What Year-Round Living Actually Looks Like in Southampton, Bridgehampton, and Sagaponack

Three Places, Three Different Governments -- Not One Town

The first thing worth understanding about this market is that "Southampton" is not a single governed place. Southampton Village is a separately incorporated village, incorporated in 1894. Bridgehampton, by contrast, is an unincorporated hamlet within the Town of Southampton -- it has never had a village government of its own. Sagaponack is different again: it did not become its own incorporated village until September 2, 2005, making it one of the newest incorporated villages in New York State. Three neighboring places, three different governance statuses, all frequently marketed under a single "Southampton" umbrella.

That distinction is not just administrative trivia. It means the three places have different local governments to deal with, different histories of how they came to be organized the way they are, and -- as the population and housing figures below show -- very different year-round realities underneath a shared reputation for seasonal wealth.

Southampton Village: New York's Oldest English Settlement, and Its Actual Population

Southampton Village traces its founding to 1640, when English colonists from Lynn, Massachusetts, landed at Conscience Point on June 12. The village's own government describes it as the oldest English settlement in the state of New York -- older than East Hampton's 1648 founding. The Shinnecock tribe assisted those early settlers with agricultural techniques and land access. The village was incorporated in 1894, and it became a premier summer resort community starting around 1863, a full three decades before incorporation. Today the village covers 7.2 square miles (6.4 land, 0.81 water) and borders both the Shinnecock Indian Reservation to the southwest and Shinnecock Hills Golf Club to the northwest.

The year-round population is where the seasonal-wealth image and the documented reality start to diverge. The 2020 census recorded 4,550 residents, a 46.3% increase from 2010; a 2017 estimate had put the figure at 3,193, and the 2000 census recorded 3,965. As of 2017, the village was 74.5% White, 16.7% Black, 3.6% Asian, 4.4% other races, and 0.9% multiracial, with 22.5% identifying as Hispanic or Latino; median age was 55.2 and median household income was $96,250, with 22% of families earning over $200,000. William "Bill" Manger Jr. was serving as mayor as of July 2023.

Approximately half of the Hamptons' billionaire residents are said to live in Southampton Village, and Meadow Lane has picked up the nickname "Billionaire Lane." Historical notable residents include members of the Ford, Du Pont, Morgan, Vanderbilt, and Eisenhower families; more recent notable residents include George Soros, Calvin Klein, Michael J. Fox, Brooke Shields, Tory Burch, Howard Stern, and Steven Mnuchin. The village is also home to 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 country by at least one source. All of that sits alongside a year-round village population of 4,550 -- a real, growing community, but a far smaller and more ordinary one than the billionaire-nickname coverage alone would suggest.

Bridgehampton: No Village Government, and a Hamlet That Sits Mostly Empty

Bridgehampton has no separate village government -- it is an unincorporated hamlet within the Town of Southampton, established shortly after Southampton's 1640 founding as settlers moved eastward. It was originally called "Bullhead" before being renamed after a bridge built across a pond: the Sagg Bridge, built in 1686 by Ezekiel Sandford, connecting Mecox and Sagaponack. Criminal-turned-memoirist Stephen Burroughs lived in Bridgehampton in the 1700s and helped found the town's first library there in 1793.

The hamlet's Census Designated Place covers 13.6 square miles (13.0 land, 0.62 water), and it recorded a 2020 census population of 2,953, with a median age of 47.2 and a gender ratio of 98.6 males per 100 females. The population splits 68.6% urban to 31.4% rural, spread across 1,136 households, 50.5% of them married-couple households. The single most telling figure here is housing: Bridgehampton has 2,632 housing units, and 56.8% of them are vacant -- a vacancy rate that is itself the clearest evidence of just how seasonal this community's housing stock actually is, with roughly three units sitting empty for every two that are occupied.

Bridgehampton is home to the Hampton Classic horse show, and it was formerly home to the Bridgehampton Race Circuit, a 2.85-mile road-racing course that has since been converted into a golf course and residential homes. It also contained the last full-size Kmart on the mainland United States, which closed on October 20, 2024. Notable residents have included Baseball Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski, MLB catcher A.J. Pierzynski, business executive Lloyd Blankfein, CNBC presenter Carl Quintanilla, and Brigadier General Isaac Sandford.

