The first half of 2026 was fewer trades and bigger checks. The third quarter was the market finding its level: the busiest three months of the year, at prices that barely moved.
Ninety-five homes changed hands on Nantucket between July 1 and September 30 — houses, condos, co-ops and multi-family together — for $462.8 million. That is 9% fewer sales than the same quarter of 2025 and 10% less money, a far narrower gap than the first half's 19% drop in transactions. The median home sold for $3,900,000; for houses alone, $4,000,000, level with a year ago to the dollar, give or take five thousand.
Here is the quarter in full, with every figure traced to LINK, the island's MLS, and the universe named on each one.
Through September 30, 184 homes had sold on Nantucket in 2026. Ninety-five of them — 52% — closed in the third quarter, carrying $462.8 million of the year's $863.7 million in home-sale volume. The pace built through the summer: 21 home sales in July, 27 in August, and 47 in September, the most of any month this year. September 2025 recorded 54, so the island is still running behind last year's count, but the shortfall shrank from 19% at mid-year to 9% for the quarter.
Across every property type — homes, land and commercial — 107 sales closed for $508.7 million, against 130 sales and $598.7 million in the third quarter of 2025. Land and commercial fell faster than homes did; more on both below.
Source: LINK Nantucket, Quarterly Sales Summary — Third Quarter 2026, quarterly comparison tables; LINK Year-To-Date Sales Summary By Month, run October 5, 2026.
Single- and multi-family homes are the cleanest five-year series LINK publishes, so that is the one to read. Eighty-seven of them sold this quarter at a median of $4,000,000 and an average of $5,128,307. A year ago the figures were 91 sales, a $3,995,000 median and a $5,346,191 average. The median is flat; the average slipped 4%, which says the very top of the market was a little thinner this summer, not that houses were worth less.
Set against 2022, when 63 houses sold at a $3,800,000 median, the quarter's median is up 5% over four years on 38% more sales. The island's third quarters have grown busier and more expensive together; 2026 held that ground rather than extending it.
| Year | Sales | Median sale | Average sale | Volume | Months to agreement / close |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 63 | $3,800,000 | $4,646,931 | $292,756,663 | 1 / 4 |
| 2023 | 66 | $3,455,000 | $5,163,496 | $340,790,750 | 3 / 5 |
| 2024 | 71 | $3,900,000 | $5,098,970 | $362,026,900 | 3 / 5 |
| 2025 | 91 | $3,995,000 | $5,346,191 | $486,503,400 | 3 / 6 |
| 2026 | 87 | $4,000,000 | $5,128,307 | $446,162,700 | 4 / 6 |
Twenty-five single- and multi-family homes sold in Town between July and September, for $135,059,000 at a $5,000,000 median. LINK's New Records sheet for the quarter flags that volume as the highest Town has ever recorded in a quarter, edging the $133,678,000 of the third quarter of 2020. The sales behind it ran from 15 North Water Street at $9,950,000 and 6 Gull Island Lane at $9,375,000 to 8 Ash Street, which closed at its $9,100,000 asking price four days after listing.
Tom Nevers was next on count with nine sales at a $3,300,000 median; Sconset recorded seven, Surfside five at a $4,695,000 median, and Mid Island five at $1,750,000. Hummock Pond closed two houses averaging $8,900,000, which LINK also lists as a record for the area; one of them, 15 Deer Run Road, sold for $12,000,000 against a $13,495,000 ask. The 34 sales LINK groups as "other" areas — Brant Point, Cliff, Monomoy, West of Town, Madaket and the rest — included the quarter's largest closings: 36 Easton Street on Brant Point at $25,000,000, 69 Monomoy Road at $19,500,000, and 174 Cliff Road at $13,500,000.
| Area (LINK) | Sales | Median sale | Average sale | Volume |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Town | 25 | $5,000,000 | $5,402,360 | $135,059,000 |
| Tom Nevers | 9 | $3,300,000 | $4,210,556 | $37,895,000 |
| Sconset | 7 | $2,750,200 | $3,010,743 | $21,075,200 |
| Surfside | 5 | $4,695,000 | $6,158,000 | $30,790,000 |
| Mid Island | 5 | $1,750,000 | $2,289,800 | $11,449,000 |
| Hummock Pond | 2 | $8,900,000 | $8,900,000 | $17,800,000 |
| All other areas | 34 | $3,850,000 | $5,649,838 | $192,094,500 |
Forty-two of the quarter's 95 home sales — 44% — closed between $2.5 million and $4.5 million, at a $3,360,000 median and 98% of their last asking price. That band has carried every quarter of 2026. What changed this summer is the top: 20 homes sold above $6.5 million, at a median of $8,250,000, and LINK records them at 97% of last ask and 94% of original ask. In the second quarter the five sales above $6.5 million had closed at 89% of ask and 82% of their original price. The discounting that defined the spring's trophy tier did not carry into the summer.
LINK's own figure for the quarter is 97% of last asking price across the 95 home sales, and 95% of original price. That figure includes 22 sales that were never publicly listed: a private sale enters LINK after the fact at its closing price, so it reads as 100% of ask by construction. Set those aside and the 73 listed sales closed at 96.2% of their last ask and 93.1% of their original ask. Seventeen of the 73 closed at or above the asking price, and the median listed home went under agreement after about 82 days.
