East Hampton Takes Fifth In 'Most Expensive' List

East Hampton’s zip code ranked fifth among the most expensive in the nation in a recent survey reported on the Movoto real estate blog.

According to the blog, the median monthly rent in East Hampton was $1,858 during the period of the survey, with 50 percent of household income funneled into paying that rent. The survey found that for East Hampton homeowners, 27.8 percent of their income was spent on monthly expenses.

Movoto used a U.S. Census five-year community survey to gather data about median home costs, median monthly homeowner expenses as a percent of income, median monthly rent, and median monthly rent as a percent of income. It ranked each place in each category from 1 to 28,135, with scores closer to 1 being the more expensive places to live. Those scores were then averaged into a single “Big Deal Score,” and the place with the lowest number was deemed the most expensive zip code.

“This one probably isn’t too much of a surprise for anyone who knows New York well,” the blog said of East Hampton’s fifth-place position. “Pretty much everything here is beachfront property, and part of this zip code consists of a separate island, Gardiners Island, which is about as exclusive as you can get.

“The median home cost of $834,300 definitely showed how wealthy you’d have to be to call this place home,” the blog continues.

Duarte, California, took the top honor, followed by Albertson, New York, and two more California towns before East Hampton’s fifth-place position.

“Shocked to see California and New York in most of these?” the blog asks, before answering: “Yeah, we weren’t either.”