Flood Zones in Southampton Village, Bridgehampton, and Sagaponack: What Is Confirmed and What Is Not
Southampton Village, the Bridgehampton hamlet, and Sagaponack Village sit on adjoining ground on Long Island's South Fork, yet they are run three different ways: Southampton Village has governed itself as an incorporated village since 1894, Bridgehampton has never incorporated at all and answers directly to the Town of Southampton, and Sagaponack became New York's newest incorporated village on September 2, 2005. Water touches each place at a different scale — Southampton Village's 7.2 square miles include 0.81 square miles of water, Bridgehampton's 13.6-square-mile census area includes 0.62 square miles of water, and Sagaponack's 4.7-square-mile village includes 0.23 square miles of water. None of that geography, and none of the governance history below, adds up to a confirmed FEMA flood zone designation for any specific address in any of the three. This page lays out what is actually documented about each place, explains in general terms what flood-zone labels like VE and AE mean, and points toward FEMA's Flood Map Service Center rather than guessing at a zone, a base flood elevation, or an insurance premium that was not independently confirmed during this research pass.
Southampton Village: New York's Oldest English Settlement, Now a Modern Village Government
English colonists from Lynn, Massachusetts settled here in 1640, coming ashore at Conscience Point on June 12 — a landing the village's own government describes as making Southampton "the oldest English settlement in the state of New York," predating East Hampton's 1648 founding by eight years. The Shinnecock tribe helped the newcomers with agricultural techniques and access to land. Southampton grew into a premier summer resort community starting around 1863 and was formally incorporated as a village in 1894, giving it its own village government, William "Bill" Manger Jr. serving as mayor as of July 2023. Today the village covers 7.2 square miles — 6.4 square miles of land and 0.81 square miles of water — and borders the Shinnecock Indian Reservation to the southwest and Shinnecock Hills Golf Club to the northwest.
Roughly half of the Hamptons' billionaire residents are said to live in Southampton Village, and Meadow Lane there has picked up the nickname "Billionaire Lane." Historical residents have included members of the Ford, Du Pont, Morgan, Vanderbilt, and Eisenhower families, while more recent notable residents include George Soros, Calvin Klein, Michael J. Fox, Brooke Shields, Tory Burch, Howard Stern, and Steven Mnuchin. Local institutions include the Shinnecock Golf Club, the Meadow Club, the Southampton Beach Club, and the Parrish Art Museum, and Cooper's Beach has been ranked the third-best beach in the nation by at least one source. The 2020 Census put the village's population at 4,550, a 46.3 percent jump from 2010; the 2017 estimate had been 3,193, and the 2000 Census counted 3,965.
Bridgehampton: An Unincorporated Hamlet With No Village Hall of Its Own
Bridgehampton was settled shortly after Southampton's 1640 founding as settlers pushed eastward. It was originally called "Bullhead" before being renamed for a bridge built across a pond — the Sagg Bridge, built in 1686 by Ezekiel Sandford, which connected Mecox and Sagaponack. Unlike Southampton Village and Sagaponack Village, Bridgehampton has never incorporated as a village of its own. It remains an unincorporated hamlet within the Town of Southampton, which means there is no separate Bridgehampton village hall or village building department — any flood-zone, permitting, or building question here runs through the Town of Southampton directly, not through a village office. As a census-designated place, Bridgehampton covers 13.6 square miles, 13.0 square miles of land and 0.62 square miles of water.
Bridgehampton is home to the Hampton Classic horse show and was once home to the Bridgehampton Race Circuit, a 2.85-mile road-racing course later converted into a golf course and homes. It also contained the last full-size Kmart still operating on the mainland United States, which closed on October 20, 2024. Criminal-turned-memoirist Stephen Burroughs lived in Bridgehampton in the 1700s and helped found the town's first library in 1793. The 2020 Census recorded a population of 2,953, a median age of 47.2, 1,136 households (50.5 percent married-couple), and 2,632 housing units, of which 56.8 percent were vacant — a figure that reflects how seasonal this hamlet is rather than an abandonment problem. Notable residents include Baseball Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski, former MLB catcher A.J. Pierzynski, business executive Lloyd Blankfein, CNBC presenter Carl Quintanilla, and Brigadier General Isaac Sandford.
