Nantucket Real Estate Market Exceeds $2.3 Billion In Sales During 2021

The final numbers for the 2021 Real Estate Market on Nantucket have been officially added up. Town Assessor Rob Ranney told the Current early Friday morning that there were 825 sales for a total dollar volume of $2.337 billion in 2021.

The 825 sales are a 22% increase from 2020 (679) and the $2.337 billion in total dollar volume is a 23% increase from 2020 ($1.89 billion). Both numbers in 2020 were records prior to these official numbers from 2021.

“After what we saw in 2020 I had a hard time believing that we would approach the $2 billion mark, let alone go over it (this year),” Ranney told the Current last week. “Nonetheless, 2021 easily smashed the record for highest real estate transaction dollar volume for any year in Nantucket history.”

The average sale price in 2021 was $3,109,062, which was 7.8 percent higher than in 2020. The average sale compared to the assessed value of the property was 156 percent higher, which is a 20.9 percent increase from the sale prices in 2020 that were blowing assessed value out of the water. Properties were on the market for an average of 133 days. All numbers are courtesy of Great Point Properties.

As the chaotic 2021 market came to a close and the 2022 market opened up, this years market has gotten off to a slow start. There had been just one full property transfer as of Friday for $335,000, which is a small indication through the first week of the new year that the market may be slowing down.

Ranney and Great Point Properties Co-Founder Greg McKechnie predicted the market would return to a more normal state in 2022 when asked for their predictions in the Dec. 31 Current Real Estate Roundup.

“As we ring in 2022 it is likely that the recent market exuberance will gradually fade and we will return to a more normal pace,” Ranney said.

“My prediction for 2022 is that the word that will become numb in our mouths is ‘inventory,’” McKechnie said. “Inventory is at an historic low with 66 properties currently listed where as we typically see 300 or more properties listed.”

McKechnie added that even if sales trend downward, people shouldn’t expect to see sale prices trending downward as well.

“While the transaction numbers will be way off without more inventory coming into the market that may not be the case with the dollar volume as the principles of supply and demand will push prices up,” he added. “But relative to other resort communities, I believe Nantucket still has room for price increases.”

McKechnie says that he isn’t surprised to see how hectic the real estate market has been over the course of the past two years when you consider factors such as the pandemic highlighting buyer’s mortality, decades of wealth creation, and low-interest rates.

“The combination of these forces has made buyers say if not now, when,” he said.

It remains to be seen what the 2022 real estate market will bring, but the final numbers released this morning officially put a cap on a record breaking year for island real estate.

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