Start with what the record actually says. Per Miller Samuel’s second-quarter numbers for Douglas Elliman, the East End logged 425 sales against 1,166 listings, inventory down 9.5% in a year and nearly 16% below its ten-year average. The market’s center of gravity, the $1M–$5M band, posted a $2.2 million median, up 16.1% year over year. Sales under $1 million have thinned to 14.6% of the market, a near-record low. In 2005, the overall median was $735,000. The Hamptons did not get more crowded; it got more expensive and more exclusive at the entry.
None of that is a reason to leave. It is a reason to know precisely what staying costs, and what the same capital does in markets built on the opposite tax logic.
What the money buys
| Line | The East End | The Southeast |
|---|---|---|
| The middle of the market | $2.2M median in the $1M–$5M band (Q2 2026); Bridgehampton, Water Mill, and Sagaponack median $5.33M | Charleston regional median $455,000; historic downtown Charleston median $1.4M (Jan–May 2026); Greenville County median $368,146 (May 2026) |
| Cost to buy at $2.2M | Peconic Bay CPF tax at 2.5% with no exemption at this price: $55,000. NYS mansion tax at 1%: $22,000. Roughly $77,000 in tax before title and counsel. | South Carolina deed recording fee at $1.85 per $500: about $8,140 on the same purchase. |
| Income tax while you own it | New York’s top state rate is 10.9%; a Manhattan tax resident pays up to roughly 14.8% combined with city tax. | South Carolina moves to a two-tier system in 2026: 1.99% below $30,000 and 5.21% above, with automatic future cuts tied to revenue triggers. Florida remains 0%. |
| What your estate faces | New York taxes estates above $7.35M (2026), top rate 16%, and the exemption vanishes entirely once you exceed it by 5%. The cliff is not a metaphor. | South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida levy no state estate tax. |
| The company you keep | 1,166 listings, 425 quarterly sales, and the deepest luxury bench on the Eastern Seaboard. | Net in-migration: FL +55,349 filers, NC +39,118, SC +29,214 in a single IRS filing year. Your future neighbors are already en route. |
Sources and dates in the method note below. Figures use different geographies and reporting conventions; treat this as orientation, not an appraisal.
The verdict
The Hamptons is the better place to summer. The Southeast is the better place to be taxed. The household that wins is the one that decides which of those two sentences is doing the heavy lifting in its life, and stops paying full price for the other one.
Your income is made in New York rooms that require your presence; your family’s gravity is within two hours of the Long Island Expressway; or the specific Atlantic light of an August evening in Amagansett is, on reflection, what the money was always for. Then stay, and stop reading letters like this one.
Your work went remote and never came back; your carry, taxes, insurance, and upkeep now buys a second life somewhere else every single year; or your estate is drifting toward a $7.35 million cliff that four Southeastern states simply do not have. Then the East End is a place to visit, beautifully.
Method & Sources
Cross-market comparisons use the most recent public figures available on July 25, 2026. Geographies differ by source and are labeled as reported. Nothing here is tax, legal, or investment advice; bring your own advisors.
- East End market data: Miller Samuel / Douglas Elliman Q2 2026 figures and William Raveis hamlet medians, as reported by 27east, July 2026.
- CPF transfer tax: Peconic Bay Region CPF, 2.5% in East Hampton and Southampton with no exemption on conveyances of $2M+, effective April 2023 (Town of Southampton; Benchmark Title).
- New York income tax: top state rate 10.90% (Tax Foundation, 2026); combined NYC top rate approximately 14.8% including the 3.876% city rate.
- New York estate tax: $7.35M exemption, 16% top rate, 105% cliff (2026).
- South Carolina income tax: H.4216, effective tax year 2026 (SC Department of Revenue).
- Migration: IRS Statistics of Income, 2022–2023 filings, via Tax Foundation.
- Southeast market figures: Greenville County median $368,146 (May 2026); Charleston regional median $455,000 and downtown median $1.4M (Jan–May 2026), as compiled for The Split No. 01, Southern Escapes.