I’ve long considered the Hamptons a bellwether of Greenwich real estate because it’s the same Wall Street types buying second homes out there who buy primary residences here, and sales there are skyrocketing. A former colleague of mine, writing in today’s Greenwich Citizen (no link available) swears that, if you don’t buy now, you’ll regret it.
But there’s no sales activity to support that theory. From what I see, if you’re looking in the under $2 million category, there is indeed an active market, and if you hesitate, you may lose a house you like. Above that range, I don’t see the rush. I think that’s because of the difficulties of obtaining big mortgages, but I’m not sure. All I do know is that a few high-end houses are selling to buyers who don’t need financing (which may explain the Hamptons sales) and lots of lower-range houses are selling to people who can get mortgages. Everything in the middle is just sitting.
For What It's Worth 
Anything <$5MM in Hamptons is a slum
Anyone buying such a dump as a weekend house prob really can't afford discretionary shelter and lives in a dump in Manhattan as well
And most of means already own decent shelter in both Manhattan and Hamptons, thus illiquidity
Besides, didn't modern HVAC make humid Hamptons irrelevant except as an amusement/status symbol for wealthy Luddites?
Anon-
Why such repugnance? Were you a former senior MD at Lehman or something similar? A $4mm pad a mile or two off the beach in parts of the Hamptons can be very nice. Not everyone in NYC or CT makes $10mm/yr…My dump here in Greenwich would be quite pleasing to probably 99% of the US populus..but most likely a slum in your eyes..loosin up…
CF,
Are you seeing a lot of all cash purchases in the $1m-$2m range? By a lot, I mean >25%.
Seems to be many Greenwich sellers I’ve spoken with in this range want to hold out for “cash buyers” because of fears that mortgage-based offers will fail after a few weeks. So they end up with nothing for months….
Bird in the hand, I say…..
JK