Opinion: What is Happening to the Hamptons? And Why?

The one thing almost everyone who lives, owns a second home, rents and who vacations on the east end south shore can agree on is this, "The Hamptons are changing." Few think it is for the better with many believing the area is evolving into something different then a rural, agricultural seasonal resort town that they grew up in or moved to. Perhaps America itself is yet again changing but it is most obvious in the Hamptons. Lets explore some observations.

The real estate boom and bust of 2003-2008 has a profound affect on who bought and sold home/land and why on the the east end, perhaps more then anywhere else in the U.S.A. With so many property/home's values rising into the $1M-$3M range many locals became wealthy not on the labors of their work, but by being lucky by owning large tracks of land, farms, or well located residences. Suddenly renting homes starting to bring in funny numbers for the folks who always rented their homes in the summer for a second income. Mid-level homes with pools went from $15,000 a summer to in some cases well over $100,000. In the end some believe this was both good and bad. Good if you owned homes and was renting, bad if you were the family or professional doing the renting. The ramifications went in two directions. For those renting every year they had to be more selective, then perhaps start cutting back on the amount of time they could rent, pick just one month or even only weeks. For the home owners renting the properties created a momentum and confidence that evolved into seeing how much more they could get, and until these most recent years getting their number. Now this season some homes went unrented. For those home owners that was not a good thing.

Then there are the locals whose homes/properties/farms became so valuable they started thinking, "I can sell out move to a place like North Carolina and not have to work ever again." Families that had lived on the east end for generations started selling their properties and leaving the Hamptons rather wealthy folks. I remember now deceased Southampton legend Tate King, (Kathleen King Tate's Cookies Millionaire's dad) telling me in an interview in 2007, "Most my life as a farmer all I had was the change in my pocket, my wife Millicent's job as a nurse at Southampton Hospital really paid all the bills, but now they tell me my property(North Sea Farms) is worth $23 Million!" He never did sell, but so many others have.

With this new wealth came a new idea of what work one had to do to survive on the east end. With a building surge to "cash in" on this out of control bubble building real estate phenomenon labors were needed to help build the homes, the home extensions, home improvements and other odd jobs. When I first came to the Hamptons to vacation in the 1980's I used to see these beat up buses that transported temporary migrant workers to do the harvesting and other farm work, mostly from the south. What I saw in 2003-2007 where literally hundreds of migrant latinos huddling every morning in such places like the East Hampton LIRR train station and the Seven-Eleven in Southampton. Every morning pick-up trucks would go there and pick from this work force. The rate back then was $75 to $150 per day in cash. I believe the best workers, the money makers for their employees became the first wave of Latino emigration to buy homes and settle on the east end. At first their employers assisted in finding places for their needed day workers to live, eventually many of the workers went to work for themselves and now are buying their own own homes in the $200,000 to $600,000 range.

Some statistics will point out that todays generation is just not producing children like previous. I am 65, and come from a family of five children and in my day, we were a small family. Now it seems the statistic is 1.5 children per family. However for the emigrants the statistic is higher for a myriad of reasons. So now we are seeing situations like The Springs School in East Hampton where for an example of change Latino's comprise well over 80% of the school students. No doubt in the years to come soon this will have a profound effect on change on the east end.

Over the the last 15 years I have created a long term relationship with a few business and restaurant owners from when I had a paid weekly columns on both business and real estate for a weekly free magazine. So my information is part inside gossip and part facts. One fact is restaurants on the east end are no longer doing the seasonal business they did in the past. The owners believe the primary reason is the higher cost of seasonal renting, while renters say it's also the high cost of eating out where a dinner for two with a tip is easily $100. As for the millennials in Montauk, I actually heard one say on this subject just this last week, "Thank heaven for Seven-Eleven!" When I lived in Montauk I never had that option.

Change is not always a good or bad thing it is usually a bit of both. There used to be a saying, "Ride the wave of change or get crushed by it." At he moment on the east end I am observing both those riding it and those getting crushed by it.