Living in the Hamptons is far from cheap — and now, in Montauk, a glam 1,200-square-foot trailer has listed for $1.19 million.
Offering a front-row seat to the Atlantic Ocean and a glimpse into the evolving landscape of one of the Hamptons’ most surprisingly exclusive enclaves, this residence — whose exterior marketing images show a tidy-looking mobile home — is the only four-bedroom unit in the Montauk Shores community.
It may seem to be a no-frills trailer park, but make no mistake — Montauk Shores has become home to a roster of ultra-wealthy homeowners, if not billionaires.
Built in 1986, this residence, which has 1.5 bathrooms, has marble countertops, a spacious deck and an outdoor shower.
“It sits there all by itself … This home is very, very private,” Susan Ceslow of Douglas Elliman who holds the listing, told The Post.
Ceslow sold this very unit to the current owners, a family, back in 2016 for $460,000.
“They’re just kind of now looking for something bigger,” she said.
While it’s a steal compared to the Hamptons’ multimillion-dollar estates, the listing underscores a seismic shift in this trailer park, where prices have soared over the past decade — turning a once-humble retreat into a warm-weather playground for the wealthy.
“Everybody just loves being there in the park,” Ceslow said. “One of the things I love about it is for all the people that are in there and their kids, they all meet and ride bikes around together and get to the playground together. And they just become lifelong friends from all over the place. It’s just a fabulous park to be in.”
Montauk Shores, a 65-year-old community perched near Ditch Plains — a surfer’s paradise along Long Island’s East End — has quietly shed its working-class roots.
Today, it’s a patchwork of 199 homes, ranging from weathered trailers to polished modular units, spread across 152 owned lots and 47 leased sites.
This $1.19 million trailer, an end unit with no immediate neighbors, sits on a leased site, meaning no property taxes, but a cash-only purchase — and no mortgages allowed.
Residents enjoy a heated pool, a children’s playground, a basketball court and a clubhouse, perks that amplify its allure. Yet this listing is just the latest marker in a decade-long ascent that has redefined the neighborhood’s identity.
Ten years ago, such a price tag would have been unthinkable. Ken Hilderbrandt, a jet-ski rental business owner, recalled buying a dilapidated trailer in Montauk Shores in 1998 for $96,500 after scoffing at the initial $150,000 ask.
“I said, ‘That’s ridiculous.’ It was old. It needed to be gutted,” he previously told The Post. A decade later, he replaced it with a two-bedroom, two-bathroom modular home, investing $100,000 in upgrades like a wraparound porch and laminate floors.
Now, he estimates it could fetch $60,000 as a three-month summer rental — or $5 million if he ever sold.
“Back then, you could rent them for $50 a month,” he said, reflecting on a time when the community catered to surfers and locals, not a moneyed elite.
The turning point came in the 2010s, as deep-pocketed buyers began eyeing Montauk Shores’ unbeatable location.
In 2022, a trailer sold for $1.85 million, then a community record. That benchmark was shattered in 2023 when an 800-square-foot oceanfront unit fetched $3.75 million off-market, as The Post reported at that time. That record still stands.
In June 2024, another trailer listed for $3.2 million, still unsold, while a 2,150-square-foot property briefly tested the waters at $4.4 million before retreating from the market.
These sales reflect a frenzy fueled by boldfaced names — Vitaminwater co-founder J. Darius Bikoff, hedge-fund titan Dan Loeb and film producer Karen Lauder have all staked claims here.
Jimmy Buffett once vied for a $430,000 trailer in 2005, losing out to caterer Janet O’Brien, who outbid him.
“It overlooks the break right there!” O’Brien told New York Magazine, touting its investment potential. “Honestly, it’s waterfront! It’s a good investment. I didn’t even look inside it before I bought it.”
(We hear Buffet still owns another home in the community.)
What began as a tent campsite in the 1940s and morphed into New York’s first trailer-park condo association in 1976 has become an improbable status symbol.
“The people who are buying in there are no longer firemen from New York City who want to go surfing on the weekend, they’re people who have a lot of money for a second home who say ‘I want to be right where the surf break is,’” Dave Rutkowski, owner of Montauk’s John’s Drive-In since 1967, previously told The Post. “It’s wild to think that a trailer could ever sell for that much money.”
The $1.19 million trailer at unit 433 may not break records, but it encapsulates Montauk Shores’ evolution from a surfer’s haven to a retreat for a deep-pocketed resident.
“So many people have owned there for so long and still do, and they just come out for the summer,” Ceslow said.
“There are some people that live there year round. But I’d say, for the most part, it’s probably more of a summer second getaway.”