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W I N T E R From us to you: best wishes for a happy and healthy 2020! Somehow the turning of a decade makes us even more reflective than usual. We are so grateful to call Nantucket home and to get to experience the many facets of our island community throughout all four seasons. Nantucket in the winter is a very different place. There is a stark beauty in the winter, coming and going become more challenging. We are truly all in the same boat and we get to be more mindful of what really matters. This new year, in particular, seems a time of new starts and possibilities. The real estate market on Nantucket was somewhat unpredictable for most of 2019 with some significant drops in both the number and dollar volume of sales during the first half of the year. The good news is that the market seems to have rallied somewhat during the last two quarters of 2019. There were 472 sales (-13%) for $1,027 billion (-15%) in 2019. This is the sixth year that total sales on island exceeded $1 billion (not consecutive). The average sale is now $2,177,000, compared to $2,214,000 at the end of 2018, a decrease of only 2%. Properties are currently selling, on average, for 89% of the list price at the time of sale and for 120% of the assessed value. The price of an average home on Nantucket is now $2,481,000, down 5% from $2,615,000 in 2018. The median price of a home is now $1,670,000, compared to $1,750,000 last year. The average price of a vacant lot on Nantucket is $1,453,000, down 17% from 2018, and the median lot is $975,000, down 6%. Commercial sales were strong in 2019 with 19 properties selling for a total of $77+ million, a 31% increase over commercial activity in 2018. One of the most significant changes is the length of time it takes to sell a listing in the current market. As of the end of 2019 the average time on the market was 10 months (up from 9 months in 2018 and 8 months in 2017). As always, there are a number of factors involved including optimistic pricing by sellers, ample inventory, lack of urgency on the part of buyers and a generally unsettled feeling about the economy and the future. Simply put, it is taking longer for properties to sell on Nantucket. Continued on Page 2...