A Nantucket beach house once estimated to be worth $1.9 million was sold for just $200,000 after parts of the property got swallowed by the sea, the Nantucket Current reported.
According to the local outlet, Jane Carlin and her husband, Ben Gifford, bought the beach house in 1988 on the western end of Nantucket, a crescent-shaped island 30 miles off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
At the time, the couple’s property was separated from the Atlantic Ocean by three nearer properties, an acre of land, and a road, per the paper.
But after 36 years of land erosion, the ocean has swallowed up the neighboring homes and the road.
Three successive storms last winter ate away more of the couple’s property, leaving their back porch just a short distance from the shoreline.
Carlin told the outlet that they tried to donate the 1,700-square-foot home to a local affordable housing nonprofit, and that she spent “all winter really frantically to see if any of the organizations would consider taking the house and moving it, and we would help with the cost of moving.”
But, she said, she had “no luck whatsoever.”
The couple eventually sold their home to their neighbor, Don Vaccaro, for just $200,000.
Vaccaro, who rents out his property for up to $13,000 a week, told the Nantucket Current that he was aware the house might not last more than six months. “Inevitably the ocean will win,” he said.
Vaccaro told the outlet that he plans to implement erosion mitigation strategies to try to prolong its life a bit longer, including adding seagrass planting and biodegradable silt fencing.
Carlin and Vaccaro didn’t immediately respond to a Business Insider request for comment.
Nantucket is a popular vacation spot for the wealthy.
According to Realtor.com, the median sales price is $3.1 million, and the median listing price is $4.8 million.
Billionaire investor Barry Sternlich bought his Nantucket beach house for $610,000 in 2010 but was forced to demolish it in April after a series of storms severely eroded the property.
Anne Kuszpa, the executive director of Housing Nantucket, a nonprofit that creates affordable housing for the island’s year-round community, told BI in April that it’s become common practice for owners to offer their property for free to avoid the cost of removal.
Due to Nantucket’s “demolition delay” rule, any home with “reuse potential” must be advertised in the town paper for 30 days.
In 2019, a couple in Nantucket paid $1.6 million to move their multimillion-dollar home away from a bluff’s eroding edge.
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