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Green Tour at 250 State Road Tomorrow
The Island Housing Trust is offering a tour of eight eco-friendly houses currently under construction off State Road in West Tisbury. The tour is on Saturday, Jan. 9, from 11 a.m. to noon. John Abrams of South Mountain Company will explain how this neighborhood of houses designed to approach zero net energy and achieve the highest green building certification in the country (LEED Platinum) is being built. Philippe Jordi of the Island Housing Trust will explain how this model project was made possible through a collaborative effort including the Land Bank, Cape Light Compact, Habitat for Humanity of Martha’s Vineyard, the Island Affordable Housing Fund, and the town of West Tisbury...
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Home Buyers Give Island an October Jolt
The federal first home-buyer’s credit appeared to pay off on Martha’s Vineyard, where October sales of existing homes were up on the same month last year.

A surge in home sales nationwide was reflected in Dukes County — the six Island towns posted 25 sales in October this year, compared to 17 last year, according to figures provided by the Warren Group. Those 25 are a big chunk of the 111 single-family home sales so far this year; by this time last year, the Island had recorded 145 sales...
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Single Bid at Foreclosure Auction Wins Colonial Inn
After just a single bid at a foreclosure auction yesterday inside the Colonial Inn in Edgartown, Jack McConnell and Tom McConnell won ownership of the hotel, condominium and retail complex overlooking the harbor on North Water street. Their bid was $2,050,000; there were no other bids...
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State Reduces CPA Matching Funds
For the past eight years the Community Preservation Act has provided funding for cash-strapped Island towns looking to preserve historic landmarks, protect open space and create affordable housing...
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Realtor Tackles Affordable Housing Issue
By now the contours of the affordable housing dilemma are painfully familiar — soaring real estate values have squeezed middle-class Islanders, forcing them to choose between a shaky rental market or relocating off-Island. In an attempt to move the debate beyond Darwinian free-market economics and glacially-paced town initiatives, Vineyard realtor Jim Feiner is attempting to forge a third path, blending private philanthropy and free-market economics to provide affordable homes for the Island community...
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Whaling Captain’s Home Opens As Summer Designer Showcase
In the past few decades, the only way to spiff up an antique captain’s house was to sell it to a millionaire and have the buyer’s workmen attack it with pick-axes and bulldozers. But something very different and refreshing is happening to the 1840 Captain Thomas Mellen house on Main street, Edgartown, designed by master builder Ariel Norton, and owned by the Keniston family for the past 80 years. The 2,900 square foot home is now being developed to benefit Habitat for Humanity, and its restoration, conceived as a showcase for Island designers, is beginning to take on fairy-tale qualities...
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Island Broker Receives Green Realty Designation
Jean Kelleher of Kelleher Real Estate has become the first Island broker to be awarded the National Association of Realtors’ new green designation. She completed a course giving participants comprehensive knowledge of green homes and buildings and issues of sustainability...
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Falling Values Hit Real Estate
Mortgage refinancings on Island expose slumping property values in many areas, homeowners find

Historic low interest rates that have led to a flood of mortgage refinancings in recent months have by accident exposed a marked trend of slumping property values on the Vineyard. In roughly 75 per cent of June home reappraisals conducted on behalf of Martha’s Vineyard Savings Bank, the Island’s largest lender, properties were found to be below their assessed values...
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Island Realtor Assists with State Realty Exam Update
Robert M. Sawyer, Island real estate instructor and author of Massachusetts Real Estate Principles, Practice and Law, recently participated in a meeting of experts to update the state-licensing exam for real estate salespersons and brokers in Massachusetts...
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Foreclosure Nets Edgartown Inn for Island Resident
The former Tuscany Inn in Edgartown sold for $2.7 million yesterday in a foreclosure auction at the historic property on North Water street...
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Bank Statement
The Martha’s Vineyard Savings Bank reported it closed $90.6 million in mortgage loans during 2008...
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Advance Bookings Reported to Be Down For Vacation Homes and on Boat Line
One month before the first day of spring, the Vineyard summer home rental market is sluggish, with many agents saying that advance bookings this year are down between 10 and 15 per cent — at least so far. The news from the Steamship Authority matches the trend, with advance reservations for automobiles down about 12 per cent from this time last year...
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Critics Assail Bill to Impose Rental Tax
A new bill authored by Cape Cod lawmakers that would extend a 9.75 per cent lodging tax currently in place for hotels to weekly rentals has already stoked opposition both here and across the state, primarily among real estate brokers and people who rent their homes during the summer months for extra income...
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Real Estate Classes
Beginning this month January, Dukes Academy, the Vineyard’s only licensed real estate school, will add to its existing continuing education curriculum in response to the current socioeconomic issues confronting the marketplace...
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Welcoming Jennifer Rouse
Margaret Steele and Bill Le Royer are pleased to announce that Jennifer Rouse has joined their team of sales associates. Jen worked in Boston as a human resource administrator for several years before mobing back to the Vineyard...
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Tisbury Selectmen Vote to Shift Tax Rate, Favoring Commercial Property Owners
The average year-round resident in Tisbury will pay an extra $110 in property taxes next year, following a successful push from town businesses to shift the tax burden off commercial property.

A nonresident property owner whose Vineyard Haven home is of average value - $860,425, according to the town assessors - will see an even bigger increase of almost $138, while business properties of the same value will see their taxes decrease by some $1,015...
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Real Estate Downturn Continues, With Brokers in the Trenches
The real estate market on Martha’s Vineyard had already begun to see a sharp downturn this year, and the recent collapse in global financial markets and turmoil on Wall Street certainly has not made things better.

Statistical evidence gathered from Banker and Tradesman online shows sales down almost 15 per cent and prices off by more than nine per cent...
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Land Bank Comment Session Draws One
The Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank Commission held an open session on Monday seeking public comment on its properties and management plans. The meeting was held at the Vineyard Transit Authority second floor office at the airport business park...
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Bill Croke Joins Firm
Bill Croke has joined Hughes & J.C. Murphy Real Estate in Edgartown as a sales associate...
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Housing Block Grant
Oak Bluffs and Tisbury have been awarded $615,909 for housing rehabilitation through a federal community development block grant announced by Gov. Deval Patrick...
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Developers Agree to Pay $1.8 Million for Affordable Housing
The developers for the upscale Field Club and adjoining subdivision in Katama have agreed to pay the Edgartown affordable housing committee $1.8 million in lieu of designating three lots in their project for affordable housing as required by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission...
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Land Bank Revenues Continue to Decline
As Fiscal Year Closes, Conservation Agency Runs Numbers on Real Estate Sales, Finding Sharp Dip in Market

The real estate bust has cut sharply into the revenue of the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank for a second successive year, with land bank income more than 25 per cent lower than it was in 2006, the last of the good years for property sales...
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Golf Club Plan to Build Luxury Homes Withdrawn, Clearing Path for Dormitory
Spokesmen for the Vineyard Golf Club last week formally withdrew their plans to build nine luxury homes for club members...
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FAIR Plan Will Not Seek Appeal; Rate Hikes Off
Vineyard homeowners who already pay some of the highest home insurance costs in the country will not see their rates go up this year...
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Fair Plan Rate Increases Are Denied
Island homeowners who already pay some of the highest home insurance rates in the nation received some rare good news last week when the state insurance commissioner rejected a proposed 25 per cent rate hike for the FAIR Plan, the state-backed insurance provider of last resort for most Vineyarders...
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