Continuing on the heels of a strong January, February’s real estate sales included a diversity of transactions, including a higher-than-normal number of commercial transactions and several highend single-family homes. February sales tallied 12 transactions amounting to just over $61 million in dollar volume, bringing the year-to-date total to 33 property transfers through $167 million. As we cover in the following pages, there has thus far been a decline in the median home sale value thanks to a higher number of sales in the lower end of the market. And in signs of what’s to come, February contract activity was higher than last month and the previous few years, suggesting the solid start to the year will continue. Here are Fisher’s February Market Insights…
KEY MARKET METRICS
NANTUCKET REAL ESTATE ACTIVITY THROUGH FEBRUARY 2015 - 2025
MONTHLY SALES HIGHLIGHTS
Market Insights BY
JEN ALLEN
RESIDENTIAL SALES ACTIVITY
• While the 12 single-family home sales (excluding condos, co-ops, multi-family & covenant properties) in February were precipitously fewer than the 28 recorded in January, February transactions were sizable in dollar volume. Thanks to three home sales above $10 million, monthly home sales totaled $62 million, an increase of 42 percent from one year ago when there were 11 transactions during the period.
• With all of these high-end sales, it’s perhaps surprising to see that the median sale value is down 21 percent from one year ago. Although there are more sales above $10 million in the first two months of this year, there are double the number of sales lower than $2 million from 2024, and fewer $4 million to $7 million sales. More transactions will cause this figure to shift but it’s a good example of how the high-end isn’t the only influencing factor on this metric that seems to usually only go in the upward direction.
• The average marketing time lengthened to 5.4 months from 2.5 months in 2024, which is one of the driving factors for the bigger margins between the original and last asking prices and the ultimate sales price. Available inventory was 10 percent higher than one year ago.
COMMERCIAL SALES
• We don’t often cover the commercial segment of the local market because there typically isn’t much to cover and because the sale prices often reflect the underlying business, not solely the real estate. Yet 2025 has proved to be an active year for commercial sales with six transactions totaling $19 million during the first two months of the year. This compares to just one transaction during the same period in 2024. (This figure does not include a commercial condominium sale on Old South Road as it technically falls under the condominium designation).
• February’s commercial property sales included the private sale of Cumberland Farms on Sparks Avenue for $6.25 million, an iconic downtown building at 16 Federal Street for $5.1 million and a smaller mixed-use building traded for $1.07 million on Boynton Lane.
• As of February 28, 2025, there were five commercial properties publicly listed for sale.
CONTRACT ACTIVITY
$7M - $8M
$8M - $9M
$9M - $10M
• Reporting on the market at the beginning of the year can often be tricky as a majority of the sales activity stems from properties that went under contract in the prior year. With an administration change and a significant amount of economic uncertainty, parsing out trends in the New Year is bound to be interesting. And yet, contract activity during February indicates the local market so far seems unphased by recent stock market volatility.
• Through February 28, 2025, there were 24 recorded purchase contracts which is not only higher than in January but higher than the preceding February periods. Similar to what we’ve seen in closing activity so far this year, there are a higher number of contracts (25% of total activity) for homes under $2 million than what we typically see. The majority of the contracts (38%) are for homes last priced between $2 million and $3 million, while there are also two contracts for properties last listed above $10 million.
