FANTASY ISLAND
Tiny FISHERS ISLAND is the anti-Hamptons where nature meets exclusivity
MOST New Yorkers have never heard of Fishers Island, the under-the-radar 9-mile-long islet wedged between Connecticut’s shore and the North Fork of Long Island.
And most locals on the unspoiled island have typically liked it that way, preferring instead to keep its bucolic charm and empty beaches to themselves.
The remote community is home to a mere 250 year-round residents. The only ferry serving Fishers Island operates out of New London, Conn., nearly a three hour’s drive or Amtrak train ride from Manhattan.
But New Yorkers looking to escape the swelling crowds and rising home prices in places like the Hamptons or Jersey Shore this summer, may find Fishers Island’s relaxed, laidback vibe the perfect alternative.
With all the charm of Martha’s Vineyard or Nantucket, Fishers Island offers a rich history, scant traffic and generally gentler home prices compared to other moneyed summer locations. And after years of an extremely low inventory of homes for sale, the beachy enclave is seeing more properties hit the market.
“It’s a fairly tight-knit community with an authentic small town feel in summer,” says Jim Reid, a real estate agent at Mystic Isle Realty who has been selling and renting homes on the island for decades. Raised in Manhattan, his parents started coming to Fishers Island in the 1950s. His father eventually moved for good from the city in the mid 1970s and started the real estate firm that Reid runs today.
Though the island’s notoriously scant housing supply has always been challenging for second-home shoppers — there are only about 650 homes in total — it has about 25 homes currently on the market, listing data show. That’s a third more than last summer, as sellers keen to offload properties are bringing them to market.
“We saw about 15 homes sell last year as more people were
willing to lower asking prices,” says Reid. “That’s nearly double the number we had in the prior year.”
While many of the island’s homes carry price tags in the million dollar range, some larger homes com packed with amenities and can list for more than twice that amount.
Mystic Isle Realty is currently selling a ninebedroom home on 3.99 acres for $3.25 million. The Colonial Revival has direct water frontage, a pool and views “of ” spanning from Watch Hill, RI, to Montauk. The firm is also selling a four-bedroom waterfront home on 1.3 acres for $985,000. That single-level house includes three bathrooms, a fireplace and a large sunroom leading to the backyard.
“Compared to the Hamptons or Martha’s Vineyard these prices are still pretty inexpensive,” Reid says.
Though only publicly accessible from Connecticut via ferry, Fishers Island actually belongs to New York State. It is part of the town of Southold in Suffolk County on Long Island. Although its core population is tiny, that number swells to well over 2,000 during peak summer weekends as throngs disembark on the island from Connecticut.
Fishers’ history as an exclusive summer sanctuary dates back a century to when it housed properties owned by names such as du Pont, Whitney, Roosevelt and Luce. These days the island is still inhabited by residents who like their privacy, which is underscored by its striking lack of development — though more recent summer visitors have included folks like Porter Goss, a former CIA director, and author Rick Moody, who wrote “The Ice Storm.”
While Fishers Island may ooze charm, it has few commercial or recreation amenities. There’s only one bar — the Pequot Inn — and no hotels or upscale boutiques. The small town center includes just three gift stores, a liquor store and an ice cream shop. There’s also a small supermarket and deli.
“It’s a precious island with a strong sense of history,” says island resident Heather Burnham. She’s embarking on her 20th summer on the island running the Beach Plum, a seasonal gift shop inside an old firehouse that sells everything from clothing and accessories to works by local artists.
“It’s not like a lot of summer communities where there are a bunch of places to go,” she says with pride. “But there’s never any traffic or stress here.”
Sarah Malinowski and her husband, Steve, have owned the Fishers Island Oyster Farm for more than 30 years.
The family-run company sells its oysters directly to customers and chefs, including Manhattan posh restaurants such as Balthazar and PJ Clarke’s.
“We live out here year-round and love all the seasons,” says Sarah. Originally from Ohio, she had been coming to Fishers Island in the summers since childhood and eventually moved into her family’s summer house in 1978. “Winters can be a little rough, but summers rival any place in New England.”
With two private golf clubs, a yacht club, and fishing for bass and bluefish, the island is an easy sell as a weekend getaway. Yet the allure for many frugal New Yorkers may be its palatable home prices compared to other oceanfront locations outside of Manhattan.
“You’ll end up paying almost half what you would for a home on the Connecticut coast or on the North Fork (of Long Island),” says Nancy Mesham, a broker at Coldwell Banker in Old Lyme, Conn., an affluent shoreline village just across Long Island Sound.
She estimates that many homes on Fishers Island can be had for a very reasonable $400,000 to $700,000. “But even at those prices you’ll end up getting much more for the money.”
The summer rental market on Fishers Island is also more affordable than many locations in the Hamptons. Weekly rates in peak summer months typically average $3,000 to $4,000 per week for a home facing the water — roughly half what you’d pay for similar properties on the North and South Fork, Reid says.
A five-bedroom home on the water is currently renting for $5,900 per week by Mystic Isle Realty. That property has a hot tub and a large terrace overlooking Long Island Sound.
And, we suspect, very few neighbors.