Prices for some swanky pads on Long Island have been reduced recently, and it’s taking longer to sell, signs that the high-end market has started to feel the pinch – same as the regular folks. Agencies’ inventories of expensive homes have gone up, triple in one case.
Even when nearly empty, these homes can cost their owners hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in staff, electricity, maintenance and more, depending on the property’s size.
Still on the market after 16 months is Northwood, an Oyster Bay Cove estate; listed originally at $43 million, it’s now at $20 million because Nassau County is negotiating a contract to buy more than half its 60 acres of property.
The average time to sell a property has gone from less than two weeks two years ago to more than 10 weeks now.
But real estate experts said the high-end market is still much healthier than the middle. In the Hamptons, agents said, the hobnobbing and glamorous image still generate bidding wars reminiscent of the real estate boom all over Long Island less than two years ago.
Only now, wealthy buyers are getting the same advantage that not-so-rich ones have been getting for more than a year – a more level bargaining field with sellers.
