sustained itself well,” said Paul Brennan, Hamptons regional manager for Elliman. “The upper end held its own, and lower end of the market picked up considerably.”

The price increases reflect a stable, but hardly a booming market, said Jonathan Miller, CEO of Miller Samuel, adding that last year this time prices were lower than usual because fears that the Bush tax cuts would expire drove many to sell before the end of 2010, that depressed prices into early 2011….

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