Nantucket closed 56 sales across all property types in the second quarter of 2026, totaling about $184.1 million, with a median sale price of $2.65 million and an average of $3.3 million. Homes took roughly 122 days to sell and traded at about 93% of their original asking price. The short version: activity pulled back from an unusually busy 2025, but per-property pricing held steady, homes moved faster, and inventory recovered sharply after the winter lows. After more than twenty years selling on this island, I've learned that the most useful number in a market report is rarely the headline; it's the story underneath it. Here is what I think Q2 is telling us.
Nantucket market snapshot
56Closed sales
Across all property types
$184.1MTotal volume
Down from an unusually active 2025
$2.65MMedian sale price
A broader, mid-market-weighted mix
$3.3MAverage sale price
Essentially flat with 2025
122Avg. days on market
Days on market, Q2 2026
92.8%Sale to original ask
Accurate pricing is still rewarded
The Q2 Shift
A busier 2025 gave way to a steadier, broader. quarter.
From Q2 2025 to Q2 2026, transaction counts and total volume both eased from an unusually active year, while per-property pricing held its ground. The change was a return to a more typical pace, not a drop in value.
Closed sales
Fewer transactions
Total volume
Volume eased ~26%
Average Sale Price
Held steady
What changed from last year, and the year before
It helps to look back two years, because a single year-over-year comparison can mislead you here. Nantucket is a small market, and a handful of transactions can move the averages.
Q2 Market Metrics · Three-Year View
Metric | Q2 2024 | Q2 2025 | Q2 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
Closed sales | 60 | 76 | 56 |
Total volume | $249.3M | $247.5M | $184.1M |
Average sale price | $4.16M | $3.26M | $3.29M |
Every cell is a confirmed, published, all-property LINK figure (Q2 Quarterly Sales Summary). Median, days-on-market, and sale-to-ask are shown for Q2 2026 only in the snapshot above, since LINK does not publish all-property versions of those for prior quarters.
Volume surged, then eased — the average held
Closed sales (bars) rose into 2025 and settled back in 2026, while the average sale price (line) barely moved between 2025 and 2026.
Q2 2024Q2 2025Q2 2026
The three-year arc tells the story. Q2 2024 was top-heavy: only 60 sales, but a high average near $4.16 million, with five of them above $10 million. Q2 2025 was a volume surge, 76 sales, the busiest of the three, and the average eased to about $3.26 million as activity broadened well into the island's mid-market. Q2 2026 then settled back to 56 sales, but the average held almost exactly where 2025 left it, near $3.29 million.
So the pull-back in 2026 was in volume, not in value. When transaction counts fall but the average sale price holds, it usually signals a market normalizing after a busy stretch rather than one losing ground. And inventory recovered sharply over the same period, giving buyers a wider field to choose from as the season opened.
Underneath it all, the island's center of gravity kept drifting toward the mid-market. The highest end thinned while the bulk of transactions clustered in the island's more attainable price bands, which is exactly what pulled the average down from 2024's high even as it held steady between 2025 and 2026. Nantucket didn't get cheaper; its activity simply concentrated where more of the island's real inventory sits.
“A quieter quarter with steady prices, faster sales, and recovering inventory isn't a weaker market - it's a healthier, more balanced one.”
Bernadette Meyer
Inventory Recovery
Inventory found its footing
One of the clearest developments of the quarter was on the supply side. Island inventory, which bottomed near 82 listings at the end of the first quarter, climbed steadily through the spring: roughly 139 by the end of April, 152 by the end of May, and 167 by the end of June, driven by a healthy run of new listings, more than 150 across the quarter. Supply is still well below where it stood a year ago, but the direction matters: buyers had more to choose from as the season opened, and that wider field is part of why activity spread into the island's mid-market.
Month-end inventory recovered through the spring
Active month-end listings climbed from the Q1 low, though the field remained below the prior year at every comparable month.
2026 March to April2026 April to May2026 May to June2025 April to May2025 May to June•••••••82139152167180212245MarAprMayJun
Validated month-end inventory: Mar 82 → Apr 139 → May 152 → Jun 167. New listings: Apr 53, May 52, Jun 52. Prior-year end-of-month for context (from LINK): Apr 180, May 212, Jun 245.
Where activity concentrated
Where the activity actually concentrated
Two views make the shift concrete. The first is what price tiers homes fell into; the second is what kinds of property sold.
The clearest published view of the shift is by property type, over three years. Single- and multi-family homes remained the engine of the market, while land, condo, commercial, and co-op activity filled in around them.
Closed sales by property type
Single- and multi-family homes carried the market across all three years; the rest of the mix stayed thin and steady.
2024
45
2025
52
2026
41
2024
8
2025
13
2026
10
2024
4
2025
4
2026
3
2024
3
2025
6
2026
2
2024
0
2025
1
2026
0
Closed sales by property type - Q2
Property Type | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
Single Family/Multi-Family | 45 | 52 | 41 |
Land | 8 | 13 | 10 |
Condo | 4 | 4 | 3 |
Commercial | 3 | 6 | 2 |
Co-op | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Total | 60 | 76 | 56 |
LINK reports Single Family and Multi-Family combined for prior years; the Q2 2026 split is Single Family 39, Multi-Family 2. Covenant/Affordable sales are excluded from these arms-length totals (Q2 2026 had 3), consistent with the LINK quarterly count and the landing page.
