A recent taxi ride made us think: JUST MAYBE

Tens of thousands of finance guys laid off has to mean fewer d-bags in the Hamptons, no? According to a recent VF article, it does seem like there’s a bit of sag to the Hamptons step. It would appear that millionaire d-bags are hurting, but not the billionaire d-bags (or at a billion dollars, is one just too rich to be a d-bag?)

Specifically, $20MM and more houses are still doing well, but multi-million dollar properties are not moving. Hamptons broker Judi Desiderio of Town & Country does some back of the envelope calculations: “Let’s say only 10 percent of those owned houses on the high end—that’s 200 people. Let’s say just 20 percent of those owned houses south of the highway between Bridgehampton and Sagaponack and Water Mill and they all bought their houses for between $3 million and $5 million. That would be 40 houses now put on the market at $10 to $15 million.”

Meanwhile, there are people who are looking to buy in this range — the bargain hunters, or as the local brokers call them, “the undertakers.”

One such Wall Street specimen of this type of bargain hunter looked at 200+ properties and made offers of “50 cents on the dollar” on 2 or 3 properties, says another broker.

There may be good reasons to be looking. For one — rental prices are through the roof. Believe it or not there are people who are paying HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS for a summer rental. “You can get a nice house in Bridgehampton with tennis court for $250,000,” says Corcoran’s Susan Breitenbach of the 2008 summer-rental market. “But north of the highway. To get the same house south of the highway, you need to spend $350,000 to $400,000.”

And in Sag Harbor, the yachts are piling up in the marina and one lucky Wall Streeter shelled out $395,000 for a rental.

Meanwhile, BankersBall’s poll of a taxi driver puts the 2008 summer traffic at about 70% of what it was last year. According to this driver, the July 4th weekend was the best weekend of the year so far. Guess it’s all that summer share traffic.