For an increasing number of high-net-worth couples and families, Hamptons time doesn’t end when the calendar turns to September. Rather, they’re making their permanent homes in the summer-vacation locale popular with New Yorkers, drawn by natural beauty, a quiet, slower-paced environment and the proximity to high quality public schools.
While population increases are difficult to quantify, as census numbers refer to summer numbers, anecdotal evidence suggests that investing in a year-round home in the Hamptons is increasing in popularity.
The change, brokers say, is largely fueled by technology allowing more people to work remotely, leaving them untethered to city environments. "It has to do with the ability to do business wherever you are," said Alexander Miller, a real estate broker with Corcoran. "Being able to locate the businesses now in a decentralized fashion, in a community that affords you the ability to be at the ocean and have more of a suburban or country lifestyle than working out of Manhattan."
Mr. Miller recently worked with a family who relocated their communications business from upstate New York to East Hampton, where they purchased a $3 million home, believing the area would be a better place to raise their teenage son. With faster transportation, those in the Hamptons during the off-season maintain the ability to get into Manhattan quickly when the need strikes, leaving them much less isolated.
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"A lot more people have planes and helicopters or can charter them now because that service is now much more readily available, so if they have to go back into the city for a meeting it’s not a big deal," said Dana Trotter of Sotheby’s Realty.
Blade, a company providing helicopter rides from Manhattan to the Hamptons, is offering service to Southampton and East Hampton throughout the winter for the first time this year. (While the company said they can’t release flight statistics, they’ve seen marked growth in offseason flight volume over their four years in business.) Seats on a scheduled flight run between $495 and $1,250, while the price to charter an entire aircraft begins at around $4,000.
During the winter, of course, that notorious Hamptons traffic is less of an issue, and a car or Hampton Jitney ride door-to-door can clock in at two hours. Trains take about the same.
The extremely high price of real estate in the area (Realtor.com has the average current listing in East Hampton at $1.8 million and in Sag Harbor at $2 million, though plenty of listings shatter those numbers) is another factor leading those who’ve purchased vacation homes to consider residing in them more permanently. Experts cite East Hampton, Southampton and Sag Harbor as the most popular towns, owing to the quality of the public schools and the number of businesses that remain open through the year.
"They’ve spent a tremendous amount of money on their investment and it’s a beautiful house, a beautiful place to live and they’re saying to themselves, why don’t we use that asset more often than just 90 days during the summer?" said Cody Vichinsky, a co-founder of Bespoke Real Estate.
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Two demographics leading the trend
Those familiar with the phenomenon associate it with two groups: older adults and families with young, school age children.
"There’s been certainly an evolution, particularly in two real pockets: people who are just getting going with their children, who are lucky enough to be able to put their kids in school out here," Mr. Vichinsky said. "Then there’s ultra-high-net-worth people who are pretty much here full time. I would call it a retirement area, and they use it really as their landing pad and jump off to other destinations beyond that."
The extension of the vacation season—with events and festivals like the Hamptons International Film Festival and Wölffer Estate Vineyard’s Annual Harvest Party, both in October, extending further and further into fall—and the presence of more year-round shops has made 12-months-a-year residency more of a realistic proposition for families.
"Most of the stores in Sag Harbor have always been open year round, although business dramatically decreases during the winter months," Chamber of Commerce president Lisa Field said.
Erin Hattrick Meaney is an area native who opened her Southampton floral shop Topaire in 1991 and more recently added a candy store. "In general, it’s no longer just a summer business," she said. "There are a lot of stores here that are still open now. I do think some stores do commit to a little bit of a longer season out here now because they realize that it’s one of the best times to be open."
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Ms. Hattrick Meaney dates the beginning of offseason activity in the area picking up to the post-September 11 period, when New York City residents began moving out in large numbers.
"The schools have gotten way better. The quality of life is dramatically different. Just five to six years ago we used to call [the day after Labor Day] Tumbleweed Tuesday and people would board up all of their stores on Main Street," said Saunders & Associates realtor Ed Bruehl. "That’s so not happening [now]."
He relocated from Manhattan, seeking a better place to raise his two children. "We moved out in our 30’s, we made babies, now we’re like 45. We all surf, we all play tennis, we all golf. And some of our friends are like, ‘Dang, Ed, that’s not a bad life’."
Steve Ringel moved with his family last year from Nashville to begin a job as the Executive Director of East Hampton’s Chamber of Commerce. "I was very surprised, when I moved here, how many people do live out here full time. It’s actually quite a population," he said.
Where the summer months may come with a stratified social hierarchy, the offseason is remarkably inclusive. "The winter is like the great equalizer. It doesn’t matter, rich, poor, whatever," Mr. Ringel said. "No one judges anybody. You very easily could be at the store or the coffee store standing next to Steven Spielberg or Carl Icahn, any one of the dozens of billionaires that live here.
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Schools are commonly cited as a motivating factor for families. While many apply to the tony (and private) Ross School, founded in 1991 by Courtney Sale Ross, whose late husband once ran TimeWarner, others are very content to avoid the admissions process altogether and send their kids to the very-well-regarded public schools in towns like East Hampton and Sag Harbor.
Mr. Bruehl believes a recent influx of wealth into the area, and notable public school parents like Matt and Annette Lauer, has helped increase the quality of the schools through increased tax revenue and parents with the means to give significant financial gifts.
"How many fundraisers has he [the super affluent parent] been to? Fifteen? Twenty? How many times did he give a $20,000 or $30,000 check to a school or a one-off regarding the school? So now the school’s got an organic garden and a greenhouse," Mr. Bruehl said.
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The hunt for a year-round home
The process of looking for a 12-month home is different than a summer home, brokers said. "If you live out here all year, then you really have to ask yourself, what hamlet do I want to be in? In summer, you kind of go wherever. On the weekend, let’s go to Watermill today, let’s check out Bridgehampton, it’s more like you’re on a staycation," Mr. Bruehl said. "But when you’re living here, you’re like wait a second, which village do I really love? Where is my market? What are my three favorite restaurants? That becomes the real dialogue and then you can decide where to look."
When it comes to amenities and architectural features, too, what ones looks for in a year-round home can be very different from what they prioritize in a beach house. Mr. Miller said fulltime residents are much more likely to seek garages, because they’ll have more things to put in storage and appreciate indoor parking for inclement weather accessory structures, like a pool house or an artist’s studio and amenities like gyms.
"Full-time residents expect to have as many of their lifestyle amenities on-site at their primary home while some luxury, part time homeowners are pragmatic about not having to maintain additional structures/amenities when they can easily access them in the Hamptons concierge-style, service economy," Mr. Miller explained.
He believes some builders are trying to address the needs of the year round buyer by including "bonus" rooms, that are flexible use, allowing them adapt the space to accommodate whatever amenities are a high priority.
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For Douglas Elliman realtor Terry Thompson’s clients, square footage and amenities become more important when the home is the primary one. "So they’re looking for ... all of the amenities that they would normally have in a larger home that they had experienced in the Westchester or Long Island area," she said.
For Mr. Vichinsky, helping buyers locate the perfect year-round home is about finding something that will emphasize the local beauty that’s even more readily apparent in the off season. "Whether it’s a modern house or a traditional house, we’re seeing a four-seasons component coming into it and that’s really how the house is laid out, the amount of fireplaces, the landscape, its orientation of views," he said.
"We have a lot of great farm fields out here so they take advantage of those vistas and come fall and spring you really feel like those shoulder seasons are some of the most beautiful times to be out there," Mr. Vichinsky said.