"If they don't fix this, they're going to lose downtown. This barrier beach protects downtown Newburyport, bottom line."
Lela Wright said that from the beach in front of her home on Reservation Terrace, the stretch of Plum Island where erosion has been eating at the dunes for years. She was talking to a reporter about whether to take a state buyout or stay and fight the tide. But she was also describing something every waterfront buyer in this market should understand before they sign an offer: the land under a Merrimack River or Plum Island property and the water rights attached to it are not the same asset, and they do not carry the same guarantees.
Most buyers treat "waterfront" as a single thing they are purchasing. It isn't. It's two things bundled into one closing: the parcel itself, and a set of legal permissions that let you touch, use, and build near the water in front of it. The parcel is durable. The permissions are not automatic, do not always survive a sale, and in at least one part of this market, are now the subject of a state initiative asking whether some of this waterfront should be defended at all.
The Part of the Deed That Isn't Really Yours
Massachusetts is unusual among states in that private owners can hold title down to the low-water mark, not just the high-water mark. Under the Colonial Ordinance of 1641-47, a littoral owner here typically owns land to the mean low-water mark or 1,650 feet from the high-water mark, whichever is shorter. That's more land than a buyer in most other coastal states would ever own outright.
The catch is that the public retains rights across that same strip. Even where the intertidal zone is privately titled, it remains subject to a public easement to fish, fowl, and navigate, which means an owner generally cannot fence to the water's edge or otherwise block that access. Buyers picturing a private beach in front of a waterfront home are picturing something the deed doesn't actually promise.
Shoreline that grows over time complicates this further. If new land forms through gradual, natural accretion, the upland owner typically gains it. If it forms through a sudden event like a storm, or through artificial fill, ownership can remain with the Commonwealth instead. On a barrier island where storms reshape the coastline every few years, that distinction determines whether the extra thirty feet of dune in front of a house belongs to the owner or to the state.
The Dock Doesn't Automatically Follow the Deed
Here is the friction point that catches people at the closing table. A private dock, pier, or mooring on tidal water in Massachusetts requires a Chapter 91 waterways license from MassDEP, the state's licensing program under the Public Waterfront Act. That license is tied to the property, but it is not self-executing. It has to be recorded at the Registry of Deeds when the property changes hands, and if that step gets missed, the license can lapse. A dock that was perfectly legal under the previous owner can become an unpermitted structure the moment a sale closes without the paperwork following it.
This is easy to overlook because nothing about the dock changes physically. It still floats, boats still tie up to it, and it looks exactly the same on day one of ownership as it did the day before closing. The exposure shows up later, when a buyer wants to rebuild, extend, or sell and discovers the license was never properly transferred.
| What transfers automatically with the deed | What requires separate action |
|---|---|
| Title to the upland parcel | Chapter 91 dock or pier license (must be recorded at the Registry of Deeds) |
| Ownership of land gained through natural accretion | Ownership of land created by sudden events or fill (may remain with the Commonwealth) |
| The right to use land down to the low-water mark | The right to exclude the public from that same strip (it doesn't exist) |
A buyer's attorney should be confirming license status as part of due diligence on any waterfront parcel with a dock, not assuming it's covered because the house and the dock have always been sold together.
The State Is Now Asking Whether to Keep Defending Some of This Land
The erosion at Reservation Terrace is not new. The city installed sand-filled barriers there in 2020 after an April storm wiped out much of the dune system and destroyed at least one home, then worked with the Army Corps of Engineers on a nourishment project that moved sand from the Merrimack and Piscataqua rivers onto the shoreline in Newburyport, Salisbury, and Newbury during the fall and winter of 2022 and 2023. As officials described it in reporting published in December 2025, average high tides on Plum Island are now roughly a foot higher than when the jetties at the river mouth were first built in 1881.
What's different now is that the state has stopped treating this purely as an engineering problem. Massachusetts launched its ResilientCoasts Initiative in November 2025, a decades-long plan directing state agencies to explore a voluntary buyout program for flood-prone coastal properties. One Reservation Terrace homeowner, Lee McLaughlin, had already taken a buyout on his former 75th Street property. Of three neighbors offered the same deal, he was the only one who accepted it. A December 2025 report on the initiative cited data current to February 2024 showing 3,353 buildings across Massachusetts classified as Repetitive Loss under the National Flood Insurance Program, with 468 of those meeting the more severe Repetitive Loss threshold.
This matters for buyers because it changes what "waterfront" signals about long-term value. It is not that Plum Island or the Merrimack shoreline is disappearing. Newburyport's own officials frame the barrier beach as protection for downtown, which is a strong argument for continued investment in holding the line. But the state now has an active mechanism for identifying which specific parcels it considers worth defending versus worth buying out, and that mechanism didn't exist a few years ago. A buyer evaluating a specific address on Plum Island is evaluating a location that is now part of a formal state conversation about its own future.