Sagaponack: New York's Newest Incorporated Village, Born From a Beach-Access Dispute
Sagaponack was first settled around 1653, with Josiah Stanborough recorded there by 1656, under the original name "Sagg." It stayed unincorporated for well over three centuries until September 2, 2005, when it became its own incorporated village — New York's newest at the time — specifically to keep a rival incorporation proposal called Dunehampton from controlling beach access. That dispute is resolved: Sagaponack incorporated, and Dunehampton never went forward as a competing village. The name itself comes from a Shinnecock word meaning "land of the big ground nuts," a reference to Apios americana, a wild tuber — not potatoes, despite that being a common and incorrect assumption in a farming area like this one.
Sagaponack's current village limits cover 4.7 square miles — 4.4 square miles of land and 0.23 square miles of water — noticeably smaller than the roughly 8.0-square-mile census-designated place that existed before incorporation. The village still operates one of the last active one-room schoolhouses in New York State, the Sagaponack School, serving grades K through 3. Its ZIP code, 11962, has ranked as the most expensive ZIP code in the United States in more than one year, including 2009 and 2018, with a 2018 median home price of $8.5 million and a 2015 median of $5,125,000 — dated figures, not current 2026 pricing. Ira Rennert's estate there has been described as the largest home in America, with 29 bedrooms. Notable residents have included cartoonist Charles Addams, authors Truman Capote and Kurt Vonnegut, musician Billy Joel, television host Jimmy Fallon, and business leader Lloyd Blankfein; the Andrew Geller-designed Elizabeth Reese House is also a locally significant structure. The 2020 Census recorded a population of 770, up from 582 in the 2000 Census (then counted as a CDP).
What Zone VE and Zone AE Actually Mean, Generically
FEMA flood maps generally divide coastal high-risk areas into a few recurring categories, and it is worth understanding what those labels mean in general before ever looking up a specific address in Southampton Village, Bridgehampton, or Sagaponack. Zone VE is the coastal high-hazard designation, applied where storm-surge wave action of three feet or more is expected — typically the areas closest to open ocean. Zone AE is the standard base-floodplain designation, covering areas with the same one percent annual chance of flooding but without that same severe wave hazard; it can apply near lower-energy water such as ponds and inlets as well as areas set back somewhat from open ocean. Zone X generally marks areas of minimal or moderate flood risk that fall outside the mapped high-hazard zones.
None of that generic explanation says which zone applies to a given lot in Southampton Village, Bridgehampton, or Sagaponack. Two neighboring parcels can carry different designations depending on ground elevation and mapped distance from wave action, regardless of how each one's local water percentage compares — Southampton Village's 0.81 square miles of water out of 7.2 total, Bridgehampton's 0.62 out of 13.6, or Sagaponack's 0.23 out of 4.7. Only a FEMA flood map lookup tied to an exact address, or a licensed surveyor's elevation certificate, can answer that question for a specific lot.
No Confirmed FEMA Flood Zone Designation for Any of the Three
This page does not state that any part of Southampton Village, Bridgehampton, or Sagaponack Village falls into a specific FEMA flood zone, whether Zone AE, Zone VE, Zone X, or any other designation, and it does not state a base flood elevation or Community Rating System classification for any of the three, because no such figure was independently confirmed during this research pass. Existing coverage of this market tends toward luxury real-estate listings, "Billionaire Lane" lifestyle features, and median-home-price listicles, not a sourced, current flood map for Southampton Village, Bridgehampton, or Sagaponack.
That gap is not evidence that flood risk near any of the three is low, and it is not evidence that it is high. Pull the current, parcel-specific flood zone, base flood elevation, and any Community Rating System discount directly from FEMA's Flood Map Service Center using the exact address, and confirm how it applies with the correct local office — the Southampton Village building department for property inside the village, the Town of Southampton building department for Bridgehampton since it has no village office of its own, or the Sagaponack Village building department for property inside that village — before budgeting for flood insurance or planning any renovation.
