Although this has not exactly been a pleasant winter on Nantucket, it has not been as brutal as most of the rest of the Northeast. For instance, the longest streak for snow on the ground was about 7 days. As far as I have heard, Boston has been covered in snow since the first snowfall. Nantucket weather is simply more mild than the mainland Northeast because she has the Gulf Stream warming her in the winter and cooling her in the summer. Nantucket is the northern most part of the Gulf Stream before it heads east to Europe. Besides the climate effect, among other effects, the Gulf Stream also causes significant increased biodiversity, especially fish life, because it makes Nantucket be the southern most point for northern species and northern most point for southern species. That is one of the main reasons the fishing around Nantucket is phenomenal (another reason ACK is in a league of her own).
Although the Gulf Stream keeps us a tad warmer in the winter, the storms have definitely hindered buyers getting to Nantucket and inventory is at a historic low, but the market still remains strong. Currently, there are 68 properties listed on Nantucket’s MLS, LINK, as under agreement. At the same time in the following years, the numbers were:
2013 – 50
2012 – 59
2011 – 45
2010 – 29
2009 – 13
That’s remarkable!
It won’t be long until the Gulf Stream brings the warm summer breezes (and touches down at Nantucket Memorial Airport). Look forward to it!