For the past three decades or so, owning a piece of the Hamptons was a New York sign of success — entrée into a club of the wealthy, the powerful, the elite. But for the past few years, a quiet revolution has been brewing. The Manhattan and Brooklyn creative classes are increasingly trading the sharp-elbowed scene of East Hampton for more seasonal, pastoral towns far from the madding crowd — but close enough to the city to make a Monday morning commute a possibility.
On the barrier island of Fire Island, in the quick-hop historic village of Bellport and in the far-east town of Greenport, affordable housing prices and a lack of pretense are making these three sleepy summer retreats true contenders for the title of “the Anti-Hamptons.” Some are even leaving city life behind and moving to these beachy havens year-round.
“We have seen a real trend in people who have sold their places in Manhattan and bought a pied-a-terre and spend more of their time out here,” says Mark Petheram, owner of Bellport’s Old Purchase Properties.
One visit to his town’s private Ho-Hum beach, he says, and you’ll understand why.
FIRE ISLAND
When Hurricane Sandy made landfall two and a half years ago, it hit the 32-mile-long barrier island of Fire Island hard. Many homes were lost to water damage, and owners ready to sell decided to wait until they could at least get their investment money back.
But it’s a new day on Fire Island. As the US Army Corps of Engineers rebuilds the sand dunes protecting the 17 distinct towns of the island, summer-home buyers are spying opportunity.
“Last year saw the highest number of houses sold — 104 — compared to the average of 40 per year,” says Carin Roth, owner of Fire Island Real Estate for 42 years. “All of Ocean Beach has been rebuilt. Everything is beautiful now. I call it the silver lining of the cloud.”
Median sale prices have not returned to pre-storm levels — in 2012, the 76 homes averaged $845,000, last year they were at about $743,000 — though in some prime areas of Seaview and Fire Island Pines, where the homes aren’t chock-a-block with little or no outdoor space, the median price is back to $800,000 range.
Roth still has quite a bit of inventory. “I have everything for sale from a one-bedroom condo for $150,000 to a tiny, three-bedroom cottage for $400,000, to two $4 million oceanfront houses,” she says.
With no cars to show off (access is only by foot or ferry, and homeowners keep wagons at the dock to schlep in groceries) and not much more to do than read on the beach, “who” you are means little here, Roth notes.
Evan Lobel (inset above), 50, owner of Manhattan’s Lobel Modern, in NoHo, has been a fan since he first purchased a home in The Pines about 15 years ago.
“There are no cars, no street lights, all the walks are wood planks and the beach is nearby wherever your house is. You can hear the surf,” says the midcentury furniture dealer. Lobel sold his old house in October, but was so heartbroken, he quickly bought another in December. “Fire Island is magical: close to New York City, yet far enough to feel like you’re vacationing somewhere far away.”
BELLPORT
Interior designer Celerie Kemble Curry has been shuttling between the sleepy village of Bellport, about 60 miles from Manhattan, on Long Island’s South Shore, and her apartment in Manhattan since she first bought here a few years ago.
“I was captured by the old houses, great summertime kid activities and lack of pretense,” the mother of three, 41, says. “Bellport is peaceful, cozy and not working too hard at being anything other than what it is.”
Curry claims to be a homebody, though she’s grateful for nice neighbors, who “wave as they walk by, forgive/ignore an occasional skinny dip and let us steal from their veggie garden.”
If she spent more time off the grounds of her estate, she’d likely run into other media friendlies who are making this newly rediscovered town a white-hot—though still low-key—summer spot.
There’s Condé Nast honcho S.I. Newhouse, smarty-pants chat-show host Charlie Rose, even Princess Alexandra of Greece. Actress Isabella Rossellini sold her city home and is busy turning six acres of her 27-acre parcel into a working organic farm, complete with chickens, pigs, sheep and farming classes.
The appeal of Bellport is obvious.
Mark Petheram, who grew up here and has run Old Purchase Properties for the past 32 years, has seen his town of about 1,100 homes and 3,000 residents stay pretty much the same since he was a kid.
“What people say the most is that it’s really like it was a decade ago,” says the real estate agent, who has done most of the major deals in town. “There is almost no new construction.”
Built in the 1800s as a deep-water port, Bellport became a summer retreat for Manhattanites around the turn of the last century.
In the 1970s, a trickle of artists began buying second homes here again, restoring the old captain’s seahouses and essentially stopping the town’s clock.
Today there’s not much more to do than play tennis or golf, shop for provisions at Cirillo’s, or go clamming or sailing on the water. “There is a photo of 100 pairs of sandals on the beach gazebo, and some people go left and other people go right,” says Petheram. “That’s a topic of conversation here.”
Also cause for chatter is the housing prices. Over the past five years, the median price of homes has risen as much as 25 percent in the Village of Bellport, says Petheram.
Today, the old white-picket-fence homes in this 5-square-mile town range from $299,000 on a 100-by-100-square-foot lot that’s big enough for a pool to $7.9 million right on the water. None are more than a few minutes from Bellport Station, where you can leave your bike.
Says Petheram: “People get up to the beach and think, How can we only be an hour from Manhattan?”
GREENPORT
This whaling village about two hours from the city appeals to laid-back types looking for a sea breeze, tree-lined streets and serious finds on the yard-sale circuit.
Most second home-owners, or weekenders staying at the 30-room Greenporter Hotel, arrive by Zipcar or Jitney and walk from beach to bay to grocery store to summer shack.
A starter home starts at around $300,000 for a 1,000-square-foot two-bedroom, and caps out at about $4 million for a new-construction, 5,000-square-foot waterfront mansion, says Jerry Cibulski, a broker with Century 21 Albertson Realty. “Sales and rentals have been brisk the past two years and we are seeing lower inventory this year,” Cibulski says.
Prices, meanwhile, are an inverse ratio: just three years ago, in 2012, the median cost for a house in Greenport was $298,000. This year, it’s $437,000, according to Suffolk Research Service.
That’s probably because buyers are responding to the siren song of the area’s true agrarian legacy. “We love the laid-back style of the North Fork and the fact that it is still so connected to agriculture,” says Daniel Diez, 39, Global Chief Marketing Officer of R/GA digital advertising agency. He and his husband purchased a home in nearby Orient, but come to Greenport often.
Deborah Rivera Pittorino, owner of the Greenporter Hotel, aims to keep her town just the same as she found it when she opened her inn in 2000.
She says of her creative-class clientele: “Our guests spend a lot of time cycling, kayaking, wine-tasting, farm-stand hopping, fishing or just relaxing by the pool with a book. They are not looking for a scene—they are looking to check out of ‘the scene.’ ”
When they need a little more action, the town of 2,200 residents has that, as well, from Greenport Brewery to farm-to-table favorite Noah’s, where they might spy town regulars like chef Tom Colicchio sampling some of those famous Greenport oysters. Still, seeing a star is beside the point.
“It has a very small-town feel and we love that,” says homeowner Diez. “Spending time on the North Fork reminds me of the many amazing summers I had as a kid.”