As Summer Nears, the Hamptons Face a Feeding Frenzy – The New York Times

The Hamptons summer rental season, which traditionally runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day, got off to an unusually early and frantic start this spring.

As New York City and the surrounding region closed down in response to the coronavirus, many residents fled to their weekend houses in the Hamptons or signed leases for properties there so they could shelter in place outside the metropolitan area.

Brokers say the result has been a frantic competition for desirable properties, with some renters fearing they could be left out of the market for the first time in years. On the other hand, some of those fears may be tempered by owners who dont typically rent out their homes looking at the market and deciding to jump in.

Sheryl Carlin Jenks, a sales agent at Douglas Elliman, is currently trying to place a dozen customers in seasonal and summer rentals in the South Fork communities that make up the Hamptons, from Westhampton Dunes to Montauk.

People who are looking for seasonal rentals are concerned there will be less rentals for them to choose from because so many rentals started in March or April, Ms. Jenks said. There is not less inventory; there are just more people looking to rent.

While she is still getting calls for the traditional Memorial Day start, many renters wanted to move east by May 1, and numerous people have already extended their leases, she said.

The pace hasnt let up for landlords or agents, with many of these renters new to the Hamptons and quite happy once they are able to settle in.

This is definitely a health crisis, not a real estate crisis, Ms. Jenks said.

In mid-April, when the coronavirus made living in their Manhattan co-op increasingly untenable, Dan and Jessica Aronson and their two sons, ages 8 and 9, decamped to Remsenburg, a hamlet in Southampton with nary a stoplight. They rented a six-bedroom, three-bath house with a hot tub, pool and tennis court sight unseen for $11,000 a month, planning to stay through the end of May.

Late last month, concerned that New York City wouldnt open up enough to enjoy it, Mr. Aronson, 47, who is working remotely in his insurance brokerage job at Marsh & McLennan, extended the lease for another $10,000 to the end of June.

We didnt get to go on our Turks and Caicos trip in mid-March, Mr. Aronson said. A lot of that got turned into this. A week on an island turned into a vacation home for weeks and weeks. Now, with summer camps unlikely to open for their sons, the Aronsons are considering extending through July.

We are absolutely loving it out here, said Mr. Aronson, who is enjoying the novelty of getting in the car and driving to get groceries. I dont know how I will transition back to city life. Not having to go into an elevator to go outside is life-changing.

OutEast.com, a Hamptons portal, reported that nearly five times more renters contacted agents in April than in April 2019. On hamptonsrentals.com, 1,070 rentals are listed for the Memorial Day to Labor Day period, while 271 rental listings appear on mlsli.com, the multiple listing service of Long Island. At the low end, a one-bedroom cottage with a private yard in Westhampton is available for $24,200 from Memorial Day to Labor Day. At the high end, a 10,000-square-foot, nine-bedroom, fully furnished modern oceanfront house with a tennis court in Quogue is asking $1.5 million for the season.

Cody Vichinsky, co-owner of Bespoke Real Estate, reported a feeding frenzy of rental activity, with transactions up 30 percent from last year, including several million-dollar seasonal deals, some for two weeks and others stretching until the end of the year.

We are definitely in a landlords market, Mr. Vichinsky said, with rental agreements frequently exceeding the asking price and homeowners who previously didnt rent their homes jumping in.

Rather than the usual price negotiations, some renters have increased their budgets several times in order to find a rental that worked for all their needs with all the amenities they wanted, said Aimee Fitzpatrick Martin, an associate broker with Saunders & Associates.

For example, Ms. Jenks said that tenants who love the beach usually dont care as much about having a pool, but with the possibility of social distancing measures or closures continuing to affect beaches, people want pools.

Bidding wars have ensued. Susan Breitenbach, an associate broker with Corcoran, had an offer on an oceanfront home for $300,000 for March and April. Before we got the lease, we had another bid for $400,000, she said.

Dottie Herman, chief executive of Douglas Elliman, compared the current market to the one after 9/11, when there was a big surge out here.

The demand will be great and the supply will be limited, she said. We are searching for rentals. They are hard.

That is partly because some locals who usually rent their houses for a month each summer, counting the rent as income, are choosing not to this year, Ms. Herman said.