Newburyport has also grappled with how much redevelopment the island can absorb. A previously proposed Ordinance 69 would tighten the existing rule that lets Plum Island property owners expand a structure's footprint by up to 20 percent during redevelopment, extending the same restriction to decks. Whatever its current status, the debate is a reminder that any renovation plan for a Plum Island waterfront property needs a call to the city's planning office before it needs an architect.
What the Insurance Math Actually Says
A standard homeowners policy excludes flood damage entirely, which is why flood coverage on waterfront property is a separate purchase, not an add-on. The federal program most owners rely on for that coverage caps structural coverage at $250,000, a fraction of what it costs to rebuild a multi-million-dollar home on the Merrimack. FEMA's current pricing model, Risk Rating 2.0, prices each property individually based on replacement cost, distance to water, and elevation relative to modeled flood depths, rather than treating an entire flood zone as one risk pool. Two houses on the same street can carry very different premiums.
Massachusetts has no statewide law requiring a seller to proactively disclose flood history or flood zone status. Sellers are required to disclose issues like lead paint and septic system status and are prohibited from misrepresentation, but flood information is typically shared voluntarily during negotiation rather than mandated on a form. That puts the burden on the buyer to request the FEMA map panel, any elevation certificate on file, and the property's insurance claims history before going firm on a waterfront offer. Owners who have maintained continuous flood coverage may also be able to lock in a more favorable rate through grandfathering if a flood map update later moves the property into a higher-risk zone, which is one more reason to confirm what coverage is already in place rather than starting from scratch after closing.
The Inspection Rules Changed Too
Since October 15, 2025, Massachusetts sellers and their agents can no longer make an offer's acceptance contingent on a buyer waiving a home inspection, under new regulations issued through the Affordable Homes Act. A signed disclosure confirming the buyer's inspection rights is now required at the first written offer, and any contract language that would make an inspection meaningless is prohibited. As-is sales are still legal, but a buyer can only agree to skip an inspection after receiving that disclosure, on their own terms.
For waterfront property specifically, this closes a gap that used to work against buyers. In a competitive multiple-offer situation, waiving an inspection to look more attractive to a seller meant skipping scrutiny of exactly the systems that matter most on a river or ocean-facing property: the seawall, the dock structure, the foundation's exposure to storm surge. That leverage no longer belongs to the seller.
What This Actually Means at the Table
Before making an offer on Merrimack River or Plum Island waterfront, the practical list looks like this:
- Confirm any dock, pier, or mooring has a Chapter 91 license that is current and properly recorded at the Registry of Deeds, not just assumed to have transferred with the sale
- Request the FEMA flood map panel and any elevation certificate for the specific parcel, since Massachusetts doesn't require the seller to volunteer this
- Ask for the property's flood insurance claims history and whether existing coverage is grandfathered under a prior flood zone rating
- Check whether the property falls within any local overlay district, such as the Plum Island Overlay District, that limits footprint expansion for future renovation
- Use the inspection rights guaranteed under the current disclosure rules rather than treating them as optional in a competitive offer
A recent example of what a well-structured waterfront purchase looks like on paper is Bartley's Landing, a five-lot enclave on Merrimac Street in Newburyport where buyers gain access to a shared boathouse and private dock with slip space for boats up to 35 feet, listed as of July 2026 at $5,499,900. The dock rights there are built into a defined community structure from the start, which is precisely the kind of clarity worth confirming exists, in writing, before closing on any older waterfront property where those same rights may have been handled informally for decades.
Common Questions
Does the state's buyout program mean Plum Island waterfront is losing value? Not based on what's happened so far. Only one buyout has been completed on Reservation Terrace, out of three offered, and city officials continue to describe the barrier beach as protection for downtown Newburyport worth defending. What has changed is that a specific, named state initiative now exists to evaluate individual properties, which buyers should factor into long-term planning rather than ignore.
If I buy a waterfront home with an existing dock, do I need to redo anything? Confirm the license status before closing rather than after. If the Chapter 91 license was never recorded at the Registry of Deeds by a previous owner, it's worth resolving that through your attorney as part of the transaction rather than discovering it later when you want to rebuild or expand the dock.
Is flood insurance mandatory for Merrimack River waterfront homes? There's no state law requiring it, but a lender will typically require it if the property sits in a high-risk flood zone. Given the National Flood Insurance Program's $250,000 structural cap, most owners of higher-value waterfront homes carry additional coverage beyond the federal minimum.
Waterfront property in this market rewards buyers who understand it's built from two different kinds of ownership, one solid and one that requires upkeep. If you're evaluating a specific address on the Merrimack or Plum Island and want a clear read on its dock rights, flood exposure, or renovation limits before you write an offer, Alissa Christie can walk through the specifics with you. Let's Connect.
