Real LI

Could the Hamptons be losing the shine in home prices?

Median closing prices for Hamptons and North Fork homes dropped a combined 9.2 percent in the second quarter compared to a year ago, even though spring is considered the strongest season for sales, according to a report commissioned by Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate. That means the median closing price is $817,500, compared to $900,000 the same time last year.

The decline was largely due to the Hamptons’ 11.8 percent drop from a year ago, because the North Fork saw closing prices go up by 13.1 percent in the same period, data showed.

“You have a contraction in credit, which diminishes affordability, and you have concerns over the financial services sector in the city, with Wall Street layoffs and bonus cuts,” said chief executive Jonathan Miller of Miller Samuel, the Manhattan-based appraisal company that did the report. “Those have an impact on the bulk of the East End market.”

In those regions, figures show second-quarter prices going up by 3.5 percent from the previous quarter, not unusual with more buyers getting out when the weather warms.

The North Fork has been attracting more year-round residents with relatively cheaper prices than the Hamptons. In the second quarter, it had a $605,000 median closing price, versus the Hamptons’ median closing price of $970,000, the report said. That was a 17.8 percent increase from the previous quarter for the North Fork, versus the Hamptons’ 9.9 percent hike, data showed. North Fork homes sold faster and at smaller discounts than Hamptons homes, according to the figures.

Miller said North Fork price hikes may be a blip, because other indicators of real estate health were either flat or showed bigger discounts in prices as houses stayed longer on the market compared to a year ago. For example, it took an average of 133 days to sell a North Fork home during the second quarter, compared to 103 days a year ago.

Paul Brennan, Prudential’s regional director of the Hamptons, said the rich aren’t dropping $20 million easily any more.

“There’s plenty of people looking,” he said. “There’s plenty of activity, but there’s not seriousness about buying. It’s eerie — people out here with lots of money but they’re not spending it.”