While many homeowners were pleased to earn extra income for the usually quiet months of April and May, Ms. Martin said, they were also concerned about the possibility of these renters not leaving their home. That was further complicated by the states new moratorium on evictions, which is in place until at least June 20, as well as new rental laws imposed under New Yorks 2019 Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act. Whereas Hamptons landlords are used to collecting the entire summer tally up front, now they can collect one months rent at a time. And the evictions freeze applies to short-term rentals.

Jill-Mandy Voutta and Carlo Voutta of Jersey City, N.J., were tired of being cooped up in a two-bedroom apartment, and signed a lease to rent a Hamptons house beginning May 1.

Then they learned the previous tenant wasnt going to move out on April 30 as scheduled because of the Covid situation, and because of this they cannot be evicted, said Ms. Voutta, 35, an assistant to an interior decorator. Now I started from zero again, she said, hoping an online listing for a $10,000-a-month, renovated 1930s fishermans shack on Davis Creek in Southampton Town, would pan out instead. In the end it did; the Vouttas made a deal on May 2, and moved in. The price will go up to $12,000 a month in July.

Full-season rentals had been on the wane the past few summers, said Gary DePersia, an associate broker with Corcoran, with renters opting instead for two-week stints, monthly or a la carte rental periods, say, mid-July to mid-August, planned around other summer activities. This summer, everyone has been doing full season, July to Labor Day, Mr. DePersia said.

Typically when brokering a seasonal rental, Mr. DePersia might hear from the homeowner a couple of times over the summer, and after the rental ended. This season, with their usual vacations canceled, landlords are realizing they have to stay home and compete for a place in their own local market.

If they are renting out for $400,000, they want a much cheaper place, Mr. DePersia said.

Lori Shabtai had been planning to spend the summer in Los Angeles with her daughters and granddaughter, so she asked Mr. DePersia to rent out her seven-bedroom, eight-bath, shingle-roof home surrounded by 17 acres of wildlife reserve in Water Mill from July 15 to Labor Day.

Along came Covid-19. The renters asked to move in two months early. Ms. Shabtai agreed, then realized she didnt want to fly or even be in an airport. With her children sheltered in place, she wouldnt be able to visit her granddaughter anyway.

Suddenly in need of her own Hamptons rental, Ms. Shabtai scoured online listings. For $50,000 to $70,000 for the season, she couldnt find a three-bedroom house with a heated pool, at least not in towns I want to live in, she said. Donning a mask, gloves and protective booties, she bucked the virtual route and toured around 30 houses.

It was like, Oh my god, what did I do?, she recalled. I didnt rent this house so I could be spending all the money renting an inferior house, she said. (Though she wouldnt divulge the price, last summer her own home was listed online for rent for $295,000 from July to Labor Day.)

One possible rental lacked a pool heater. Ms. Shabtai offered to put one in, but the owner demurred. Ms. Shabtai moved on, only to learn that the owner installed the heater herself, then jacked up the price by $15,000. Another home, asking $85,000, didnt match the chic online photos, filled instead with dusty furniture from their grandmothers garage.

In late April, Ms. Shabtai found an off-market gem in Southampton, a three-bedroom house decorated beautifully, with a heated pool. Its just perfect and I can bring my elliptical there, she said, declining to reveal the tab.

One of the priciest deals so far this year was for $2 million to rent Sandcastle, the 11.5-acre Bridgehampton estate owned by Joe Farrell, a builder, from the end of March to Labor Day. Besides the bowling alley, golf simulator, skateboarders halfpipe, spa and Jacuzzi on the lower level of the 17,000-square-foot house, the property includes a pool, tennis court and baseball diamond.

Mr. Farrell, who moved his family into a newly completed modern home nearby, said he has rented 10 houses this season, some new builds and others that he rents every year. Despite the financial climate, there wasnt a lot of negotiating, and early renters paid summer prices. Some haggled for gym equipment, pool tables and Ping-Pong tables, he added.

With rentals in short supply and people wanting to go places within driving distance, Ms. Herman of Elliman predicted that people will look to buy.

You will see a surge of homes selling this summer, she said.

Mr. Vichinsky concurred. At the ultra high end, rental prices are up 20 percent over last season: It is cheaper to buy and carry a home than to rent a home because the rental rates have gone so crazy.

For weekly email updates on residential real estate news, sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @nytrealestate.

Follow this link:
As Summer Nears, the Hamptons Face a Feeding Frenzy - The New York Times