The spread inside that average is the useful part. Among listed sales between $2.5 million and $4.5 million, homes closed at 97.8% of ask and eight of 34 went at or above it — 30 Dukes Road at its $3,325,000 ask after two days, 15 Meadow Lane at $3,305,000 after three. Above $6.5 million the listed sales closed at 96.1% of ask, with six of 16 at or above. The room to negotiate showed up where a listing had aged: 36 Easton Street closed at $25,000,000 against a $28,500,000 ask and a $33,000,000 original price, after 739 days on the market; 174 Cliff Road took $13,500,000 against $14,995,000 after 112 days; 14 Correia Lane in Surfside closed at $10,350,000, 74% of the $13,995,000 it first asked, after 373 days.
That is a summer pattern, and Nantucket is small enough that a few closings move the percentages. But the combination holds across the quarter: a well-priced house in the middle of the market drew a full-price buyer within days, and the discounts went to listings that had been asking too much for too long.
Source: LINK Nantucket, Quarterly Sales Summary — Third Quarter 2026 (percent of ask by property type and price range); LINK sold-listing export for closings July 1 – September 30, 2026 (days on market, listed versus off-market).
The island ended June with 167 properties for sale. July's 57 new listings pushed that to 178 by the end of the month; August added 65 more, the busiest listing month of the year, and inventory still slipped to 171 as sales caught up. September brought only 33 new listings, and the market closed the quarter at 154 — 14% below the 180 on the market at the end of September 2025. Across the three months 155 properties came on, 16% more than the 134 of the summer before, and the market absorbed every one of them and then some.
LINK's residential absorption rate tells the same story from the other side: 11 months of supply at the end of July, 7 at the end of August, 5 at the end of September. Price changes fell too — 91 recorded reductions across the quarter against 147 a year earlier — which is what you would expect when the listings that needed a cut had already found their buyers.
The asking gap did not close, though. At the end of September the 123 residential listings on the market carried a median asking price of $6,000,000, against the quarter's $3,900,000 median sale and September's $3,999,000. Some of that is mix — the standing inventory skews toward larger, slower properties, up to a $36,500,000 ask — but a $2 million gulf between what sits and what sells is the number every seller pricing for 2027 should keep in view.
Source: LINK Nantucket, Inventory Activity and Market Snapshot, July, August and September 2026.
Ten parcels of land sold in the quarter for $33.5 million, half the 20 sales and $63.7 million of the third quarter of 2025, at a median of $2,797,500 (up 5% from $2,662,500). Two Surfside lots accounted for $16,390,000 of it, a quarterly volume record for the area in LINK's files. Commercial was two sales for $12.4 million, against six for $23.3 million a year ago; one of the two, at $10,432,000 in September, lifted the quarter's commercial median to a record $6,216,000. Neither segment has the volume to support a trendline, and I won't draw one.
If you're buying: the leverage is specific, not general. It lives in listings that have been on the market a season or more and in asking prices set above the summer's clearing level, and it was thinnest between $2.5 million and $4.5 million, where a third of the listed sales drew full price. Start with the neighborhood guides, or the guide to Town, which carried more of the quarter's volume than any other area.
If you're selling: the median held and the shelf is 14% thinner than last fall, which is a good hand. The 96% clearing rate on listed homes and the $2 million gap between the median ask and the median sale say how to play it: price to the comparable sales, not to the inventory around you. A valuation built on the quarter's closings is where that starts.
If you're watching: October's 46 home sales are already in the monthly report. The question for the fourth quarter is whether the fall carries the summer's pace against last year's 124-sale finish.
This is the third-quarter deep-dive in The Nantucket Market Report, written in November from LINK's quarterly sales summary, its New Records sheet and its monthly inventory reports. The monthly hub carries the current edition with data through October 31, 2026; the mid-2026 update and the first-quarter report cover the earlier quarters, and the 2025 annual report the year before.
How many homes sold on Nantucket in the third quarter of 2026?
95 homes (houses, condos, co-ops and multi-family) closed between July 1 and September 30, 2026, for $462.8 million, against 104 sales and $511.6 million in the third quarter of 2025. Source: LINK Nantucket Quarterly Sales Summary, Third Quarter 2026.
What was the median home price on Nantucket in Q3 2026?
$3,900,000 across all 95 home sales, and $4,000,000 for single- and multi-family homes alone, level with $3,995,000 in the third quarter of 2025. The average single- and multi-family sale was $5,128,307, down 4% from $5,346,191.
Did Nantucket homes sell for asking price in Q3 2026?
LINK puts the quarter's home sales at 97% of their last asking price and 95% of their original price. Excluding the 22 sales recorded without a public listing, which enter LINK at their closing price, the 73 listed sales closed at 96.2% of last ask and 93.1% of original ask, and 17 of them closed at or above the asking price.
Which Nantucket neighborhood had the most sales in Q3 2026?
Town, with 25 single- and multi-family sales totaling $135,059,000 at a $5,000,000 median, a record quarterly sales volume for the area in LINK's records. Tom Nevers followed with 9 sales, Sconset with 7, and Surfside and Mid Island with 5 each.
How much inventory is on the Nantucket market?
154 properties at the end of September 2026, down 14% from 180 a year earlier, with a residential absorption rate of 5 months. The quarter had opened with 178 at the end of July after 155 new listings came on between July and September. Source: LINK Inventory Activity, July through September 2026.
Is the Nantucket market slowing down in 2026?
Sales are fewer; prices are not lower. Through September 30, 2026, 184 homes had sold, 14% fewer than over the same months of 2025, while the single- and multi-family median held at $4,000,000 in the third quarter. The third quarter was the year's busiest stretch, and September's 47 home sales were the most of any month in 2026.
Sean Kalman is a sixth-generation Nantucket islander and the founder of The Kalman Co., brokered by eXp Realty. He sells real estate on the island where he grew up. All market data in this report is drawn from LINK Nantucket, the island's MLS. LINK and its members disclaim errors and omissions related to the content of these reports.