Rent vs Own in Nantucket County, Massachusetts

What This Data Tells Us About Renting vs Owning in Nantucket County

Nantucket County homes carry a median value of $1,593,800 and a median annual tax bill of $3,974, working out to a 0.25% effective rate. Run the standard 20%-down, 6.5%-rate assumptions and monthly ownership (mortgage, tax, and insurance combined) lands at $8,855 -- HUD prices the equivalent 2-bedroom rental at $3,138/mo. On those assumptions, renting is about $5,717/mo cheaper than owning before accounting for equity build-up or long-term appreciation.

The median household income in Nantucket County is $139,688, which puts the home-price-to-income ratio at roughly 11.4x, a common affordability yardstick flags ratios above 5x as stretched. Property taxes alone consume 2.8% of median income, versus a 2%–4% national benchmark. These are median-household snapshots, not personalized numbers, your own rent-versus-own math depends on down payment, credit, mortgage rate, how long you plan to stay, and whether you itemize the property tax deduction on your federal return.

Nantucket County's 0.25% effective property tax rate is among the lowest of the 3,135 counties in this dataset -- roughly 99% of tracked counties pay a higher rate. That gap matters most for the ownership side of this comparison: a lower rate shrinks the tax line in the monthly cost above, which is part of why owning may look more competitive here than the national picture would suggest.

Between the FY2025 and FY2026 HUD releases, the local 2-bedroom Fair Market Rent moved from $2,842 to $3,138 per month. That is a increased by $296/mo (+10.4%) change for Nantucket County. That is a larger move than the typical single-digit annual FMR adjustment HUD applies in most counties.

On this site's ownership-to-rent comparison, Nantucket County places 13 among 14 Massachusetts counties, where a lower rank favors buying. It sits ahead of 1 other Massachusetts counties on this measure.