Everyone who knows me well knows that I love summer.  I’m happiest at the beach and have a soft spot for the Hamptons out on the eastern end of Long Island, where I met my husband 22 years ago on a sunny July 4th weekend.  I was thinking of this as I spent last weekend in Westhampton Beach attending the wedding of a great couple, who are close friends and clients. Even the rain couldn’t put a damper on festivities under a large tent in the private backyard of my friends’ beach home.

The next morning after breakfast, we walked up Main St. in Westhampton checking out the sidewalk sales of the local shops.  As I sometimes do when I’m away from home, I stopped into a local realty office on the street and asked about business this past summer, to which the broker replied, “Interestingly, it was our worst year, but our best month.”

Hmmm…What does that mean?  Could it be that, as Bill Raveis talked about in the video featured on my previous post, that the combination of low interest rates and significantly reduced prices make this an attractive time to buy relative to other recessionary periods, now that the summer crowds have gone? There are fewer buyers, thus less competition for attractive properties in areas that historically have held their value…like Westhampton, and, of course, Rye. Over the long term, home ownership still pays.

It is worth thinking about if you are serious about buying. Time will tell, but in the meantime I am going to enjoy the sunnier weather following “the summer that wasn’t”.  I picked up a current copy of the infamous Dan’s Papers while out east, where I read this amusing quote by CNN contributor and Southampton year round resident Robert Zimmerman ,… “Let’s get the record straight, after having the second coldest summer in 140 years, remember that October is the new August. The best part of the summer is just beginning.”

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