Globetrotting CNN anchor Anderson Cooper didn’t have to stray far to drop close to $2 million on a new home. He just bought the property next door to his Hamptons estate, sources said.

The Quogue house used to belong to Budd Schulberg, Oscar-winning screenwriter of the 1954 film classic “On the Waterfront.” He died in 2009.

The last asking price for the 1946 home on 2.4 wooded acres overlooking Aspatuck Creek had been $2.25 million.

Cooper got it for $1.7 million — and plans to preserve it so that no one else tears it down to build a McMansion, a source said.