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AUTUMN One of our favorite seasons of the year is fall on Nantucket. The pace slows as visitors return to their lives off-island and most everything remains open well into the fall. The island is beautiful in September and October with incredible evening skies, the purple and orange of the changing moors, and a harbor with many fewer boats. There is lots to do in autumn on Nantucket: plenty of cultural events, a chance to catch up with friends, maybe scallop a little and recover from the pace of summer. As of the third quarter, the real estate market on Nantucket is performing much as it did in 2019, prior to the pandemic years. In 2019 there were 472 sales for the year; to date in 2023 there have been 232 with the largest number of closings yet to come in the last quarter of the year. A marked difference between now and 2019 is that sales dollars through Q3 were $662 million in 2019 and they are $822 million in 2023, a difference of 19%. Properties that are selling on Nantucket this year are selling for more than they have in the past. The high end is pulling the market along and we are experiencing the highest selling prices ever seen on Nantucket. There were only 3 sales over $10 million through Q3 in 2019; 7 in 2020; 14 in 2021; 16 in 2022 and 11 this year. Among other things, the pandemic years saw annual listing absorption of nearly 1.5 times the usual number of sales, leading to the current market with the lowest inventory seen in years. This created a lack of options for buyers and, coupled with the current interest rate climate (costing twice what it did to borrow a few years ago) has put a chill on the number of transactions. More than 85% of people in this country have a mortgage rate under 5% and are unlikely to sell soon if they need to obtain financing. Even if buyers do not need financing, many people are choosing to stay on the sidelines to see what happens with the Fed. Through Q3 last year, there were 327 sales: this year there 232 sales, a decrease of 29%. The dollars represented by these sales in 2023 was $822 million, Continued on Page 2... down 25% from last year at the same time.