REAL ESTATE

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On the surface, the panoply that is the Hamptons remains the same if you blink fast. But 2006 was a banner year for big sales, which will or have already resulted in consummate digs. Ocean Road in Bridgehampton has become a boulevard of heavily dormered shingled manors—far too many, in my opinion, for such a leafy byway.

Further Lane in East Hampton has been under siege, too. While the street has always attracted the formidable, it's now alight with billionaires. About the only old-timer left—who seems like an old-money coot compared to his new neighbors—is Bruce Wasserstein and his sprawling 26 oceanfront acres, which was the second-largest spread after the 40-acre de Menil estate that is now changing hands. By comparison, his neat, shingled residence is Lilliputian compared to the new sharecroppers.

Money maven Ron Baron finally tore down the contemporary that stood on his 11-acre oceanfront parcel for 30 years. What's rising looks enormous, probably 200 feet wide and half as deep. The eight-acre lawn in front of the house holds priceless old trees as large as arboretums posed for planting.

Down the road sits Wall Street potentate Chris Browne's 18-acre oceanfront estate, once the charming seaside villa of social doyenne Liz Fondaras, whose usual A-list summer luncheon crowd would have made Browne writhe with envy. He likes to bide his time developing a property before taking residence. The grounds generally go under several years of emergent nurturing, making the construction of the house almost an afterthought—though hardly demure.

There are still some major properties along the lane that have not been developed yet. Yahoo's Terry Semel's $43 million buy from the Lord of Wall Street, Stephen Schwarzman, has been cleared and the property, once a 10-acre hodgepodge of stubby pines, sparkles in a panorama of majestic ocean vistas.