Breitenbach Real Estate

As a broker at Corcoran, I usually see most of our rental inventory rented by April. At that point, you see some late lookers hoping to get a nice, clean, and well priced summer rental. This is year is obviously different from most. Thanks to some movement in the Hampton’s sales market (three high end marquee properties were rumored to be in contract last week), the rental market has gradually started to pick up. There is some hope. More and more rental properties rented each week. Unfortunately though, the weather prediction for this years rental market is that instead of April being the month where we all prepare for the upcoming summer it will be the month where the renters and brokers are scrambling. All the renters that usually are active in the market in November, December and into Januaruy and Feburary are most likely waiting. Waiting for those landlords to start to lose it, to get nervous, to realize this might be the first year in many that they may not rent their summer home. It could be that a California gold rush for rentals is about to happen in April and May. It could be that the renters aren’t coming, but I can’t imagine too many New Yorkers skewering and sizzling in the city during a plus 80 August saturday.

What we do know is that The Corcoran Group held a rental expo last Thursday March 19 in New York City. The event was a huge success and the amount of interest the expo drew could only be positive. The conclusion - that even though the statistics are down, there are many renters still interested in the Hampton’s this summer no matter the economic down turn.

I attended this event as well as a strong contingent of Corcoran’s top east end brokers. The event was a huge success and did help bring some positivity to what has a been a bleak and depressing rental season so far. The people came in droves. The end tally was 500 plus. Lookers and landlords alike all showed up to talk to the brokers. Everybody that came through the doors wanted to get a sense of what was going on a hundred miles to the east. The positivity came from their interest. No matter the market. The Hampton’s real estate market is always intriguing and for some reason people always want to be here for the summer. I found myself in these type of conversations often at the rental expo. Positive feelings were radiated and a sense of hope for the 2009 summer season seemed more within reach then ever before.

Overall, the expo was a great success. There was a fantastic media buzz. The people came out in force. Even in these economic uncertain times and with the Hampton’s real estate market with more question marks then ever, we were all able to gather in a location, have a few glasses of wine, and talk person to person about not the media driven rumors about half priced sales and rentals in the Hampton’s, but talk about the great values of the present Hampton’s, especially in the rental market.

The conclusion - no matter what the media says, people will be summering in the Hampton’s in 2009 once again.

-Matthew Breitenbach

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 at 8:56 am and is filed under Hot Topics, Rental Hints. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.