Pools have longtime been staples of many vacation areas, but on Nantucket they were a rarity (in fact, my dad tells me that my grandmother had one of the first pool on Nantucket at 141 Main Street, which is ironic because pools are now banned in the Old Historic District). However, recently, permits for new pools have been on a tear. There are approximately 300 pools on Nantucket. In 2010 and 2011, there were approximately 30 new pool permits pulled per year. So, basically, 20% of the total pools on Island were built in the last two years-that’s amazing…
Why such an explosion? A couple of main reasons, 1) they are very refreshing after a long day at the beach and 2) demand by tenants for pools has made rental rates for properties with pools go up drastically, sometimes 100%. So, many investors are now able to justify owning a Nantucket property as a rental property (who wouldn’t want to justify owning a Nantucket property?!) that can actually cash flow because of the extremely low interest rates, i.e. low cost to carry, and the big rental rates, if all they have to do is install a pool. 17 Boulevarde is a great example of this. Also, the developers of many of the new spec. projects pulled permits for new pools; is the increase in pool permits a sign of more spec. projects which is a sign of where the market’s going…