Billionaire Barry Sternlicht’s Nantucket beach house was finally demolished this week after years of erosion and severe weather storms made the property unsalvageable. Business Insider reported that the investor, whose estimated net worth is around $3.8 billion according to Forbes, probably won’t be able to do much with the land, since it’s too unstable and the zoning rules are too strict to allow him to rebuild there. Sternlicht’s home was one of many on Nantucket to see its property value fall because of rapid erosion related to climate change. As Nantucket real estate agent Shelly Lockwood put it, the homes quite literally “are dropping into the ocean.” Homes near Sternlicht’s have seen their values cut in half in mere months as the issue snowballs. Real estate attorney Steven Cohen estimated that one or two homes every year had to be destroyed or moved because of erosion’s steady creep. “Erosion takes out houses, roads, infrastructure, sewer beds, even airport runways,” he said. “The town is trying to figure out what to do.”
