RESIDENTIAL SALES SUMMARY
HISTORIC ANALYSIS OF MEDIAN SALE VALUE & MARKETING TIME
Median Home Sale Soared as Marketing Time Plummeted
Given solid buyer demand for Nantucket real estate, particularly for homes priced under $3 million, the median home sale value rose to $1.99 million as of August 31, 2017. This represents an increase of 22 percent from one year ago, a riseof 36 percent from two years ago, and a 64 percent increase from the same period in 2014. The average home sale value (which does not account for high-end or low-end outliers) changed less dramatically over the same period, suggesting that the soaring median sale value stems largely from the strength in demand for homes priced between $1 million and $3 million This is corroborated by the increase in transactions in this price range over the last five years as well as by the rapidly declining marketing time compared to other price points.
With this notable increase in home sale values over the last five years, it should be expected that the Nantucket real estate market would see an inverse relationship between sales prices and the average days on market for sold properties. The above chart illustrates that since August 2012, the average marketing time for sold properties declined from just over 15 months to 6.5 months as of August 2017. (See below for more commentary on marketing time by price point).
HOME SALES BY PRICE POINT
Rise in $2 million to $3 million Sales & High-End
Interestingly, given the limited available inventory, the number of transactions for properties listed for less than $1 million (see below chart), only declined by a modest four transactions compared to one year ago. Also of note is that homes priced between $1 million and $2 million saw a five-percentage point decline from 2016, whereas for the better part of the last year this price point saw a relative boost in transaction volume.
The most significant year-over-year transaction increase occurred in the $2 million to $3 million segment where 44 transactions were recorded through the first eight months of the year. Additionally, each of the high-end ($5MM+) price points saw an increase in transaction activity from last year, highlighting why total annual dollar volume increased despite a decline in total transactions.