What Nobody Tells You About Westhampton Beach, NY

A Narrow Barrier-Beach Village, Incorporated in 1928

Westhampton Beach was incorporated as its own village in 1928, within the Town of Southampton in Suffolk County, on Long Island's South Shore -- a distinct incorporation date from the other Hamptons villages already covered on this site, and one that arrived well after the community's summer-resort identity had already taken shape. The village runs its own police, ambulance, and fire departments, and children are served by the Westhampton Beach Union Free School District. The Long Island Rail Road reaches the area via its Montauk Branch, and road access runs along Sunrise Highway (NY 27) and Montauk Highway (CR 80).

What sets the village apart geographically is simply how small and narrow it is: total area is 3.0 square miles, of which only 2.9 square miles is land and 0.1 square miles is water. That is not a large landmass to begin with, and it sits on a barrier beach -- a naturally shifting landform, not a fixed piece of ground -- which matters directly to the disaster and erosion history below.

September 21, 1938: The Hurricane That Killed Twenty-Nine People Here

The single event that most defines Westhampton Beach's history is the hurricane of September 21, 1938, 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 a settled historical fact, not an open or ongoing dispute -- the storm happened, the scale of destruction and loss of life is documented, and the community rebuilt afterward. It is worth stating plainly rather than folding into vague references to "storm history," because twenty-nine deaths in a single village from a single storm is a specific, sobering number that a purely lifestyle-focused description of the area would have no reason to mention.

Chronic Erosion, an 1992 Nor’easter, and Fifteen Houses Moved Inland

Beach erosion became a critical, chronic issue for Westhampton Beach starting in the 1960s, and it has not been a one-time event since. In November 1992, a nor'easter destroyed more than eighty homes and prompted renewed intervention from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Then, sometime in the mid-1990s, fifteen historic houses were physically relocated inland specifically to save them from the eroding shoreline -- a scale of managed retreat that is unusual even among Long Island's other shorefront communities. Hurricane Sandy in 2012 required additional restoration work along the shoreline on top of all of that.

No specific dollar figure for the November 1992 nor'easter's damages or for the cost of relocating those fifteen houses in the mid-1990s could be confirmed, and none is presented here. What can be said is that this is a shoreline with a documented, repeated history of losing ground and losing structures, and one where the engineering response -- Army Corps intervention, house relocation, post-Sandy restoration -- has had to keep happening rather than being a single fix applied once and forgotten.

What the Census Numbers and the Historic Register Show

Westhampton Beach's 2020 census population was 2,150, up from 1,902 in the 2000 census. The most recent detailed demographic breakdown available is from that 2000 census -- explicitly dated figures, not a current snapshot -- showing 89.17% White, 4.63% African American, 1.16% Asian, and 7.68% Hispanic/Latino residents, a median household income of $58,438, a median family income of $74,412, and roughly 9% of the population living below the poverty line at that time. Those 2000 figures should not be read as describing today's village; they simply establish where the community stood a quarter-century ago.

Three sites within the village are listed on the National Register of Historic Places: the Crowther House, the Foster-Meeker House, and the U.S. Post Office. Their presence on the register reflects preserved history rather than any statement about current market value or condition, and buyers interested in either building should confirm current status directly rather than assuming register status alone answers any practical question.

What the Facts Add Up to for a Buyer

Put together: Westhampton Beach is a village incorporated in 1928 on 3.0 square miles of narrow barrier-beach land, a place where a single 1938 hurricane killed twenty-nine residents and destroyed nearly every summer home standing at the time, where erosion has been a chronic problem since the 1960s, where a single 1992 nor'easter destroyed more than eighty homes, and where fifteen historic houses had to be moved inland in the mid-1990s to escape the advancing shoreline. That is a real, documented, repeated history of physical destruction and adaptation -- not a marketing footnote, and not a reason by itself to avoid the area, since the community has in fact rebuilt and continued after each event described here.

No confirmed current 2026 home price, property-tax rate, or flood-insurance figure specific to Westhampton Beach is presented on this page, and no specific local businesses or current Main Street retail listings are named, because none were confirmed in the research behind it. Anyone evaluating a specific property here should confirm current pricing, flood-zone status, and insurance costs with a local real estate agent, Town of Southampton or village records, and a licensed insurance agent before making an offer. Nothing on this page is legal, tax, or financial advice.