The years of young and upwardly mobile New Yorkers renting a Hamptons home from Memorial Day to Labor Day — a rite of passage memorialized in shows like “Sex and the City” and reality show “Summer House” — appear to be over for Gen Z.
Full of post-pandemic wanderlust and buoyed by the strong American dollar, they’ll prepared to go to the ends of the earth for enviable Instagram shots and social media bragging rights.
Chloe Hechter, 23, told The Post: “Everything is about social media now and everyone wants to be discovered as an influencer.”
While Hechter’s parents still go out East every weekend, she and her friends are spending big holidays like 4th of July in The Hamptons but ditch the peak season $120 lobster salad or $29 guacamole for somewhere further afield the rest of the time.
“I think a lot of people used the Olympics or [Taylor Swift’s] Eras Tours as an excuse for a Europe trip.”
Tony Abrams, who runs high-end travel company Four Hundred, said many of his clients are looking past well-trodden paths like St. Tropez or Mykonos.
“People want to go off the beaten path,” he explains. “People want to feel like they have discovered a place that is not widely known… they want to be the Christopher Columbus of something.
“The cool people who are posting and creating content are going to Paros, Antiparos, Marbella, the Cotswolds… because it’s different.”
New York City residents taking shorter breaks on Long Island is playing havoc with the rental market – with the price of some dropping as much as 50% according to homeowners, real estate agents and renters who spoke to The Post.
“A lot of people bought during the pandemic and then decided they wanted to travel or they needed rental income so the market is saturated,” Michael Walz, who has listed his East Hampton home for rent since 2017, told The Post.
“It definitely shifted this year — people didn’t want to commit out here,” Waltz added. “I’ve consistently rented through COVID-19 and [post pandemic] revenge travel but this year was a struggle.
“Brokers told me if you get any offer you should take it… even an offer coming in 50% lower than the listing,” Waltz added.
During the pandemic so many people decided to buy and rent out homes, there’s now too many available and properties usually snatched up by February over the last four summers are taking longer to fill, sources said.
“Owners got spoiled with COVID pricing — everyone thought they could cash in and rent their house,” Susan Breitenbach, a broker at Corcoran Group, told The Post.
In addition to fewer overall requests, renters want shorter terms and more flexibility, Real estate broker at Compass Evan Kulman explained.
“Many people sought out two–four week rentals,” Kulman explained.
“Now that people are freer to travel than a couple years ago, why not do summer vacations in the Hamptons and Europe,” he said of people’s changing tastes.
“People split up the season and took less money this summer,” Breitenbach adds.
For renters, that meant they got better properties for longer. Tita Loyek, a full time content creator, and her husband got a 40% discount from the listed price on their Montauk rental from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
And unlike previous years when they locked something in months before, they waited to book until April.
“We were late in the game,” Loyek said. “But the owners really wanted someone for the whole summer.”
“We got the same price for Memorial Day to Labor Day that we got last year for just two month,” she explained.
While Loyek stayed out east the entire summer she said she was perhaps the only of her peers not to be back and forth.
“I saw a lot of creators who did a month in the Hamptons but I noticed a lot of people are going out just for the weekend.”
Despite a slower summer, brokers are already optimistic about 2025.
Kulman said he has already “written leases for next summer” and that it feels like it will be “a more robust summer season.”
“The Hamptons will always have the allure of being a destination place, all year long.”
