Home sales in the Hamptons surged 59 percent in the fourth quarter as two years of declining prices lured buyers.

Transactions climbed to 409 from 257 a year earlier, the biggest increase in seven years of recordkeeping, New York-based appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and broker Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate said in a report today. Competition for properties pushed the median price up 4.9 percent to $917,900, the first year-over-year gain since the beginning of 2008.“This is all very good news, better than expected, but I still think we’re not through this yet,” Miller Samuel President Jonathan Miller said in an interview. “The surge in activity to more normal levels, a large portion of that is a release of pent-up demand.”The median Hamptons home price dropped 31 percent since 2007 as financial firms recorded $1.74 trillion in global losses and asset writedowns tied to sour U.S. home loans. Wall Street executives drive Hampton’s property sales.
By Oshrat Carmiel and Prashant Gopal

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Another article : Hamptons Housing Market: 'Eh'
Are buyers flocking back to the Hamptons? Is there hope for the real estate market? The signs (like much else in the economy) are ambiguous.  A new Miller Samuel and Prudential Douglas Elliman report shows the number of home sales dramatically increased over 59 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009 from the same period in 2008, but the average sales price is still down (by 12.3 percent annually). It seems house hunters in the Hamptons market are taking advantage of reduced prices and low mortgage rates, snapping up cheap properties (or cheaper properties; it is the Hamptons after all!).
By Shan Li, January 27, 2010 NY Observer 

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