Hamptons Home Prices Rise as Buyers Prefer Luxury Deals

Home prices in New York’s Hamptons, the Long Island oceanside retreat for summering Manhattanites, increased almost 12 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier as the most expensive properties attracted buyers.

The median price of homes that sold in the quarter climbed to $780,000 from $699,000 a year earlier even as total sales declined, according to a report today by New York appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and broker Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate. The median for luxury homes in the Hamptons and Long Island’s North Fork, defined as the top 10 percent of all sales, increased 3.8 percent to $4.78 million.