The issue of illegal short-term rental properties in East Hampton has grown so acute — with out-of-town investors buying up homes and flipping them for vacation rentals — that town officials are looking to beef up enforcement, they said. Alek Lewis reports in NEWSDAY that East Hampton Town officials said they will consider purchasing software to aid enforcement of their rental property registry law, which was established in 2015. Only about half the 1,874 properties listed online as short-term rentals are registered with the town, which has a $200 application fee, according to data presented by Deputy Supervisor Cate Rogers. Rogers used AirDNA, a vacation rental industry market analytics company.
Having more homes used by seasonal vacationers risks diminishing the area's housing stock for full-time residents and damaging the local hotel industry, Rogers said during a recent presentation before the town board.
Short-term rentals in East Hampton are limited to 14 days and can occur only twice in a six-month period, Rogers said.
Monitoring multiple online platforms for illegal or unregistered rentals through traditional methods is difficult, she said, recommending the town seek proposals for monitoring software.
Out-of-town investors — who she said are now supported by specialized lenders, marketing businesses and property management companies — have changed the game.
Town officials acknowledged that short-term rentals are a vital part of the town’s economy. East Hampton is a seasonal tourist destination, and even some full-time and part-time residents rely on being able to rent property to vacationers for supplemental income, they said.
“It's a balance. We live in a very beautiful place. A lot of people want to come here. We want to support that; that helps our economy,” said Councilman Ian Calder-Piedmonte. “But we need to make sure that we don't become purely seasonal, and that we have a healthy, vibrant year-round community that we've always had.”
Councilman David Lys said his family has rented out homes and used it to “put kids through school, buy cars and other things.” The board needs to make sure new regulations don’t “affect that traditional form of revenue resources for our community members out here," he added.
***
Two south fork communities ranked among the top five most expensive ZIP codes to buy a home in the United States this year, according to the latest annual ranking from a national real estate data company.
Sagaponack - 11962 - ranked third, with a median home sale price of $5.9 million, and Water Mill – 11976 - ranked fifth, at $5.5 million based on sales that closed from January to September, according to the list from PropertyShark. The data include sales of houses, condos and co-ops but exclude multi-parcel transactions.
Sagaponack’s ranking fell from No. 2 last year, while Water Mill dropped from No. 3.
Jonathan LaMantia reports in NEWSDAY that the top spot for 2025 went to Miami’s Fisher Island, where the median sale fetched $9.5 million, and the cheapest home sold for $1.4 million, according to PropertyShark.
Overall, there were nine East End ZIP codes that cracked the top 100 most expensive in the country, up from eight last year. The others were Wainscott – 11975 - at $4.5 million (No. 12), Amagansett – 11930 - at nearly $3 million (No. 36), Bridgehampton – 11932 - at $2.9 million (No. 39), Quogue -11959 - at $2.7 million (No. 46), Fishers Island in Southold Town at $2.2 million (No. 85), Sag Harbor – 11963 - at nearly $2.2 million (No. 90) and Southampton – 11968 - at nearly $2.2 million (No. 91).
The report misses the difference in prices between homes in Southampton and East Hampton villages and the surrounding areas because of its reliance on ZIP code-level data.
***
OLA (Organización Latino Americana) of Eastern Long Island is partnering with the North...