Closed sales by price tier - Q2
Price Tier | SALES |
|---|---|
Under $750K | 3 |
$750K - $1.5M | 7 |
$1.5M – $2.5M | 14 |
$2.5M – $4.5M | 23 |
$4.5M – $6.5M | 4 |
Over $6.5M | 5 |
Total | 56 |
From LINK's published Quarterly Comparison: Price Range for Q2 2026 (all property types). These are LINK's standard bands; totals sum to 56.
Q2 2026 by price range
The mid-market did the work: the $1.5M–$4.5M range alone accounted for 37 of the 56 sales.
Under $750K
3
$750K – $1.5M
7
$1.5M – $2.5M
14
$2.5M – $4.5M
23
$4.5M – $6.5M
4
Over $6.5M
5
The distribution shows how mid-weighted the quarter was: the $1.5M–$4.5M range alone accounted for 37 of the 56 sales, roughly two-thirds of all activity, while only nine sales closed above $4.5 million. Nantucket's high end was quiet this quarter; its mid-market did the work.
LINK does not publish a comparable multi-year price-band breakdown, so the price-range visual is shown for Q2 2026 only. The three-year comparison rests on property type, count, volume, and average, all published.
Market preparation
What this means if you're buying or selling
For sellers
The temptation in a lower-volume quarter is to assume scarcity will carry the day. The data argues for discipline. Homes took an average of 122 days to sell, faster than earlier in the year but still a market where buyers take their time and scrutinize condition, location, and value. At the same time, well-positioned homes traded at about 93% of their original ask, which tells me accurate pricing and strong presentation are still rewarded. The market is patient with good properties and unforgiving of overpriced ones, especially now that buyers have more inventory to compare against.
For buyers
The wider field is the headline. Inventory recovered meaningfully through the spring, and the depth of mid-market activity means more genuine options than the winter offered. My advice hasn't changed: evaluate a property on location, condition, rental potential, and renovation feasibility, not on whether its price sits above or below an island-wide average that blends waterfront estates with in-town cottages. Those averages describe the market in aggregate; they don't describe the house you're actually buying.
THE BROKER'S LENS
How Bernadette reads this market
01
Read the average, not just the count
Sales volume fell, but the average sale price barely moved year over year. Steady pricing on fewer transactions is a normalizing market, not a weakening one.
02
Watch the inventory turn
The recovery from roughly 82 listings to 167 over the quarter is the quiet headline. More supply gives buyers room and shapes where activity lands.
03
Study days on market
At an average of 122 days, buyers are still deliberate, but homes moved faster than Q1. Accurate pricing and strong presentation earn the sale; well-positioned homes traded near 93% of original ask.
04
Evaluate the individual property
Location, condition, rental potential, and renovation feasibility describe your house. Island-wide averages that blend estates with cottages do not.
Key takeaway
Why Nantucket behaves this way
None of this is cyclical noise. Nantucket's scarcity is structural. The island has a fixed footprint, more than half of it is conservation land, and the Historic District Commission closely governs what can be built, renovated, or changed. Many of the best properties are held for generations and trade quietly, off-market, before they're ever broadly visible. That combination means supply can't expand quickly to meet demand, which is why pricing here tends to hold even when transaction counts cool. When you see fewer sales but steady prices and recovering inventory, as we did in Q2, that's the island's supply constraint and its seasonal rhythm doing exactly what they always do.
01
The strongest properties continue to move when price, condition, and location are aligned.
02
Inventory improved meaningfully this quarter, but scarcity remains a defining feature of the island.
03
Buyers are more selective, especially when a listing feels stretched relative to recent comparable sales.
04
Sellers benefit most from thoughtful preparation, strong presentation, and a pricing strategy rooted in real market behavior.
If you want to understand where a specific neighborhood or price range is heading, the quarterly numbers are a starting point, but the real picture comes from what's moving off-market and how individual properties are being priced and received. That's the conversation I'm always happy to have.
Nantucket Q2 2026 answers
Nantucket Q2 2026, answered
What was the median sale price on Nantucket in Q2 2026?
The median sale price across all property types was approximately $2.65 million, based on LINK closed sales data from April 1 through June 30, 2026.
How many properties sold on Nantucket in Q2 2026?
There were 56 closed sales across all property types in Q2 2026, down from 76 in the same quarter of 2025.
Did Nantucket prices fall in Q2 2026?
Because fewer properties sold. Total volume reflects both price and transaction count; with 56 sales versus 76 a year earlier, volume eased to about $184.1 million even as the average sale price stayed near $3.3 million.
Why did total volume drop if prices held steady?
Because the average sale price rose. With activity concentrated in higher price tiers, 56 sales in Q1 2026 generated about $258.5 million, only modestly below the $273.6 million from 74 sales a year earlier.
Is inventory improving on Nantucket?
Yes. Island inventory recovered from roughly 82 listings at the end of Q1 to about 167 by the end of Q2, giving buyers a wider field to choose from, though supply remains below year-ago levels.
Is it a good time to buy or sell on Nantucket?
It depends on the property and your goals. With homes averaging 122 days on market and selling near 93% of original ask, accurate pricing matters for sellers, and a wider inventory gives buyers more room. The right timing is property-specific, which is where local guidance earns its keep.
Expert perspective
Discuss the Nantucket Market With Bernadette
For buyers and sellers, the quarterly numbers are only the starting point. The real insight comes from understanding how individual properties, neighborhoods, and off-market activity are being priced and received.
The figures in this report come from LINK, Nantucket's Multiple Listing Service. They reflect closed, arms-length sales recorded in the MLS and do not include off-market or privately transacted sales that never enter LINK. As a result, totals may be lower than market summaries drawn from broader Registry of Deeds data.
