REAL ESTATE

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Where's a good place to look these days? DePersia says Amagansett north because of its proximity to the water. (He recently sold a house in nearby East Hampton north for $4.67 million, a possible record for that area.)

With prices for quality properties south of the highway remaining high, more prospective homebuyers are going north. One property attracting considerable attention is a listing from Barbara Sloan of the Allan Schneider office in Southampton. It's the estate of noted ad man Martin Puris, available with the main house on 11 acres with a guest house and barn and/or additional subdivisible acreage with or without housing. "This main house must be seen," says Sloan. "It's too beautiful for words." She argues that premium buyers are less concerned about any north or south of the highway controversy.

At What Price Fame?
Jackie O. slept here. Andy Warhol lived here. The Rolling Stones wrote songs here. Truman Capote drank tequila here. And Victoria Secret models posed for their catalogue here. Talk about interesting energy. While Eothen, the original Church family estate in Montauk, has been for sale for years, Tony Cerio and Mitch Natter of Brown Harris Stevens are marketing the 5.6-acre oceanside oasis exclusively at the reduced price of $40 million, $10 million less than it was originally. (Eothen is a Greek word meaning "toward the east" and it doesn't get any more east than this.)

Cerio and Natter thought they had good luck out of the starting gate when a wealthy European who saw their Internet listing remembered the estate from having stayed there years back. He made a cash offer but had to stay overseas, so the property is still available.