Sagaponack: New York's Newest Village, and Its Smallest Year-Round Population

Sagaponack was first settled around 1653, with Josiah Stanborough recorded as settling there in 1656; it was originally named "Sagg." It stayed unincorporated far longer than Southampton Village, only becoming its own incorporated village on September 2, 2005 -- and it did so specifically to prevent a proposed rival incorporation called Dunehampton from controlling beach access. That dispute is fully resolved: Sagaponack incorporated, and Dunehampton did not proceed as a competing village. The name Sagaponack itself derives from a Shinnecock word meaning "land of the big ground nuts," a reference to Apios americana, a wild tuber -- not potatoes, as is commonly and incorrectly believed.

The current incorporated village covers 4.7 square miles (4.4 land, 0.23 water); the pre-incorporation Census Designated Place had been noticeably larger, at roughly 8.0 square miles. Sagaponack's 2020 census population was just 770, up from 582 in the 2000 census (recorded then as a CDP). Dated 2000-census figures put the population at 92.78% White, 2.58% African American, and 2.58% Asian, with a median age of 46 and 18.2% of residents 65 or older; median household income was $54,048 and per capita income was $44,474 -- all from 2000 and not current figures.

Sagaponack's ZIP code, 11962, has ranked as the most expensive ZIP code in the United States in multiple years, including 2009 and 2018 -- the 2018 median home price was reported at $8.5 million, and the 2015 median was $5,125,000; at least one source has called it "the second wealthiest zip code in the United States." Ira Rennert's estate there, with 29 bedrooms, has been described as the largest home in America. Sagaponack also operates one of the last remaining active one-room schoolhouses in New York State, the Sagaponack School, serving grades K-3. 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, and the Elizabeth Reese House, designed by architect Andrew Geller, is considered historically significant. A village with a genuinely tiny year-round population of 770 people carries some of the most extreme wealth statistics in the entire United States -- and both things are true at once.

Seasonal Wealth Versus Who Is Actually Here Full-Time

Line the three places up and the contrast is direct rather than subtle. Southampton Village has a real and growing year-round population of 4,550, up 46.3% since 2010 -- a genuine, if modest, community rather than a ghost town outside of summer. Bridgehampton, despite hosting the Hampton Classic and carrying a horse-country reputation, has a 56.8% housing vacancy rate, meaning most of its housing stock sits unused most of the year even though 2,953 people do live there year-round. Sagaponack combines some of the most extreme wealth figures found anywhere in the country -- a ZIP code that has repeatedly ranked as the most expensive in the nation -- with a year-round population of only 770.

None of that means any of the three places is empty or fake. It means the seasonal, wealth-driven image built around billionaire nicknames, record ZIP-code prices, and celebrity residents describes a small slice of the calendar and, in some cases, a small slice of the housing stock -- not the year-round community that a prospective full-time resident would actually be joining. Someone considering a permanent move should think about which of these three governance structures, population sizes, and housing patterns they are actually moving into, rather than treating "the Hamptons" as one interchangeable place.

Costs and Numbers We Are Not Going to Invent

This page does not state a current (2026) median home price, property tax rate, or flood insurance premium for Southampton Village, Bridgehampton, or Sagaponack, because no such current figure specific to any of the three places was confirmed in the research behind this page. The one concrete pricing data point available -- Sagaponack's 11962 ZIP code posting a $8.5 million median home price in 2018 and $5,125,000 in 2015 -- is real but dated, and should be treated as illustrative of historical wealth concentration rather than as a current asking price anywhere in this market.

Anyone seriously evaluating a year-round move to Southampton Village, Bridgehampton, or Sagaponack should get current home prices, property tax rates, and flood insurance costs directly from a local real estate agent, the relevant village or Town of Southampton assessor's office, and a licensed insurance agent before making any financial decision. Nothing on this page is financial, tax, legal, or relocation advice.

Adding It Up: Three Governments, Three Population Realities, One Shared Reputation

What is confirmed here: Southampton Village, incorporated in 1894 and settled in 1640 as what its own government calls the oldest English settlement in New York State, has a 2020 year-round population of 4,550, up 46.3% from 2010. Bridgehampton, an unincorporated hamlet with no village government of its own, has a 2020 population of 2,953 living alongside a 56.8% housing vacancy rate. Sagaponack, incorporated as its own village only in 2005 after a resolved dispute over a rival incorporation called Dunehampton, has a 2020 population of just 770, even as its ZIP code has repeatedly ranked among the most expensive in the country.

The honest summary for someone weighing a full-time move: these are three distinct communities with three distinct governments, and in every one of them, the year-round population is smaller, quieter, and less uniformly wealthy than the seasonal reputation suggests. Visit each place separately, in the off-season, and confirm current population trends, home prices, property taxes, and insurance costs directly with the relevant village government, the Town of Southampton, a local real estate agent, and a licensed insurance agent before deciding. Nothing on this page is financial, tax, or relocation advice.