Vineyard Real Estate Gangbusters
More than $65 million in Vineyard real estate changed hands in September of this year, double the comparable figure for September 2003. And the average price of a September 2004 transaction more than doubled as well.
It was a gangbusters month for sellers, although the number of completed transactions rose just six percent.
Astonishingly, the average value for a September 2004 transaction in Chilmark was nearly $3.8 million, the highest such value since The Times began tracking the Island real estate business in 1989. For the month, Chilmark recorded six transactions worth a total of $23 million, or 35 percent of the dollar value for all the transactions that took place Island-wide.
The Times analyzes Island real estate transactions monthly. It has done so since 1989. Qualifying transactions include arm's-length sales of residential and commercial property and improved and unimproved land, made in the six Island towns and recorded at the Dukes County Registry of Deeds. Partial interests, condominiums, time shares, beach lots, unbuildable lots, and foreclosures are not included.
At the end of the third quarter, a total of 481 Vineyard properties had changed hands so far this year, worth $406 million and averaging $845,000 per deal. Chilmark’s average value for the first three quarters rose above $2 million, nearly $1.2 million above the average for each of the other five Island towns. But through September this year, Chilmark accounted for only six percent of real estate sales. Edgartown, 33 percent, and Oak Bluffs, 25 percent, accounted for the lion’s share of the business.
Several Vineyard brokers who commented on the September industry performance said relatively stable volume but significantly higher prices continue to define the market. They predicted that the pattern is unlikely to change, especially as eager buyers respond to the prospect of rising interest rates and the continue short supply of desirable property available for sale.
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