Is There Room for You
In a Rich Playground?

March 16, 2004 -- While now accepted as a playground for the rich and famous, The Hamptons are not exclusively their preserve. Affordable housing can still be found and the prospect of a better quality of life is drawing non millionaire escapees from Manhattan, a two hour drive away.

The townships of Southampton and East Hampton, a 60-mile stretch of beaches and sand dunes on the far southeast end of Long Island, were settled by farmers who raised potatoes or ducks there in relative isolation for two centuries. When a railroad linked Long Island's South Fork to Manhattan in the late 1800's, the towns were discovered all over again by wealthy families who slowly replaced the farms with beachfront mansions. Today the Hamptons - the name includes both townships and all their little villages, or hamlets, like Westhampton Beach and Montauk - are known as 'The Playground of the Rich and Famous.'

How rich? Of the eight houses in East Hampton village that changed hands last month, two were priced over $15 million, one was $4 million and another cost its new owners $1.5 million. Those, by the way, are second homes, used during the summer by people whose main residence is a condo overlooking Central Park or a castle overlooking some part of Europe. The Hamptons Magazine, published weekly during the four month summer season, reports that 22% of its estimated 165,000 readers spend $200,000 or more a year just on clothing. The average value of their primary homes is $2.4 million and half have $2 million second homes as well.

How famous? "All the A-listers, the captains of industry, the movers and shakers in fashion, media and banking are summer players here," says restauranteur Aram Sabet. Recent diners at Pacific East, the toney pan-Asian restaurant he co-owns in Amagansett, include Mel Brooks, Martha Stewart, Billy Joel, Michael Douglas, Salman Rushdie, Kelsey Grammer, Matt Dillon, Candice Bergen, Howard Stern, Mark Messier, Donald Trump, and Ron Pearlman.

During the winter, East Hampton Town's population is about 15,000 and Southampton Town's is 56,000. In the summer, those numbers more than triple. Many of the same people are not counted twice because it's so lucrative to rent your home to summer visitors, at rates that reach $25,000 a month or $100,000 or more a season (Memorial Day through Labor Day), that many locals take their money and run to some place much more quiet.

The 13,000 second homes within its borders are so important to Southampton Town that the area's Comprehensive Plan calls them a "base industry" -- importing new money into the town while requiring almost nothing back in terms of schools and municipal services. But that may be changing. Cia Comnas, vice president of Sotheby's International Realty's three offices in the Hamptons, says more and more owners are enjoying their second homes year round, driving the 90 minutes to two hours from Manhattan for fall and spring weekends, or for holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas.

A smaller number like the Hamptons during off season so much that they are moving there full time. Southampton's Comprehensive Plan reports that 29% of the town's year-round residents were once second homeowners there. Since the vast majority of summer revelers are from the New York metropolitan area, it's not surprising that most new full timers are escapees from Manhattan.

Three years ago Mr. Sabet, the restaurateur, was paying $3,050 a month to rent a 600 square foot apartment and park his car in Manhattan. For only $33 more a month, he's now renting a three-bedroom, 2 1/2-bath house with a tennis court and swimming pool on a hill in the Hamptons.

"I couldn't deal with the ridiculous rat race," says Mr. Sabet, who works fewer hours, makes more money and takes more vacations since exchanging a job in a big Manhattan public relations firm for Hamptons restaurant ownership. "This place has many of the cultural and social advantages without the hustle and bustle." Cultural highlights include a respected local theater company, concerts and art festivals.

Publicist Lexie Nykamp, 32, traded a cubicle in a New York high rise for a desk next to a fireplace in WordHampton Public Relations, a five person agency in East Hampton that operates out of a cozy little building in the woods. And after waking up to the sound of clanking garbage cans for 53 years, literary agent Philip Spitzer now awakens to the songs of backyard birds.

Mrs. Nykamp says she and her husband, an attorney with a local firm, would be earning twice as much in the city, but their new quality of life is worth it. "The hamlets still have a friendly, small town feel and the public schools are good. I grew up here and never thought I'd return. Back then, you'd never see anybody on the streets in February, you'd have to drive two hours to get to a mall and there was nothing for kids to do in the winter except ice skate. Today we have great shopping just a short drive away and there's even a YMCA for our children."

The Internet, e-mail and overnight deliveries make it easy for Mr. Spitzer to stay in touch with editors and with the crime novelists and other authors he represents, he says. When he does need to get into the city, he takes a "comfortable" commuter bus and uses the 2 ½ hour trip to read manuscripts. "It's amazingly beautiful here in winter," he says, "and it's not dull, because many of my neighbors are writers, artists and film producers."

Living year round in a resort community does have its drawbacks. If you don't carry your profession with you, or have contacts with year round residents, it's hard to find good jobs, says Mrs. Nykamp. The area is isolated -- it's 2 1/2 hours to a major airport and "the winter can be pretty bleak," says Stuart Epstein, co-owner of Devlin McNiff Real Estate in East Hampton and a resident for 13 years. "You have to get creative and find ways to entertain yourself."

Ironically, a major disadvantage, year-rounders say, are those entertainment-filled summers when roads are choked with traffic -- "There are days when it's worse than any Los Angeles highway," says Mr. Sabet -- and stores and restaurants are crowded with demanding people.

Then there's the price of real estate. The Hamptons have few condos and apartments, says Mr. Epstein, and the lack of affordable housing for seniors and for the service people who work there is a chronic problem. But the online real estate sections of the East Hampton Star and Southampton Press always contain some lower priced options, like the $400,000 two bedroom winterized cottage on the market in Southampton, or the contemporary ranch with three bedrooms, two baths and a finished basement on a wooded acre with a pond for sale in East Quogue for $550,000.

James Retz, chief marketing officer for Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate of Long Island, says anyone thinking about moving permanently to the Hamptons should rent there first, to experience both the high and low seasons. Then, he suggests, shop hamlets instead of houses. "When my daughters and I relocated here two years ago, we spent time in several coastal communities and found each has a different character. Since my youngest is 14, I checked out the local schools. And the girls, of course, cared about living near beaches, restaurants and shopping."

Once they'd settled on East Hampton, Mr. Retz says, they found several houses in their $500,000 to $600,000 price range and settled on a four bedroom with a pool in a small, private wooded community that has its own private beach and marina. "We thought we'd have a sense of withdrawal moving so far from the city. But that hasn't happened," he says. "This is a special place and living here lets me maintain a balance between my professional and personal lives."

-- Ms. Bennett is a free-lance journalist based in Northbrook, Ill.

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