Stat of the summer: Hamptons home prices plunge 28 percent

There's no more telling stat of the scope and depth of both the U.S. housing and economic downturns than what it's done to prices at the high end.

Median home prices in the Hamptons, the preferred beach destination for New York's rich, plummeted 28 percent in the past year, according to data compiled by Town & Country, Bloomberg News reported. The median price was $698,461.