Wall Street’s bonus bonanza has been powering record sales in the Hamptons, with the median home price in the tiny enclave surging 33.6% last year, realtors told The Post.
As financiers’ year-end payouts were forecast by the state comptroller’s office to hit record highs of over $60 billion, fat cats have been splashing out on oceanfront estates and weekend retreats.
“Record compensation/profits on Wall Street for the past two years are the main driver out east. The Hamptons is joined at the hip with Wall Street,” Jonathan Miller, CEO of Miller Samuel, a real estate consultancy, told The Post.
Financiers make up over 50% of buyers in the Hamptons and helped push total sales volume in 2025 to a staggering $6.2 billion — a 25.6% jump from 2024, according to Judy Desiderio, a managing partner with William Raveis.
“Whenever bonuses are booming, they really take the jitney out east and invest in East End dirt,” she said.
In the fourth quarter of last year, the average sale price reached nearly $3.5 million, according to a report by appraiser Miller Samuel for Douglas Elliman.
Brokers said after a quiet summer, sales in posh areas like East Hampton, Southampton and Sag Harbor started to pick up in November as financiers learned of their record payouts. Average securities bonuses climbed to over $244,000 and total annual pay averaged $505,630 – nearly five times the city norm – according to New York State Comptroller DiNapoli.
“All of a sudden, towards the end of the year, people were getting their numbers for their bonuses. November, December, and January — those months have been very, very busy for us out here,” said Douglas Elliman agent Michael Brennan, who noted about half of his clients are in finance.
“There’s still a lot of money out there,” he added. “People are now realizing that after the pandemic, there’s very limited inventory.”
There were just 1,070 Hamptons listings in the final three months of last year, up just 0.6% from 2024, Miller Samuel found.
Meanwhile, sales of $20 million-plus properties rocketed 59% to 27 deals for all of 2025, down from 17 the year before, a report by William Raveis found.
The $5 million to $10 million bracket notched 209 transactions, and the $10 million to $20 million bracket hit 77, the report found.
Less expensive homes have “gone out to sea,” said Desiderio, who lamented that essential workers such as teachers and nurses have been getting priced out.
Last year saw 341 sales of homes priced at $1 million or less, down more than 9% from the year before.
“The high end was the banner winner,” Desiderio said.
In spite of the seemingly low supply, Gary Cooper, the co-founder of Hedgerow Exclusive Properties, said big players scooping up luxury properties have different motivations from the average buyer.
“There is a larger share of high-end activity that is originating among principals and senior professionals in private equity and hedge funds. These buyers tend to be highly capitalized, opportunist and less tied to traditional bonus timing,” he told The Post.
“The prevailing sentiment is decisive and calculated,” Cooper added. “Buyers who know what they want are acting with purpose, not panic.”
Brokers said the Hamptons – long beloved by top money men like Citadel’s Ken Griffin, KKR’s Henry Kravis and Apollo founder Leon Black – have become even more attractive since the COVID pandemic, with buyers looking for bigger properties that can incorporate home offices with waterfront access.
One realtor also pointed to the recent election of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who’s promised to freeze rents and work to tax the rich, among other socialist goals – though he admitted last week that Wall Street bonuses helped plug a $5 billion budget gap.
“We are hearing some undercurrents about people and what’s happening in the city,” Desiderio said in a thinly-veiled reference to Mamdani’s election.
“Undercurrents, whether they turn into a tidal wave, is a whole other thing,” she added.
With Wall Street paying out bonuses until around the end of March, Hamptons real estate looks like it’s on track to keep booming. Jonathan Miller of consultancy Miller Samuel estimated that the market has a rough all-cash share of “65%-70%” because “it is so closely aligned with Manhattan.”
“Whether it’s art or luxury, real estate, anything like that, we are all umbilically connected to what happens on the street,” Desiderio added. “Historically out here, cash is not only king, but it’s emperor.”
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