New Yorkers have found better ways to spend their summer Fridays than sit in bumper-to-bumper traffic on I-495.

With a spike in inventory and waning demand, the median rental price in the Hamptons dropped 26% in Q1, according to New York housing expert Jonathan Miller. The area’s summer rental market may be as cold as the Hamptons in the winter.

Miller told me that in 2020 and 2021, more of NYC’s wealthiest decided to “impulse buy” homes in the Hamptons to ride out the pandemic (because a Manhattan penthouse simply won’t do). The buyers, who are the same people who’d typically rent Hamptons homes from Memorial Day to Labor Day, saw “rapid price appreciation,” which created a sort of hype around home buying at the time.

But they played themselves. “You have people who were renting, now wanting renters, but they have replaced themselves with being a purchaser,” he said. Facepalm.

With rental inventory moving up and prices coming down, you’d think you could snag a great deal … but you’d think wrong. Inventory at the end of Q1 was just one-fourth of where it was in 2019, and prices are still way up compared to then. So maybe that traffic isn’t actually worth it?