Northwest: A Frontier No More
"Red hot" is how one broker described the current real estate market in East Hampton's Northwest Woods, in terms of prices, construction, and subdivision activity. East Hampton's last frontier is being quickly pioneered.
As prices south of the highway continue to soar and the availability of prime vacant land continues to dwindle, a new breed of home and land buyers are looking to the privacy and quiet of the woods. Land prices, higher than ever in Northwest, reflect that demand.
"More and more people want privacy, and they don't really mind going four or five miles out of town to get it," said Judy McMurdo, a broker with Cook/Pony Farm Real Estate in East Hampton.
The exclusive Grace Estate, at Northwest's northern perimeter, gives a good indication of the activity in the area. Only two lots now remain in the roughly 30-lot subdivision, after what Ms. McMurdo called a "scramble" to buy them up over the last two years.
"The Grace Estate has just boom ed in the past two years, absolutely boomed," she said.
One of the two remaining lots, a five-acre parcel, is listed at $275,000. That is considered relatively low, as is the price of the other parcel, 12 acres at $350,000. Brokers explained that few people were looking for quite that much privacy, and said a two-acre parcel would not cost that much less.
Three New Subdivisions
As that subdivision builds itself out, three more sizable subdivisions have have been approved within the past year, carving out more than 60 new house lots, mostly on two acres or more.
The roads are now being constructed into the recently approved, 34-acre Northwest Estates subdivision. Lots in the subdivision (being marketed as Van Scoy's East) are being offered for an average of $175,000.
That's not far from the price of new lots in the Cedar Woods subdivision off Hand's Creek Road, which are selling for between $160,000 and $225,000.
Vacant lots on Bull Path, averaging between 2.7 and 3.2 acres, are going for no less than $225,000.
House Sales
House prices are also generally strong in Northwest. A 4,000-square-foot, secluded house on Northwest Road near Old Northwest Road recently fetched $840,000, Ms. McMurdo noted.
Two other estate-style residences well south of that, and not on the water, are listed with brokers at $995,000 and $1.1 million.
"Five years ago, if someone said a house in Northwest would sell for more than a million, you would have said, 'You're out of your mind!' " said Frank Newbold of Sotheby's International Realty.
Building To Sell
Mr. Newbold traced the new boom in Northwest back to the original boom in the mid-1980s that essentially developed the area into a largely second-home community. Then as now, builders who put up houses on speculation helped drive the market.
"They really had this vision of creating consistently high-quality houses," said Mr. Newbold. "It was really developed as a second-home area."
When Wall Street sagged in the early '90s, the glut of houses created a flooded market, he said. Now, with those houses finally sold, a revived economy, and the infusion of new developable lots, contractors who build to sell are actively back in the market.
"You'll be seeing an enormous amount of construction," Mr. Newbold predicted.