Thursday, October 1, 2026
A home at 894 S. Long Beach Ave., in Freeport, has become the most expensive house ever sold in the village, at a price of $2.175 million. The sale of the three-level waterfront house is indicative of the rising home values in the area, even amid widespread concern about affordability on Long Island.
Agents Joshua Mohamed and Laura Chattoo, of Douglas Elliman Real Estate, worked with the homeowner, Mathews Benjamin Abraham, to sell the property, but breaking the sale-price record necessitated some creative marketing tactics.
The house was built in 1942, but underwent extensive renovations and development that multiplied its value. According to public records, Abraham purchased the home for a little more than $1 million, and had more than doubled its value thanks to the renovations.
“It’s very hard to find waterfront properties like that,” Mohamed said when asked what made the home so valuable. “This one was recently renovated — in 2023 it was completed. It’s flood-compliant, so that means it was raised. The basement area, which is about 2,500 square feet, is literally an unused garage, and you can do whatever you want to it.”
Mohamed explained that a house of this size and location typically requires high-cost flood insurance. But because the previous owner undertook such large-scale renovations to make it much less likely to flood, the new owner will pay less than $800 annually for flood insurance, compared with the owners of neighboring homes, many of whom pay over $5,000 per year.
Chattoo noted that despite the fact that top-end homes in Freeport do not have the sky-high values of those in nearby villages — like Merrick, where, the agents say, a house like this one would sell for nearly $1 million more — the record-setting home and others like it are increasing Freeport’s real estate marketability.
“It’s in Freeport and it’s comparable to homes in Merrick and Baldwin Harbor — like, the luxury homes,” Chattoo said.
Before they began offering the home in 2024, the agents said, the property had been listed by a “prestige” real estate agent, and went unsold for over a year. The property was originally listed at nearly $2.25 million, $500,000 more than the previous village record. But thanks to some outside-the-box thinking, the pair were able to close on its sale, to Chung Henry in February.
“We went to the New York Boat Show in Manhattan to promote this listing,” Mohamed recounted. “We made custom fliers. We followed up with people we met at the boat show. We had people calling us to buy boats because we were talking so much!”
They met with potential buyers in Freeport restaurants and establishments along the Nautical Mile. Social media played a major role in their strategy, to attract more attention to the house and showcase its glamorous accommodations.
Adhering to the seller’s wishes also presented challenges, limiting the times at which they could show the property and how they could market it publicly.
“When someone wants to see something, especially at that price, they don’t want to be told, ‘No, come back at another time,’” Mohamed said, adding that the homeowner was as accommodating as he could be, but was adamant about when the house could be shown to prospective buyers.
“It’s also emotional. He was building a place for him and his family to live there,” Mohamed said. The agents explained that the homeowner had no plans to sell the home in which he invested so much — until the plans he had made with his partner unexpectedly changed.
The agents said that Freeport has become a more attractive option for housing for those in all income categories — though this high-profile sale is a reminder of how much less affordable large parts of Long Island have become.
“Long Island has been an exceptionally expensive place to live,” John Hrvatin, director of the Freeport Housing Authority, said. “On a macro basis, this [sale] just proves how difficult it is to make ends meet on Long Island for our affordable-housing sector and for our young adults.”
Chattoo maintains, however, that Long Island, and Freeport, are increasingly desirable places to live. She added that many potential buyers of homes in the area are New York City residents who are tired of the overcrowded urban environment, and look to Long Island for areas that typically offer a better value and quality of life.
“You’re coming out to Long Island for the lifestyle,” Chattoo said. “You might as well live the luxury lifestyle, and you’re getting that here.”
