Overall slowdown in real estate sales

Nothing lasts forever, including the off the charts real estate sales volume the island enjoyed for two consecutive years. While the end of 2004 saw a record $1 billion in property transactions, a record that was broken when 2005’s number topped $1.2 billion, the local buying trend this year somewhat reflected the nationwide slowdown with an estimated 29 percent dip in closings. Still, the Nantucket market remains healthy and realtors caution against losing perspective.

“As of the end of November there have been approximately $181,000,000 in closings. For us to hit a billion we would have to close $119,000,000 in December, which is unlikely,” said AtlanticEast co-owner Penny Dey. “The number of sales is down 29 percent and the dollar volume decreased 21 percent. That means what is selling is going for more than a year ago but there is less selling.

“You can’t compare this year to 2004 or 2005, which were unusual sales years, but we’re still looking at in excess of $900,000,000 for this year. If you look back you need to keep a perspective,” Dey continued. “The highest amount prior to 2004 was 2003 at $613,000,000, so to do in excess of $900,000,000 this year is significant — it’s still strong.”

The writing was on the wall by the close of summer when industry analysts recognized that at that point the entire market was down by 10 percent from July 2005 and the appreciation rate was just above four percent instead of hovering at about 20 percent. That, in great part, had to do with the fact that listings rose more than 50 percent and properties stayed on the market as much as two months longer than in recent years. In addition, sellers were reluctant to lower prices too quickly while buyers tended to wait and see if a stall would prompt them to do just that.

But rather than create anxiety among real estate professionals, the cooling off was viewed as realistic and inevitable.

“When a listing comes on that’s priced correctly there are buyers waiting,” said Dey, who also noted that the diminishing quantity of vacant land available has helped push home prices to where they are now.

According to figures compiled by Rob Ranney at Denby Real Estate, the average home sale through November stood at $2.4 million, up 13 percent from 2005, with the median home selling at $1.5 million, a four percent jump. And though 376 homes were sold last year by November’s end, sales through the same period this year totaled just 266. In 2005, 117 vacant parcels were sold compared to only 57 through this November, but their average price soared 99 percent in that one year to a whopping $2.4 million.

Commercial sales were also stagnant this year. Though Frank Sylvia thought he had a buyer for his Zero Washington Street building and Robert Tonkin came within a month of a buyer’s closing on his building at Main and Federal streets, both transactions fell through. Mitchell’s Book Corner owner Mimi Beman has been trying to sell her Main Street building for a year, as has Bambi Mleczko whose building contains Peach Trees. Instead of purchasing millions in real estate this year, developer and investor Stephen Karp sunk money into maintenance and repairs on his many holdings and actually divested of a $10.5 million property of guest suites on Commercial Street.

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