$32,000/season
WESTHAMPTON 3-BR: 2½ baths, central air. Home is across from ocean. Agent: Jude Lyons, Fourth Neck Realty, 917-921-0597 (
)
$225,000/season
EAST HAMPTON 6-BR: 6½ baths, heated pool, staff apartment. Agent: Joe Ruzzo, Saunders, 631-458-4908 (
)
$95,000/season
SOUTHAMPTON 5-BR: pool, hot tub. Agent: Maria Pascal, Heddings, 917-881-2184 (
)
$175,000/season
SOUTHAMPTON 5-BR: pool, fireplace, outdoor shower Agent: John Vitello, Brown Harris Stevens, 631-204-2407 (
)
(
)
Traditionally, President’s Day weekend serves as the starting gun for the moneyed set to elbow their way out to the Hamptons and hunt down a seaside summer rental.
While the race was more of a saunter the last couple summers — thanks to the economic downturn — renters are suddenly again hopping to. Many have even gotten a head start.
“This season is going to be strong; I started looking for people in September,” says Maria Pascal, associate broker at Heddings Property Group. “I even had a few rental deals done in September.”
“We experienced unusual rent demand toward the end of the fourth quarter [of 2010],” says Andrew Saunders, president of Hamptons brokerage firm Saunders & Associates. “We’re up 20 percent over last year in the same period.”
“There is ridiculous early interest this year,” echoes Andrea Ackerman, a senior director with Brown Harris Stevens. “It is so busy that there are bidding wars, and people and landlords are getting [more than] their asking prices.”
Last week, a broker in Ackerman’s office had a lease out for a summer house. But to the broker’s chagrin, the landlord received a higher offer elsewhere and took it.
“And these are substantial rentals,” Ackerman says. “Meaning $100,000-plus” for the season, which runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
“Last year and the year before, because of the economy, we saw more shorter-term rentals — a month or a portion of a month,” says Rick Hoffman, regional senior vice president at the Corcoran Group. “Now we’re seeing two months or more. There’s a return to that market because the economy is doing better.”
Which results in a willingness to actually spend disposable income.
“There are two things that influence our market: that’s weather and Wall Street bonuses,” Hoffman says. “The high end is doing well, and that’s based on good bonus news.”
A rise in activity in the Hamptons sales market, thanks in large part to those big Wall Street bonuses, has also tightened the rental market.
“We’re very strong out here with sales, so a lot of [rental] inventory isn’t available this year,” says broker Jude Lyons of Fourth Neck Realty. “When they can’t sell, they tend to rent.”
The house Pascal rented in September went to someone who was scrambling to find something after their long-time summer rental was purchased.
“They’d been out there before, for four or five years. The house they were renting was sold, so they had to find a new place,” Pascal says. “They were sad they had to leave their old place.”
Sad, and suddenly very motivated.
If anything, all the recent bad weather might have spurred those cooped up in their city apartments to fantasize more than usual about their summer plans.
There is some good news for those who are planning to rent this summer. Despite the increased demand, asking prices have mostly remained stagnant since the last summer season.
“Most haven’t raised prices from last year,” Ackerman says.
As for what housing stock is available for the season: “You can get a home, very nice, with four bedrooms, north of the highway in Bridgehampton, for $50,000 to $60,000,” Saunders says.
“You can get a home, a little bigger, south of the highway and newer, 6,000 square feet, six bedrooms, a little splashier, for $125,000 to $150,000,” he continues. “South of the highway, homes that are newer or in updated condition, if they’re close to the beach, can be $250,000 to $450,000. And then there are homes on the ocean, rarefied and special, that can rent from $750,000 to $1 million.
“But the sweet spot in the rental market is $50,000 to $70,000 in the Hamptons,” Saunders adds. “The most deals happen in the $70,000 range.”