The heat wave in the Hamptons is over when it comes to summer rentals, real estate brokers told On The Money.
The number of available rentals in the posh Long Island enclave out East is growing, even as demand for season-long rentals has fallen – and the market is taking a hit, Susan Breitenbach, a broker at Corcoran Group, told On The Money.
“Over the last few years, the market has been insane — people would offer $100,000 over asking price for a summer rental,” Breitenbach said. “Now, half my days are people calling me asking they should reduce the price of their home to rent.”
Breitenbach suggests now that WHO and the CDC have proclaimed the COVID-19 pandemic is over, the summer months will be all about the Old World, not the East End. That’s true of homeowners and renters alike, she adds.
“People have been in the Hamptons for three or four years and now they’re traveling again this year,” Breitenbach said. “This year everyone I know including myself is going to Europe.”
At the same time, people snapped up homes during the pandemic so there are more properties available. As people have migrated back to the city due to revived in-office attendance requirements, carrying two properties has been too much to handle for many pandemic era buys – and they want to offset the cost somehow.
While many rentals have dipped to pre-pandemic levels, others have been slashed as much as 50%, Breitenbach adds.
Some renters aren’t willing or able to shell out the kind of money they did during the pandemic — when much of the city was locked down and going East was an escape route. This year, Wall Street bonuses fell 26% while tech and finance layoffs have many tightening their belts.
Real estate agents rent summer properties for just tens of thousands to millions of dollars. $30,000 can get you a one bedroom cottage in Westhampton, $250,000 can get you a 6 bedroom with a pool in Southampton, and $2 million will get you a 6 bedroom on the ocean in Amagansett.
Of course, some brokers note this is just an inevitable correction from absurd pandemic prices.
“The pandemic was once in a lifetime pricing we’d never seen before,” David Mazujian, licensed real estate salesperson said. “But rentals are alive and active, landlords are realistic, and deals are getting done.”
Some locals are optimistic it could mean the crowds are slightly winnowed down this year.
“Last summer I was stuck in traffic for 20 minutes just driving down Main Street,” one local said. “Maybe this year I’ll finally be able to get a restaurant reservation on a Saturday night.”
This story originally appeared on NYPost
