With the new year upon us, it’s a time to reflect and find out what we can learn from 2024. Behind The Hedges checked in with Kieran Brew of SERHANT.’s Water Mill office for his thoughts on Hamptons real estate in 2023 and what the year ahead looks like.
A leading property expert who has been selling houses in the Hamptons for 15 years, Brew says that already 2024 looks a lot different than last year. Why is that?
KB: Rentals are already way up over last year at this time. Buyers are sniffing around and some serious bidding wars have taken place where properties have been correctly priced. So as much fun as Europe may have been last summer, people still love coming to The Hamptons in the summer. What’s happening behind the curtain? 2023 was the year of the spectator. No one could figure out if it was a buyer’s market or a seller’s market and the fact is, it was neither. Too many sellers held firm thinking the trajectory of the prior two years would keep going, and too many buyers kept waiting for the sky to fall. Neither happened. The shop-worn stories of escalating interest rates and unsettled world events didn’t help.
Prices have held steady at about where they stopped going up in 2022; they haven’t shot up and they haven’t cratered. Mortgage rates have already come down from their peak in late last year, and most people expect that will continue. The slow-motion train wreck of a recession appears to have stayed on the tracks, and signs of a generally solid economy prevail.
BTH: What should we expect in 2024?
KB: I usually gauge what to expect in the coming year on Jan. 2. If the phone starts ringing on that date, chances are good we’ll see a lot of activity. Some years, the phones don’t light up until Martin Luther King Jr. day, President’s week or even later. This year on the second of January, I spoke to quite a few people. Some were buyers looking to see what they can expect, some were sellers making sure they had their prices correct. So if my personal almanac is anything to go by, I expect it to be a busy season.
This article appeared in the Jan. 19, 2024 issue of Behind The Hedges, which also is published in the Dan’s Palm Beach edition in February. Read the full digital version of the magazine online.
