REAL ESTATE

THAT SUNKEN FEELING

The era of being overly impressed by the sunken living room is over. These days, there seems to be a new sunken item that is garnering admiration: the sunken tennis court. It's hard to say why it's become quite the popular accoutrement among the private court set. Less visual stress? That happy feeling gazing down at it? Fewer stray balls on the manicured lawn? The court shown above is a perfect example. And this one also happens to come with a lovely mansion in Southampton. Marc Heskell of the Corcoran Group has the $14,995,000 listing (631-899-0118).—W.O'B.

The Way We Are
For many, many years, the price of Hamptons real estate has gone only one way: up! There have been periods where the market has flat-lined but the next level was always up. Today's morass of sub-prime wretchedness does recall the consequences of the 1987 market crash. As a buyer or seller, a reprise of that market crisis might reveal to us how to handle the current result of lubricious financial chicanery in our own realm of softening real estate values. As usual, history does repeat itself, and that's why we are as thunderstruck as ever. The last time we had a significant downturn in the real estate market, 1987-91, the Hamptons went into stagnation mode. Buyers wouldn't buy and sellers, unless they were desperate, wouldn't budge. To wit: a kind of defiant stalemate that the rich and powerful grip with perfervid gall.

That the banal essentials of wealth this time would take such a tumble has been apparent for a while. In comparison, the '87 crash was a one-day jolt like a pound of pain for every ounce of anguish. Many lost millions for a moment, but stocks recovered as companies bought their shares back cheaply. The junk bond dramas were still playing out after so many years of LBOs and mergers.