The home, purchased for $200,000, was used for one week by its current owner. (Credit: Kit Noble)
A home on Nantucket’s coast that had been severely threatened by beach erosion has been torn down.
Workers tore down the home, located on the southern shore of the Massachusetts island, earlier in the week, according to the Nantucket Current.
A beachfront home at 28 Sheep’s Pond Lane in Nantucket, Massachusetts, Tuesday, January 14, 2025. The home, which was purchased last year for $200,000 was ordered to be torn down last month by the town due to the adjacent beach erosion. (Kit Noble)
Its razing came about half a year after Ticketnetwork Inc co-founder Don Vaccaro purchased the coastal property from its longtime owners in a $200,000 deal during the summer of 2024.
Town officials had reportedly decided in December that the home needed to be knocked down.
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The sea had been creeping closer and closer to it over the years, with 10-20 feet of beach bordering it having disappeared in the past six months, the outlet reported.
Photos showed an excavator destroying the two-story home and putting debris in a nearby dumpster.
A beachfront home at 28 Sheep’s Pond Lane in Nantucket, Massachusetts, Tuesday, January 14, 2025. The home, which was purchased last year for $200,000 was ordered to be torn down last month by the town due to the adjacent beach erosion.
FOX Business reached out to the homeowner for comment.
A beachfront home at 28 Sheep’s Pond Lane in Nantucket, Massachusetts, Tuesday, January 14, 2025. The home, which was purchased last year for $200,000 was ordered to be torn down last month by the town due to the adjacent beach erosion. (Kit Noble)
Vaccaro, also the owner of a neighboring property, told the Nantucket Current that he was “able to use it one week with my family and kids in both houses, which was a priceless experience, so it was worth it in the end.”
“Unfortunately the town wanted the house down for safety reasons, and we complied with the town request even though the home was still structurally sound,” he reportedly said.
A beachfront home at 28 Sheep’s Pond Lane in Nantucket, Massachusetts, Tuesday, January 14, 2025. The home, which was purchased last year for $200,000 was ordered to be torn down last month by the town due to the adjacent beach erosion. (Kit Noble)
NANTUCKET BEACHFRONT HOMES STILL COVETED BY BUYERS DESPITE HIGH RISK OF BEING SWALLOWED BY THE SEA
A beachfront home at 28 Sheep’s Pond Lane in Nantucket, Massachusetts, Tuesday, January 14, 2025. The home, which was purchased last year for $200,000 was ordered to be torn down last month by the town due to the adjacent beach erosion. (Kit Noble)
The previous owners sold the home to Vaccaro for just $200,000 after they received a “call out of the blue” from him, the Nantucket Current reported last year. Property records viewed Friday listed it as having a nearly $1.3 million assessed value.
Prior to his offer, they had not listed for sale because they said they didn’t “want to sell to someone when you know a storm could take it out next week,” according to the outlet.
Vaccaro said in a statement to FOX Business in early July of last year, not long after the home changed hands, that he had “no illusions that the house will remain in place for more than a year, and bought it on the assumptions that it will be in the water by spring of 2025.”
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Coastal erosion is a phenomenon that multiple areas across Nantucket have to contend with.
On the southern coastline, the island experiences annual beach erosion “in the middle” of 0.56 feet and 12.63 feet, the local government said on its website.
