On the Market for a Summer Rental?

This is a partial transcript from "Your World with Neil Cavuto," May 14, 2004, that was edited for clarity.

Watch "Your World w/Cavuto" weekdays at 4 p.m. and 1 a.m. ET.

NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: Well, there is no skirting the issue when it comes to summer rentals. If you still need one, you are in luck. Summer vacancies are very high for this time of year. But why? Let's ask a fellow who knows a thing or two about the subject. I'm talking about Scott Durkin, the chief operating officer for The Corcoran Group.

Good to have you.

SCOTT DURKIN, COO, THE CORCORAN GROUP: Thanks for having me.

CAVUTO: How are we looking right now? If I want a swanky place in the Hamptons, is it a hunt or what?

DURKIN: If you need to be on a beach right now, it's yours. You can get a six-bedroom house for about $400,000. There are about four of them.

CAVUTO: Now, when you say $400,000, how long do I have?

DURKIN: You have it from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

CAVUTO: Really? And what — are a lot of people willing to separate with that kind of money?

DURKIN: Oh, sure. Denise Rich, I'm sure you heard her name...

CAVUTO: Oh, sure.

DURKIN: She just rented her house for $530,000. She got...

CAVUTO: So she had money left over after the Clinton fundraisers.

DURKIN: She had a lot of money. And now she has even more.

CAVUTO: Yes. But you know what I am hearing? And I don't know what is true, Scott. But in some regions, properties that would have been scooped up a long time ago are still available. What does that tell you?

DURKIN: They are available because people took advantage of the interest rates last year and they bought property themselves as an investment. So you have the new homeowner and the old homeowner out there, and you have double the amount of inventory. So you are seeing a lot of inventory left, although a lot has already been rented.

CAVUTO: Do some of the people who are renting them get greedy? Do they assume, well, the economy is improving, I'm going to charge double what I did last year? And then that is what burns them?

DURKIN: Absolutely. We call those the market chasers. And they are out there. That is probably over 50 percent of what is left, the overpriced home. And also, you have the bottom fisher, which is the tenant, which is hoping to find a great bargain. So you have to have both of those and meet in the middle. And we are not seeing that now.

CAVUTO: You're not seeing that. Now, we have a lot of people watching, from the vast non-Hampton part of the country, from the non- Martha's Vineyard part of the country. They might be hearing these prices and just saying ridiculous, But there is a trickle down effect, isn't there?

DURKIN: Yes. Yes. We have seen rents in the Hamptons — I'm sorry, in the Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, and the vacation areas of Cape Cod. They have more than usual this year. I think with the effect of a bad winter and also we haven't had a great spring, it has been very wet.

CAVUTO: What about just higher energy price? Gasoline is costing more. Now I know it will cost you no matter whether you have an airline ticket or you drive to the Hamptons or Martha's Vineyard, or whatever the hot spot is, even on the West Coast. How much of an effect would that be?

DURKIN: Well, it's a great effect. You have over $2 a gallon to get anywhere, and here it takes two to five hours.

CAVUTO: Denise Rich I think could afford it. But a lot of other people...

DURKIN: But she flies in. She has her own helicopter.

CAVUTO: Right.

DURKIN: And now with the other half a million...

CAVUTO: That is this big thing, isn't it? Everyone is helicoptering.

DURKIN: In the Hamptons, when you're in that $400,000 to $500,000 stratosphere, you have your own jet. You fly into the airport.

CAVUTO: Of course. You can't be stuck in traffic. That's ridiculous. All right. Scott Durkin, of The Corcoran Group, good seeing you. Thanks for that perspective.

The Poconos is looking pretty good.

Content and Programming Copyright 2004 Fox News Network, L.L.C. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Transcription Copyright 2004 eMediaMillWorks, Inc. (f/k/a Federal Document Clearing House, Inc.), which takes sole responsibility for the accuracy of the transcription. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No license is granted to the user of this material except for the user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon Fox News Network, L.L.C.'s and eMediaMillWorks, Inc.'s copyrights or other proprietary rights or interests in the material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation.