The narrow slice of our elite rulers gets even thinner
/Hamptons ‘middle class’ homes priced below $5M slammed in selling frenzy
The so-called “middle class” in the Hamptons – New Yorkers with second homes in the in the $2 million to $5 million range – are frantically slashing prices to offload their properties, real estate sources said.
While choice Hamptons real estate is always highly desirable, agents say prices for homes on the lower end of the spectrum are dropping from pandemic highs when buyers were paying double or triple to snag homes.
“We’re not talking about the ultra-wealthy here – these people are subject to economic norms,” one source said of the non-stratospherically rich. “When it comes to having a vacation home, it’s just not as easy to justify the cost.”
At issue: interest rates – which were close to 3% in 2020 have popped to nearly 8% today. For buyers with 3 or 5 year fixed interest rates, they’ll soon be paying significantly more for the property than they were previously.
Now those prices are dropping. Multiple homes reviewed by On The Money in posh neighborhoods like Sag Harbor and Amagansett have been cut by as much as 20% — shaving hundreds of thousands of dollars off asking prices — in recent months.