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Nantucket mansion prices used to grab headlines. Not so much over the last couple of years, though, as eye-popping sales have gone into hibernation on the resort island.
To be sure, real estate prices on Nantucket – long known as a buttoned-down haven for the corporate elite – are on the rise. But they have yet to get back to the record highs reached a decade ago.
However, that could be poised to change, with a blockbuster modern estate/compound on the harbor that just hit the market for $42.5 million.
Gary Winn, broker/owner of Maury People Sotheby’s International Realty on Nantucket, contends the 10-bedroom, 15-bathroom, Harbor Hill Estate has the potential to shatter price records once again on Nantucket.
Winn – whose agency is handling the sale – is hardly unbiased. But he believes the sale could boost the effective ceiling for Nantucket’s priciest properties from $27 million to $28 million well into the $40 million and up range.
“It’s a really great property,” Winn said. “It will get into the $40s (millions), I think. It’s a big, beautiful house on the harbor.”
The size – 18,500 square feet – the location overlooking the harbor and the fact that it is relatively new construction – designed by Jacobsen Architecture and paid for by the tech tycoon owner – make Harbor Hill a hot ticket, Winn contends.
We are not talking about one big mansion, but a cluster of fairly substantial, interconnected “cottages” that look large enough for a dozen families.
Along with some spectacular oceans views, there are private beach stairs down to the ocean, the listing notes. And there are all the other trappings of luxury mansion living that you would expect, including a tennis court with a private viewing area, two spas, a very large swimming pool and a media room/theater.
If it were to fetch $42.5 million, Harbor Hill would be by far the most expensive mansion sale ever on Nantucket and possibly the entire state.
The only competition would come from a penthouse at the new 60-story Four Seasons tower under construction in Boston, which is reportedly under agreement for $40 million.
Still, whether Harbor Hill manages to live up to hype and fetch anywhere near its $42.5 million asking price remains to be seen.
We’ve Been Here Before
Brokers and the more jaded real estate observers out there have seen this story before, with a big mansion plunked on the market with an even bigger price only to be quietly pulled off the market after a price cut or two.
Just take the Swain’s Neck, a 69-acre compound occupying its own tiny peninsula on the island that hit the market for a lofty $59 million in 2012. The estate of the late owner, a wealthy maker of engine electronics, dropped the price to $47.5 million in 2013 before pulling it off the market.
Swain’s Neck hit the market again in 2014 for $35 million before getting pulled again and has yet to return. And that’s just one example – there are plenty more.
It’s worth stepping back and taking a look at the larger trends at play.
The median price of a single-family home on the island peaked in 2006 and 2007, when the medians were $1.55 million and $1.65 million, respectively, according to data from The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman. Through this April, year-to-date, the island’s median home price is $1.26 million, or still about 25 percent off its peak.
In fact, Nantucket is one of the few upscale communities in Massachusetts – from posh suburbs to tony urban neighborhoods – which has not already blown past its previous price records.
Before you throw a pity party for brokers on the island, it’s also worth considering a couple more facts.
While Nantucket’s median price has yet to make it back to its 2006 glory days, last year saw nearly $1 billion in overall home sales. While the median price is not back to 2006/2007 levels, overall single-family sales volume is above where it was in those years.
Maybe it’s just a matter of time before Nantucket gets back to those mid-2000s highs.
Yet here’s a thought – maybe those prices were a product of their pre-Great Recession times, when corporate tycoons were still treated like rock stars and when outrageous salaries and lifestyle of conspicuous consumption were something to boast about.
It was era when Dennis Kozlowski, who looted Tyco of $100 million, threw a $200,000 wedding for his daughter at his Nantucket manse, the Sea Rose, in 2003. He often docked his $25 million yacht on the island.
Later convicted on a raft of counts for securities fraud, grand larceny, conspiracy and falsifying business records, Kozlowski, then in prison, put his Nantucket resort on the market for $23 million. It eventually sold years later, but for a significantly lower price.
Kozlowski, now out of prison and trying to rebuild his life, recalled in a recent interview The New York Times that back in the glory days he’d get a standing ovation when he was introduced at Harvard Business School as the country’s highest paid executive.
CEOs and Wall Street money men and women certainly haven’t taken a pay cut, but bragging about your crazy compensation or how much you blew on your Nantucket mansion won’t win today’s corporate chieftains much applause these days, at least in public.
Will that stop some moneybag Wall Street type from plunking down $42.5 million for Harbor Hill? Probably not. But then again, all is fair in love and real estate.
