In the third quarter of 2026, the Hamptons median sale price fell 6.3% to $1,875,000. That ended six straight quarters at the first-, second- or third-highest level on record. In the same quarter, listing inventory fell for the third year-over-year decline in a row. It ended the period well below the third-quarter decade average. Falling prices and falling supply rarely show up together, and when they do, one of the two numbers usually means something other than what it seems to say.
Jonathan Miller wrote the quarterly report, which is published on Housing Notes with the Hamptons Real Estate Association. He traced the decline to a change in which homes closed, and he called the South Fork "clearly not a declining market." If you are comparing hamlets this fall and treating the headline as a sign of softening, you are reading a scarcity number as a discount number.
A median reports the middle sale, whatever sold
A median sale price makes no claim about what any particular house is worth. It lines up every closing in a period and reports the one in the middle. When the mix of closings changes, the median moves even if no individual home changed in value.
That is what happened this summer. Homes between $1 million and $5 million, which Miller calls the "Hamptons middle," made up 65.5% of Q3 2026 sales. That is the third-highest share on record for that band, and it is where all of the year-over-year sales growth came from. Sales above $5 million fell to their lowest share in five quarters. Move enough closings from the top of the line to the middle and the midpoint falls, even when every house holds its value.
Miller put it plainly in The Real Deal: "That's why the overall prices dropped, not because prices are declining, but because there's less at the top and more in the middle."
Long Island Business News offers a second view of the same quarter. For single-family homes alone, it put the Q3 2026 median at $1.995 million, about 5% lower than a year earlier. The single-family average was $3.18 million, nearly 12% lower. Those figures cover a narrower set of sales than Miller's, so they don't line up exactly. Their direction still matters. An average is far more sensitive to big sales than a median is, because one $40 million closing pulls it up and the median barely moves. When the average falls more than twice as far as the median, the top tier is thinning out. That pattern doesn't show the whole market getting cheaper.
The top ran out of houses before it ran out of buyers
The high end went quiet because a run of trophy sales used up its inventory. Demand stayed. The Real Deal reported that a burst of luxury deals in late 2025 and early 2026 "decimated inventory in the market's upper echelons."
The individual sales show how much was taken off the board.
- 408 Further Lane, Amagansett sold for $115 million in July 2025, according to The Real Deal's year-end list.
- 165 Surfside Drive, Bridgehampton sold for $58 million in November 2025, and 125 Mid Ocean Drive sold for $57 million in October 2025.
- 1010 Meadow Lane, Southampton sold for $55.8 million in September 2025.
- 43 East Dune Lane, East Hampton Village closed for $72 million on March 6, 2026, after last asking $84.9 million, Behind the Hedges reported.
In the first quarter of 2026, The Real Deal counted more than $560 million in Hamptons sales at $10 million or higher. It also cautioned that some of those deals carried over from 2025. Luxury listings over the same period were down more than 35% from a year earlier. By the third quarter, the luxury segment began at $6,625,000, and that inventory was essentially flat year over year. The top tier had stopped shrinking, but it had not refilled.
Miller told The Real Deal that financial-market strength and tech wealth moving to the Northeast keep Hamptons demand strong, "but there are few at the top of the market to buy." Buyers who would have bought above $5 million either waited or bought lower, and the median records that move.
The ratio that explains how the market feels
If the median isn't the useful number this quarter, the gap between two other figures is. In Q3 2026, Hamptons listings fell to 973, down 22.5% year over year. Closings fell to 385, down 8.6%. Miller described inventory as declining "almost three times faster" than sales, which "makes the market on the ground feel very tight and like it's moving quickly."
Only 5% of Hamptons deals in the quarter involved a bidding war, and Miller added, "it's not a boom." Put the two together and you get a market with very few homes and disciplined buyers. Competition rarely drives prices above asking. Price support comes from the limited set of alternatives. A buyer who passes on a well-priced house in Water Mill probably won't find another one like it next month.
The same mechanism shows up 25 miles north. Supply on the North Fork is even tighter, with 144 listings, 42.4% below the third-quarter decade average of 250. There, demand moved upmarket. The median hit a record $1,249,500, up 19.6%, and 15% of trades involved bidding wars. Both forks are short of supply, and their medians moved in opposite directions because their mix of sales shifted in opposite directions.
What the data shows
The most recent hamlet-level breakdown we have is the Brown Harris Stevens Hamptons report for the second quarter of 2026, released in July and marked preliminary. Its single-family figures are a quarter old, so treat them as a picture of where each price band trades, not as current pricing.
Hamlet, 2Q26 single-family | Sales | Median | Sales $1M–$5M | Sales above $5M |
|---|---|---|---|---|
East Hampton, outside the Village | 79 | $2,300,000 | 67 | 8 |
Montauk | 20 | $2,192,500 | 17 | 3 |
Amagansett | 17 | $3,750,000 | 13 | 4 |
East Hampton Village | 11 | $5,550,000 | 5 | 6 |
Bridgehampton | 14 | $7,550,000 | 3 | 10 |
The middle market is concentrated in a few places. East Hampton outside the Village closed more $1 million to $5 million homes that quarter than Bridgehampton closed homes at every price combined. Sag Harbor outside the Village had 25 of its 31 sales in the band, and Sag Harbor Village had 11 of 14. Water Mill split evenly, with 11 of its 22 sales in the middle band and 11 above $5 million. Southampton Village had 11 of 20 in the middle and 8 above $5 million.
Bridgehampton shows the mix effect most clearly. Its 2Q26 median was $7,550,000 on 14 sales. A year earlier it was $2,800,000 on 21 sales. Ten of the 14 recent sales were above $5 million, and six were above $10 million. Bridgehampton homes did not nearly triple in value in a year. Its median follows whichever handful of homes happened to close. Sagaponack, with four sales and a $7.975 million median, follows an even smaller handful. In a hamlet that small, a few extra trophy closings can lift the median as sharply as their absence lowered the regional figure in Q3.
The estate sections are tight in ways the sales tables can't show. Behind the Hedges' July inventory roundup described the inventory south of the highway in East Hampton Village, Bridgehampton and Southampton Village as extremely tight, and said quality waterfront rarely comes to market. The same roundup made a point that fits this quarter's data. The shortage is less about the number of homes for sale and more about homes priced to today's market, and correctly priced listings sell quickly.
Frequently asked questions
Did Hamptons home values drop in the third quarter of 2026? The median did, but the report attributes the 6.3% Q3 2026 decline to more sales in the $1 million to $5 million band and fewer above $5 million, which says nothing about whether any given home lost value. Miller describes the market as "clearly not a declining market."
Why do the Q3 median figures differ between reports? Miller and the Hamptons Real Estate Association reported $1,875,000. Long Island Business News reported $1.995 million for single-family homes only. The two figures cover different sets of sales, so they shouldn't be compared directly.
Where can I find hamlet-level data for the third quarter? The quarterly Brown Harris Stevens Hamptons report breaks sales out by hamlet and village. The edition referenced above covers the second quarter of 2026. The Q3 figures cited in this post from Housing Notes and Long Island Business News are Hamptons-wide and North Fork totals.
If you are deciding between Bridgehampton, Water Mill and East Hampton this fall, the useful question is how much a home like the one you want has sold for recently, in that hamlet, at that price point. The quarterly median won't answer it. Matthew Melinger can walk you through comparable closings in the hamlets on your list and how this quarter's supply picture affects your offer. Schedule a private consultation.
