Inman Real Estate Conference and Nantucket
I just got back from the Inman Real Estate Conference in NYC and learned a ton.
All in all, people think there will still be pain in most real estate markets. However, there was also a majority consensus that areas like Nantucket, the Hamptons and Manhattan are well insulated markets that are very resilient and will for the most part be unscathed. This is particularly true of Nantucket (and Manhattan less so) because there is a finite supply of land.
To understand why the Nantucket market is so resilient to downward pressures in the national real market think of this:
There is a finite supply of land that is constantly decreasing (mainly because of the conservation groups buying up the little remaining undeveloped land) and there is a rising (say even flat line) demand of land. Economics tells us prices go up in terms appreciation, i.e. real terms appreciation. So, when you are buying a piece of property on Nantucket and you get upset over the 2% Land Bank tax, remember that you will recoup that money many times over because of the appreciation it causes.
