Waterfront vs. Non-Waterfront Living in Westhampton Beach, NY
Westhampton Beach is not a large town with a waterfront edge and an inland interior. It is a village incorporated in 1928, within the Town of Southampton on Long Island's South Shore, whose entire footprint totals just 3.0 square miles, 2.9 of them land and 0.1 water — a narrow barrier-beach community where the ocean is never far from anywhere. That geography changes what "waterfront vs. non-waterfront" even means here compared with larger Hamptons villages. It also means the village's real, documented history of hurricane destruction, chronic erosion, and a mid-1990s relocation of fifteen historic houses inland is not background trivia — it is the single most important fact a buyer weighing a beachfront lot against a few blocks inland needs to understand. No exact current home-price premium separating waterfront from non-waterfront addresses here was confirmed during research for this page, so what follows is directional, not a quoted figure, and any prospective buyer should work with a local real estate agent, a real-estate attorney, and an insurance professional familiar with this specific barrier beach before making an offer.
A Village That Is Itself a Barrier Beach
Westhampton Beach incorporated as its own village in 1928, within the Town of Southampton, Suffolk County, on Long Island's South Shore. It runs its own police, ambulance, and fire departments and is served by the Westhampton Beach Union Free School District. The Long Island Rail Road reaches the area via the Montauk Branch, and road access runs through Sunrise Highway (NY 27) and Montauk Highway (CR 80). None of that is unusual for a Long Island village on its own.
What is unusual is the total area: 3.0 square miles, of which only 2.9 square miles is land and 0.1 square miles is water. That is an extraordinarily small and narrow footprint, and it reflects the fact that Westhampton Beach sits on a barrier beach, a thin strip of land separating the Atlantic Ocean from Moriches Bay. In a village this narrow, "non-waterfront" rarely means far from the water in any absolute sense; it more often means a street or two set back from direct ocean frontage, still on the same exposed spit of land. That single geographic fact is what makes the waterfront-versus-non-waterfront question here different from the same question in a larger, more inland-heavy Hamptons village.
September 21, 1938: A Fully Resolved Disaster, Not an Open Question
The single most defining event in Westhampton Beach's history is the September 21, 1938 hurricane, remembered as the "Long Island Express." It devastated the community, destroyed nearly all of the summer homes standing on the barrier beach, and caused twenty-nine deaths in Westhampton Beach specifically. This is settled history, not an ongoing dispute or a live threat in the way a current zoning fight would be — it is a documented disaster nearly ninety years in the past.
Its relevance to a buyer today is not that another storm exactly like it is imminent, but that it set a precedent this village has had to reckon with more than once since. A barrier-beach community that has already lost nearly all of its beachfront housing stock to one storm has a different relationship to waterfront risk than a village that has never faced anything comparable, and that history is part of what any waterfront purchase here inherits.
The Ongoing Engineering Reality: Erosion Since the 1960s and the House Relocations
Unlike the 1938 hurricane, beach erosion in Westhampton Beach is not resolved history — it became a critical, chronic issue beginning in the 1960s and has continued as an active engineering concern since. A nor'easter in November 1992 destroyed more than eighty homes and prompted renewed intervention from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. No specific dollar figure for that storm's damage was confirmed during research for this page, and none is estimated here.
The most striking response to that erosion came in the mid-1990s, when fifteen historic houses were physically relocated inland to save them from the eroding shoreline — a scale of managed retreat that goes well beyond routine storm repairs. Hurricane Sandy in 2012 required additional restoration work along the shoreline on top of that. Taken together, this is a genuinely different and more severe erosion-and-relocation history than a buyer will find in most other coastal communities, and it is the central fact that should inform any decision about how close to the water to buy.
What Waterfront Actually Buys Here
Given that history, "waterfront" in Westhampton Beach means direct exposure to the same barrier-beach dynamics that destroyed nearly every summer home here in 1938 and required relocating fifteen historic houses inland roughly sixty years later. The upside is real: unobstructed ocean frontage on a narrow barrier beach is a genuinely scarce and desirable asset, and it is reasonable to expect that scarcity to carry some price premium over comparable non-waterfront property in the same village. But no exact current premium figure was confirmed during research for this page, and none is invented here — treat any number you hear from a listing or a broker as a starting point for verification, not a settled fact.
