Community Preservation Fund Has Second Consecutive Record-Breaking First Quarter

Peconic Bay Region Community Preservation Fund revenue was just about flat across the East End during the first quarter of the year, as the haul from the 2 percent tax on real estate sales was down slightly in Southampton Town and up a little in East Hampton Town, balancing each other out.

Still, the modest 1.6 percent increase in revenue in the five East End towns collectively was enough to break the first-quarter record that was set last year. In the first three months of 2022, the CPF brought in $56.1 million that can be used for open space preservation and water quality protection and improvements.

According to the office of New York State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., in March alone the CPF brought in $16.81 million, or 7.4 percent less than it did during the same month last year.

Back in the first quarter of 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic was emerging globally and before there was a run on East End real estate, the CPF total was just $30.92 million. Now, interest is still high in South Fork, North Fork and Shelter Island homes, and prices are as high as they ever have been, but the inventory has been so tight that it has dampened the number of sales.

In the first quarter this year, Southampton alone brought in $30.25 million, a 3.4 percent decline from the same period in 2021. East Hampton brought in $18.75 million, a 7.1 percent increase.

Since its inception in 1999, the CPF has generated $1.87 billion. March was the 20th consecutive month that CPF revenue has exceeded $10 million.

The 2 percent tax expires in 2050.