The 6 Most Expensive Beaches in the Hamptons to Buy a Second Home

The Hamptons. The millionaire and billionaire vacation spot at the end of Long Island, New York, and a status symbol like no other. If you have a house in the Hamptons, from most people’s viewpoint, you’ve officially made it. Real estate is highly coveted here. Therefore, it’s not every day that you see houses in the region go up for sale. But when they do? Boy, can things get pricey! Today, we will look at some of the most expensive beaches in the Hamptons to buy a second home and learn a little about the Hamptons along the way. Ready to feel a little worse about your economic situation? Let’s get started.

What are “the Hamptons”?

The Hamptons are a group of towns and communities on the far end of Long Island in New York State. Due to its proximity to the wealthiest city on Earth (New York City), it is the go-to vacation spot for millionaires and billionaires (plus their kids) in the summer. It’s rural and doesn’t have many attractions, but it is incredibly beautiful. The area is essentially a mecca for celebrity sightings and wealthy people watching.

From west to east (heading from NYC towards the end of Long Island), the first of the “Hamptons” is Westhampton, about 80 miles east of the city. Keep going, and you’ll hit Hampton Bays, Southhampton, Bridgehampton, and East Hampton, hence the nickname “the Hamptons”. Still, there are plenty of other small communities interspersed within the more famously-named places that are equally expensive and exclusive. Additionally, most people refer to the whole coastal area as “the Hamptons,” even though the like-named towns only make up a few of the local communities. If you are out east on Long Island past Westhampton, most people will just refer to it as “the Hamptons” (sorry, Sag Harbor, Tuckahoe, Sagaponack, and Wainscott).

The Most Expensive Beaches In the Hamptons

Okay, let’s talk about method. To find the most expensive beaches in the Hamptons, we took the data provided by Property Shark on the most expensive streets in the Hamptons. Next, we looked to see which of the streets were roughly beachfront. From there, we could rank them according to the median sale price in those beachfront areas. However, remember that this doesn’t mean these are the most expensive properties in the entirety of the Hamptons; these are just the most expensive ones according to the median home value near a beach. Let’s get started.

1. Mecox Beach Area

The Mecox Beach area is so expensive due to its proximity to Dune Road in Quogue. The median sale price for a home here? $11 million, although the most expensive sale in the first part of 2022 was $17.5 million. It was listed as an “ultra-high-end estate” and was over 8,300 square feet on two acres. The property is gated and has a whopping 128 feet of ocean access on Shinnecock Bay.

The Mecox Beach and W. Scott Cameron Beach are both located on Dune Rd, the location of this extremely expensive area. The beach area is located properly in the Hamptons and has access to the inland “bay” known as Mecox Bay, as well as the Atlantic Ocean to the south.

2. Amagansett Beach

Amagansett Beach, located near the second most expensive street in the Hamptons, boasts an $8.9 million median sale price. The nearby street, Marine Boulevard, had three sales during the measured period, with a $9.5 million sale (off-market) as the highest-priced deal. The property has 110 feet of ocean access and a pool. It sits on about 0.7 acres.

Amagansett Beach is a bit further out on the fork, past East Hampton. Just to the north is 27, providing easy access. An important note, on Google Maps, there are two Amagansett Beaches listed. We refer to the more eastern one near Marine Blvd, not near Bluff Road. The nearest town is Amagansett, where there are some shops and food, although things get pretty sparse the further you move to the southeast and the ocean.

3. Atlantic Avenue Beach

Directly to the southeast of Amagansett Beach (the one we mentioned above) is Atlantic Avenue Beach. This area is less than a mile down the road from Amagansett Beach and offers a lot of the same amenities, just on a different street. Bluff Road had a median home price of $6.7 million in 2022, with the most expensive property sale being a wild $32 million deal that happened off-market. The lot is nearly three acres.

Atlantic Avenue Beach is located between the two Amagansett Beaches, right at the termination of Atlantic Avenue (fitting name). It sits between Amagansett National Wildlife Refuge and the Atlantic Avenue Town Park. To sum up, it is a pretty rural place without much until you head up north a few miles.

4. Pikes Beach

Pikes Beach is the fourth most expensive beach in the Hamptons and is located on the fifth most expensive street in the area, Dune Rd. The area had a median home sale price of $4.23 million and a highest-priced purchase of $5.8 million. The property had seven bedrooms, six and a half bathrooms, and a pool, all on a 0.65-acre plot of land. Dune Rd runs along a set of barrier islands that shelters Moriches Bay to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the south.

The nearest named beach here is Pike’s Beach, a beach located to the northeast of the West Hampton Dunes, a village on Westhampton Island. The thin island has some vacation homes and some rentals, along with beach access, but not much else. The western end of the island offers a few parks, including the Cupsogue Beach County Park and a restaurant.

5. 3 Mile Harbor/Sammys Beach/Maidstone Beach

The seventh most expensive street in the Hamptons is Three Mile Harbor Dr., located in East Hampton. The nearby Sammys and Maidstone Beaches, along with access to the 3 Mile Harbor, make this one of the most expensive beaches in the Hamptons to live in. The median home price was $3.425 million, although Property Shark doesn’t list the exact prices of the homes that were sold.

3 Mile Harbor is a body of water fed by Gardiners Bay to the north of the southern fork, creating a large inlet with some beachfront properties. None of the beaches along the shores of 3 Mile Harbor feature names, but there are some easily accessible beaches named Sammys Beach and Maidstone Beach to the north. To the southern point of the harbor are restaurants, marinas, and various developments.

6. Westhampton Beach/Oceanbleu Beach/Rogers Beach

We’ve already talked about Dune Rd today, but if you follow it from West Hampton Dunes due northeast, you will eventually hit a string of beaches that include Westhampton Beach, Oceanbleu Beach, and Rogers Beach. This portion of Dune Rd has a median sales price of $3.26 million and is much more developed than the other sections of beach accessible by Dune Rd.

These three beaches are all located on Westhampton Island, keeping them a little more remote than the relative “business” of Westhampton Beach (the town) to the north on the mainland. There are a few amenities around the area, including beach clubs, rentals, and food; plus, to the north is the development of Westhampton Beach with restaurants, grocery stores, and, of course, a custom yacht shop.

The photo featured at the top of this post is © iStock.com/Meinzahn