Only in America: real estate is still breaking records in Manhattan and the Hamptons

Summer, in New York, is defined with conscientious specificity: it runs from Memorial Day, the last weekend in May, to Labor Day, the first weekend in September.

Summer, in New York, is defined with conscientious specificity: it runs from Memorial Day, the last weekend in May, to Labor Day, the first weekend in September. Sixteen weekends, many or all of which, for the monied set, will be spent in the Hamptons, that exclusive enclave of beaches and eight-bedroom ‘cottages’ 100 miles east of Manhattan.

Come Memorial Day this year, however, a surprisingly large number of desirable homes stood uninhabited and on the market – including a five-bedroom waterfront home for $350,000, and an 11,000 square-foot mansion in East Hampton for $500,000. Locals were unsure what to make of all this excess inventory: after all, radio shock-jock Howard Stern paid a full million last year for his 6,000 sq ft summer home in Southampton.

Yes, those are the rental prices, just for the summer (although rumour has it that Stern’s $1 million got him the rest of the year as well). In the Hamptons, it’s far from unheard-of for Wall Street types to pay more than $30,000 per weekend for a house with water views – plus $2,000 minimum for a table in East Hampton’s hottest nightclubs. It seems real estate in the Hamptons is mirroring the housing market in Manhattan: the pace of deals might be slowing, but there’s not much sign of prices falling. On the contrary, they continue to rise. Back in 2005, Rupert Murdoch closed on the most expensive apartment ever to sell in New York: $44 million for Laurance Rockefeller’s Fifth Avenue penthouse triplex, with 20 rooms plus 4,000 sq ft of terraces.

How things have changed: three years later, venture capitalist Lindsay Rosenwald has put his duplex on the market: it totals just 5,900 sq ft, with a mere 1,100 sq ft of terrace. What’s more, it’s on the déclassé western side of the park in a post-war (read less desirable) building. The asking price? $90 million, or more than $15,000 per sq ft.

More articles from: Felix Salmon | this section

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