First Housing Needs Assessment In 10 Years Shows Depths Of Island Housing Crisis

More than four in 10 Nantucket households are burdened by housing costs, according to data from the first housing needs assessment conducted on Nantucket since 2015. The assessment, which puts numbers to the crisis gripping the island, found that just to reduce the cost burden to the national average would require 765 more affordable and attainable housing units.

Despite significant efforts from non-profits and the local government, including tens of millions of dollars appropriated by the voters at Town Meeting, housing remains one of the most critical problems facing Nantucket. But since 2015, there hasn’t been a comprehensive housing needs assessment for the island.

“This study gives us a clear-eyed view of where we stand and where we need to go,” said Anne Kuszpa, executive director of Housing Nantucket. “It’s not just about numbers, but about the people and families who keep this island running year-round. Having up-to-date data allows us to make smarter, more equitable decisions for Nantucket’s future.”

The new assessment, commissioned by Housing Nantucket and funded by Remain, found that 41 percent of households on Nantucket spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing, meaning that they qualify as cost-burdened. This number is considerably higher than the state average and the figure from 2017. Fully 17 percent of households spend over 50 percent of their income on housing, making them severely cost-burdened.

Meanwhile, home-ownership costs and rental costs have both soared. The median purchase price of a home on Nantucket has jumped 140 percent to $3.7 million since 2015, and so-called fair market rent has increased 70 percent, while median family income has only risen 9 percent, to $151,000 per year.

What this means is that even families making far more than the island’s median income cannot afford to buy a home on the island.

“Renter households in all but the highest income category (240 percent of AMI) are essentially priced out of homeownership,” the study, created by the consulting firm EBP, claims.

Since 2015, Nantucket has lost 205 year-round rental units even as the island’s population has surged. That’s likely not because demand is falling. Instead, the gap between demand for year-round rentals and the existing supply is growing, leading some residents to leave the island and forcing others into overcrowded, sometimes unsafe housing situations.

The study found that 4.2 percent of homes on Nantucket are overcrowded, with more than one resident per room, almost double the statewide number. Fifteen percent of renter households are overcrowded, and around 2 percent are so severely overcrowded that they have more than two residents per room.

The survey did not conduct a full market analysis to determine the demand for new housing on Nantucket, but a rough extrapolation included in the study suggested that there could be demand for as many as 1,000 more year-round rentals on the island. It would take that many units to bring the percentage of owner-occupied homes on island roughly in line with the state average.

Much of the data in the study is drawn from surveys conducted in 2024 or 2023, which one EBP analyst suggested could mean that the actual state of Nantucket’s housing crisis may be even worse than the assessment suggests.

The assessment was presented to the Affordable Housing Trust on Tuesday, at a public forum hosted by the Nantucket Atheneum on Monday.