What the Research Did Not Find, and Will Not Invent
No exact current (2026) home price, property-tax rate, or flood-insurance premium specific to Southampton Village, Bridgehampton, or Sagaponack Village was confirmed during this research pass, beyond the dated Sagaponack ZIP-code figures already cited above — a 2018 median home price of $8.5 million and a 2015 median of $5,125,000, neither of which should be treated as current pricing. No specific current commercial or retail business listing for any of the three was confirmed beyond the historical fact that Bridgehampton's last full-size mainland Kmart closed on October 20, 2024.
Where research turns up a documented gap rather than a hard figure, the honest move is to say so plainly and point toward the real source — FEMA, the applicable village or Town of Southampton building department, or a licensed insurance agent — rather than filling the gap with a plausible-sounding number borrowed from a neighboring Long Island market.
What to Actually Check Before Buying Here
Confirmed: Southampton Village was settled in 1640 and incorporated in 1894; Bridgehampton remains an unincorporated hamlet governed by the Town of Southampton; Sagaponack incorporated as its own village on September 2, 2005, resolving a beach-access dispute with a rival Dunehampton incorporation proposal that never proceeded. Not confirmed, and not invented on this page: any specific current FEMA flood zone letter, base flood elevation, Community Rating System discount, or 2026 flood-insurance premium for any address in Southampton Village, Bridgehampton, or Sagaponack.
Before making an offer anywhere in this market, pull the current flood zone and base flood elevation from FEMA's Flood Map Service Center using the exact address, ask the seller or listing agent for any elevation certificate on file, and get a real flood-insurance quote from a licensed agent rather than estimating one from a water percentage or a neighborhood reputation. Separately, confirm any local building requirement with the correct office for the specific property — Southampton Village, the Town of Southampton for Bridgehampton, or Sagaponack Village — and have a real-estate attorney or other licensed professional review flood-related conditions before closing. Nothing on this page is legal, tax, insurance, or financial advice.
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Get a Free Agent Referral →Independent research. No ads. No sponsored listings. Data drawn from research on Southampton Village, the Bridgehampton hamlet, and Sagaponack Village, New York, including Southampton Village's 1640 founding by English colonists from Lynn, Massachusetts at Conscience Point, its status as (per the village's own government) the oldest English settlement in New York State, its 1894 village incorporation, and its 7.2-square-mile area (6.4 land, 0.81 water); Bridgehampton's founding shortly after 1640 as "Bullhead," its renaming for the 1686 Sagg Bridge, its unincorporated-hamlet status within the Town of Southampton, its 13.6-square-mile census area (13.0 land, 0.62 water), the Hampton Classic, the former Bridgehampton Race Circuit, and the mainland's last full-size Kmart (closed October 20, 2024); and Sagaponack's circa-1653 settlement as "Sagg," its September 2, 2005 incorporation resolving a beach-access dispute with a rival Dunehampton proposal, its 4.7-square-mile village area (4.4 land, 0.23 water), its one-room Sagaponack School, and its 11962 ZIP code's history as one of the most expensive in the United States (2018 median home price $8.5 million, 2015 median $5,125,000 — dated figures). Population figures include Southampton Village's 2020 Census count of 4,550, Bridgehampton's 2020 Census count of 2,953, and Sagaponack's 2020 Census count of 770. No current FEMA flood zone designation, base flood elevation, Community Rating System classification, or flood-insurance premium for Southampton Village, Bridgehampton, or Sagaponack was independently confirmed during this research pass, and none is invented here. Get the current, address-specific flood zone determination from FEMA's Flood Map Service Center, confirm any elevation certificate and building requirement with the applicable village office or the Town of Southampton, and get a current insurance quote from a licensed agent before making any purchase or insurance decision. Nothing on this page is legal, tax, insurance, or financial advice.