The tradeoff is the risk side of the same coin: erosion has been a chronic, active issue since the 1960s, storms have required Army Corps of Engineers intervention within living memory, and this village has already had to move historic structures away from the shoreline once. A buyer considering a waterfront address here should ask pointed questions about current flood-zone designation, insurance cost and availability, bulkhead or dune-stabilization status, and any recent Army Corps or village erosion-mitigation activity on that specific stretch of beach — and should do so with a local agent, an attorney, and an insurance professional who know this particular barrier beach, not a generalized Hamptons market.
Non-Waterfront: Historic Properties and a Small Year-Round Village
Moving off the immediate waterfront in Westhampton Beach does not mean leaving the barrier beach's character behind, but it does mean stepping back from direct ocean exposure. Three sites here are listed on the National Register of Historic Places: the Crowther House, the Foster-Meeker House, and the U.S. Post Office, a concentration of protected historic architecture that has nothing to do with beach frontage and everything to do with the village's inland streets and its identity beyond the shoreline.
The year-round population is small either way: 2,150 residents at the 2020 census, up from 1,902 in 2000. The most detailed demographic breakdown on record dates to the 2000 census — 89.17 percent White, 4.63 percent African American, 1.16 percent Asian, and 7.68 percent Hispanic or Latino, with a median household income of $58,438, a median family income of $74,412, and roughly 9 percent of the population living below the poverty line — figures that are dated and should not be read as current. Whether a buyer chooses a waterfront lot or an inland street near the Crowther House or the Foster-Meeker House, they are buying into the same small, tightly bounded village government and the same barrier-beach geography; the difference is one of proximity and exposure to the water, not of two separate communities.
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Get a Free Agent Referral →Independent research. No ads. No sponsored listings. Data drawn from research on the Village of Westhampton Beach, New York. Incorporated as a village in 1928, within the Town of Southampton, Suffolk County, on Long Island's South Shore; served by the Westhampton Beach Union Free School District; maintains its own police, ambulance, and fire departments; served by the Long Island Rail Road's Montauk Branch, Sunrise Highway (NY 27), and Montauk Highway (CR 80). Total area 3.0 square miles (2.9 land, 0.1 water), reflecting its barrier-beach geography. The September 21, 1938 "Long Island Express" hurricane devastated the community, destroyed nearly all summer homes on the barrier beach, and caused twenty-nine deaths in Westhampton Beach specifically; this is presented as fully resolved historical fact, not an ongoing matter. Beach erosion became a critical, chronic issue beginning in the 1960s; a nor'easter in November 1992 destroyed more than eighty homes and prompted renewed U.S. Army Corps of Engineers intervention; fifteen historic houses were physically relocated inland in the mid-1990s to save them from the eroding shoreline; Hurricane Sandy in 2012 required additional restoration work along the shoreline. Three sites are listed on the National Register of Historic Places: the Crowther House, the Foster-Meeker House, and the U.S. Post Office. Population: 2020 census 2,150; 2000 census 1,902. 2000 census demographics: 89.17 percent White, 4.63 percent African American, 1.16 percent Asian, 7.68 percent Hispanic or Latino; median household income $58,438; median family income $74,412; approximately 9 percent of the population living below the poverty line (2000 figures, dated, not current). No exact current (2026) home-price premium, property-tax rate, or flood-insurance figure specific to Westhampton Beach was confirmed during this research pass, no specific dollar figure for the November 1992 nor'easter damage or the mid-1990s house-relocation project cost was confirmed, and no current named local businesses or Main Street retail listings were confirmed; none of these are invented here. Prices, insurance costs, and flood-zone designations all change; confirm current numbers with a local real estate agent, a real-estate attorney, an insurance professional familiar with this barrier beach, the Village of Westhampton Beach, Suffolk County government, and FEMA's Flood Map Service Center before making any purchase decision. Nothing on this page is legal, tax, or financial advice.