Playing Hamptons geography: the areas, the status, and what it all means.
Real Estate: the physical and social geography
If you can spend a million dollars for a house in the Hamptons, you’re a player, but—not to be cruel—it is still the minor league. In the majors they say, “A million here, a million there, pretty soon you’re talking about real money.”
If you’re open to location and ready to shop, here is what you can do with a million. If ten thousand dollars this way or that way does count, there are still places to put it. And if the extra two or three zeros are play money, you can have a lot of fun in Hamptons real estate.
Some basic rules: Major oceanfront or pondfront properties in Southampton and East Hampton Estate Areas can go into the tens of millions. Entry level anyplace in the Estate Areas will be about two million, and it’s probably not going to be your dream house. In fact, it may be your nightmare. The common solution: tear it down and rebuild. And, yes, add another million or two for construction. If you want to live near Martha Stewart or Calvin Klein or Roy Scheider, be prepared to shell out the big bucks.
And be prepared for erratic behavior. A three million dollar deal in East Hampton fell apart over a birdbath in the garden. The broker offered to compensate the owner—until she pointed out that it cost $24,000. When the buyer found out it actually was an antique and had a provenance, he bought it, adding the price on to the house. Even more erratic: a newly divorced couple deliberately bidding against one another on a property.
In any of the non-estate Village areas between Southampton and Amagansett, you’ll start in the mid-three hundred thousands for a modest house on a modest street. Half a million might get you some charm and a nice garden within walking distance to the train station, but friends outside the Hamptons will never understand why you spent the money. Your neighbor might be a local family or a young fashion editor from New York. It’s a toss-up. To raise the value once you buy it, do something with the house. Friends of Kelly Klein tend to have her look on a more modest scale, friends of Martha small versions of her house, and so on through the lifestyle celebrity list.
In Bridgehampton and Water Mill, South of the Highway prices will be right up there with the Estate Areas. Even on the ridges with long-distance views North of the Highway prices will not be far behind that. Peter Jennings, and Ken Auletta and Amanda Urban, went north for the views and privacy. Ed Gordon gave it cachet when he moved there and installed a golf course on his property.
In Wainscott, you can get a modest contemporary in a wooded area South of the Highway for less than half a million, but as you go farther south toward the farms and ocean (and the Lauders) prices head north into the multi-millions. In Sagaponack, conventional houses in 1970’s subdivisions will set you back more than a million, while older houses with mature trees and the patina of age will be at least twice that. People sitting under old trees there include Kurt Vonnegut and Jill Kremetz, Andre Gregory, and Jean Kennedy Smith.
You’ll generally get a lot more house for the money North of the Highway outside the Villages, but your identification will be more generalized, more township than Village.
(And your beach-parking permit will be labeled non-resident.) Be prepared to hear questions like “In the woods, really?” Prices will range far and wide. You might find a cottage in Springs or Noyac for less than two hundred thousand. Or you might spend a couple of million and be near Donna Karan or Puffy Combs right on the bay.
Historic houses get a premium price. If you can find an old homestead with outbuildings and some land—like Alec Baldwin’s Amagansett farmhouse—you’ve struck gold. Best collection of eighteenth century Village houses is in Sag Harbor, and major ones sell for a million plus, sometimes several pluses. Tara and Ted Conklin, John Scanlon and Marvin Hamlisch all have important historic homes here.
If you can’t impress friends with location, or even if you can, try putting in a couple of holes of golf and a basketball court on your property. They are a notch above pools and tennis in the current pecking order.
Traditional Village cottage, small house (just two bedrooms and one bath) on a small lot, but very big on charm in the house and in the garden $320,000.
Far from the social swing but close to nature. Restored 1774 Springs farmhouse near Accabonac Harbor. Seven bedrooms, outbuildings, pool and flower gardens. $895,000.
English country in a Sagaponack potato field. Only a few years old but lots of period details. Designed by Francis Fleetwood, the spacious house has views across the fields to the ocean. $3,300,000.
Further Lane, 288 feet of oceanfront. Eleven acres of lawn, field and double dunes, with seven bedroom contemporary and all the amenities including pool, tennis, 1 hole golf and putting green. $17,000,000.
Dragon’s Head. Rumor has it that the Sultan of Brunei has bid $25,000,000 for the notorious mansion, now owned by Francesco Galesi (he paid $2,300,000 in 1992). It makes sense: who but a Sultan could measure up to the flamboyant architecture and colorful, headline-making history of the house?
The consummate East Hampton estate. Located in a private oceanfront compound, this eleven and a half acre property has direct beach access. Traditional shingle-style, eight thousand square foot house sited on a vast green lawn; includes two additional building lots and reserve. $9,000,000.
