The Wall Street Journal - 13.03.2020

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Friday, March 13, 2020 |M9

stay in, cooking for her family and

guests. “In the summer, I barely

go out unless I have to.”

Ms. Shabtai custom-built her

seven-bedroom shingle-style

home in 2012 and calls it “the

house of my dreams.” But by the

time she finished the roughly

8,500-square-foot house, both of

her adult daughters were living in

Los Angeles, and Ms. Shabtai says

she now spends much of her free

time visiting her granddaughter in

California. Planning to downsize

to a smaller home in the Hamp-

tons, she put the Water Mill house

on the market more than a year

ago for $10.5 million, and has

since reduced the price to $9.95

million. She hasn’t gotten any of-

fers she likes, although she said,

since the coronavirus outbreak,

she has received several requests

to rent the house this spring.

Ms. Shabtai isn’t the only

Hamptons devotee who wants to

downsize locally, but who is hav-

ing a hard time unloading a large

Hamptons property. Marie-Eve

and Michel Berty started summer-

ing in the Hamptons in the 1980s,

and in 2012 they completed a con-

temporary, eight-bedroom house

in Wainscott.

Mr. Berty died two years ago,

and with their two grown children

out of the house, Ms. Berty decided

to sell. “It’s ridiculous to have such

a big house for one person,” said

Ms. Berty, 62. She also plans to

stay in the Hamptons but move

into a smaller home.

She listed the house about two

years ago for $10.9 million. The

price has since been reduced to

$9.899 million.

Unfortunately for sellers, many

potential buyers are choosing

other destinations. “Many people

who would never have considered

buying anywhere besides the

Hamptons are looking at other

places,” said Manhattan real-es-

while airlines have vastly in-

creased the number of flights

there, leading to “an explosion of

awareness” of the destination

among New Yorkers.

Many wealthy New Yorkers re-

main loyal to the Hamptons. And

sales activity has picked up this

winter as potential buyers hunt

for deals, said longtime Hamptons

real-estate agent Gary DePersia.

Meanwhile, coronavirus fears have

led to an uptick in rentals.

“The Hamptons,” he said, “will

always be the Hamptons.”

But many New Yorkers are now

wondering if they will.

“I do know a couple of people

that have done the Hamptons for

years and done the commute and

decided that Westchester or the

Hudson Valley is a better option,”

said Mr. Seligman.

The trend has built on itself,

with better restaurants and shop-

ping now appearing in rural areas

outside New York, which in turn

makes them more desirable for

buyers, said Mr. Steinberg.

Better transportation options

have prompted New Yorkers to buy

second homes in even more far-

flung locations. Direct flights from

the New York area to Nantucket,

for example, are far more frequent

than they were 10 or 15 years ago.

In the Turks and Caicos Islands

in the Caribbean, about 20% of the

buyers at the Rock House resort are

from the New York City area, said

developer Mark Durliat, who noted

that many are young families.

“Turks and Caicos was an un-

tested, unknown destination in

the early 2000s,” he said. But in

the past 10 years, he said, new ho-

tels have opened in the country,

tate agent Jared Seligman, 33,

who recently bought and sold a

Greek Revival home in the Hudson

Valley hamlet of LaGrangeville.

“There’s all these areas that are

thriving more than in the past.”

In addition to the Hudson Val-

ley and the North Fork, he said,

New Yorkers are buying country

homes in Litchfield County, north-

ern Westchester County, or Green-

wich, Conn., locations that are ap-

pealing in part because they lack

the summer gridlock traffic the

Hamptons are now known for.

DOROTHY HONG FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (6)

Ms. Shabtai, bottom, calls the custom-built home ‘the

house of my dreams.’ She is selling so she can

downsize. A bedroom, below, and foyer, left.

Love Southampton?

Try Greenwich, Conn.

Both have old-money ex-

clusivity, quaint architec-

ture and impossible-to-get-

into golf clubs.

Love East Hampton?

Try Nantucket, Mass.

Easily reachable by private

jet, both East Hampton

and Nantucket have

beautiful ocean beaches,

celebrities and even his-

toric windmills.

Love Montauk?

Try Costa Rica.

Like Montauk, Costa Rica is

a surfer’s paradise, but

with beach weather all

year round.

Love Sag Harbor?

Try Greenport, N.Y.

Sag Harbor and Greenport

are both quaint former

whaling villages, but

Greenport—on the North

Fork—is half the price of

Sag Harbor.

THE NEXT HAMPTONS

$9.95 MILLION

Water Mill, N.Y.

7bed,10,000sq.ft.

$10.5 MILLION

Original list price

(Jan. 2019)

Lori Shabtai’s

home, below,

has been on

the market for

more than a

year, with one

price drop. She

says she hasn’t

yet received

any suitable

offers. A

bathroom, right

and kitchen,

left.

-10.2%

Change in

median

Hamptons sales

price between

2018 and 2019

-5.1%

Change in

median

Hamptons sales

price between

2010 and 2019

Source: Douglas Elliman

MANSION

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