The East End gives you two stories: one side is all fancy, and the other pretends to be chill while secretly checking the same listings. The end of 2025 really showed this.
In the Hamptons, prices went up so high that even locals had to whisper about it, even though fewer places were selling. The median price for condos and houses went up to $2,337,500, which is 33.6% more than the year before. The average price went up to $3,762,062, which is 25.0% more. But the number of sales went down 2.3% to 470. The report basically says it’s a bit strange: prices were the highest ever, sales went down a little, but were still better than usual for this time of year.
If you look closely, the market seems to be taking a breath. Not many new places were for sale — 1,070 listings, up just 0.6% — and there were 6.8 months’ worth of houses available, compared to 6.6 months the year before, so not a lot more to choose from. But it did take longer to close a deal: houses were on the market for 127 days, up from 102. People didn’t cut prices as much, with the discount dropping to 9.4% from 10.5% the year before. The Hamptons did what it always does when it wants to show off: it sold expensive homes. Sales over $5 million were the highest ever, and the most expensive houses (top 10% of sales) went for an average of $14,921,563 (up 34.3%), with the middle price at $11,400,000 (up 10.1%), and you had to pay at least $7,375,000 to get in on that action. It was the kind of quarter where a place like Amagansett could have houses selling for over $7 million, and nobody bats an eye.
The North Fork, though, was a different story: more sales, lower prices, and a simple reason why. Sales went up to 166, which is 18.6% more than last year, because mortgage rates went down. But prices were lower than last year: the median price was $987,000 (down 1.3%), and the average was $1,392,931 (down 6.3%). There were more houses for sale, 109 listings, up 29.8%, which helped sales but also meant houses sat on the market longer, 111 days, up from 90, and people cut prices more, with the discount going up to 10.4% from 8.0%. The North Fork had something to brag about too: sales over $2 million were the highest ever. The luxury market was mixed — the median price for luxury homes was $3,250,000 (up 8.3%), but the average was $3,877,659 (down 11.2%) — because a few really expensive sales can change the average a lot. And the different towns are all over the place; Cutchogue and Greenport might as well be in different worlds.
Overall, the East End is still split: the Hamptons had 73.9% of the sales and 89.7% of the money. This is all from The Elliman Report, by Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel Real Estate Appraisers & Consultants. The main idea is that things are calmer after a wild time: the Hamptons can still have high prices even if things are slower, while the North Fork is busier and prices are easier to haggle over.
